A Prescription for the Heart

Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish's new book and his refusal to hate are a healthy contribution to the Middle East debate.

Many Canadians have now become well acquainted with Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish. The Canadian publication of his book, I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor’s Journey, prompted a broad flurry of recent radio and TV interviews and published reviews. The depths of his personal tragedy – three of his daughters and a niece died during the Israeli assault on Gaza in January 2009 – have moved many of us to tears. Yet it is his courage, in his refusal to embrace hatred, that is most impressive.

Recently, the doctor addressed an overflow McGill University audience composed of Jews, Arabs, and gentiles, who gave him a standing ovation at the end of his presentation – a response usually reserved for the partisan champions of either side in the Middle East conflict by similarly inclined crowds. Dr. Abuelaish had not come to talk of politics, of solutions to the vexing problems of the Palestinian refugees, of the ultimate disposition of the Temple Mount, or even of secure borders. Certainly he did not come to apportion blame, nor does he do so in his book.

This distinguished Palestinian spoke of the Jewish family whose farm he had worked on, who treated him fairly and even gave him a gift when he left their employ. He spoke also of the Jewish doctors and medical staff he worked with at Israeli hospitals, those islands of sanity and equality, amidst a sea of turbulence and conflict. There, Israeli doctors dispensed care, as he did himself, without regard for national distinctions or political grievances; Dr. Abuelaish recognizes people based not on their tribal affiliations but on their merits as human beings.

Yet, he and his family have undoubtedly suffered. In I Shall Not Hate, he writes about how then general Ariel Sharon ordered the bulldozers in to the refugee camps of Gaza to create a wider access for his tanks to do security patrols, and about how the young Abuelaish witnessed the destruction of his own family home. Compensation was granted only to those who would accept relocation to Al Arish in the northern part of Sinai. The Abuelaish family refused to move, temporarily moving in with relatives, until Dr. Abuelaish was able to help purchase a modest new house with his farm wages. In other instances, such provocations perhaps created resistance fighters, even suicide bombers; but Abuelaish was set on the course of healing, to become a doctor, and also to reconcile Israelis and Palestinians.

The question period at McGill was quite illuminating. Most of the questioners were clearly deeply affected by the doctor’s message. A Jewish pediatrician asked how he and his colleagues might extend their personal help in Gaza (it would be difficult to surmount the Israeli blockade). A woman mentioned that the Leonard Cohen Forum was also pursuing the course of reconciliation, and others followed in the same vein, offering positive responses.

Of course, there were others who resisted Dr. Abuelaish’s message to the heart. Their heads were too filled with the familiar discourses. Israel was, after all, “an apartheid state,” said one Palestinian sympathizer; the Palestinians were still bringing their children up to be suicide bombers, said one on the other side. The doctor responded to such questioners by offering a felicitous metaphor of a family that looked out their window and viewed their neighbours’ dirty laundry with contempt. Then one day they washed their own windows to surprisingly reveal a rather different scene. It is so difficult for those who ardently hold onto and believe in these cherished, partisan discourses to open their hearts to Dr. Abuelaish’s very different message.

No doubt almost all in the audience, even Israel’s most ardent partisans, believed in the integrity of the doctor. However, the nagging question for these partisans was: Yes, we believe you, but are you representative of the Palestinian people? Dr. Abuelaish’s response was that the barriers to interchange must be torn down; that Palestinians and Israelis must get to know one another, to discover their common humanity. Only then could they travel the road to peace together.

Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish is currently living among us in Canada with the surviving members of his immediate family. He teaches at the University of Toronto School of Public Health. His presence enriches our own lives and understanding, and his new book is an important contribution to the resolution of conflict in the troubled Middle East.