Rambam Medical Center in Haifa has received a large donation from a Palestinian Authority official who received life-saving care there, Times of Israel reported Monday. According to the anonymous benefactor, the donation is intended “to build peace through medicine.”
The official decided to give tens of thousands of Israeli shekels to the Joseph Fishman Oncology Center following after receiving cancer treatment there earlier this year. He was impressed with the peaceful coexistence evident at the hospital, which treats patients of all races and religions.
“When I arrived at Rambam, I saw a medical team that treats its patients with dedication, but I also saw the suffering of sick children,” he said according to the hospital’s statement. “Palestinian children, Israelis, Syrians, and children from other countries who are being treated at Rambam for serious illnesses and are in need of all the help they can get.”
The donation will be used to build a recreation area for children hospitalized in the oncology center.
“Both Israeli and Palestinian societies suffer from violence and I am striving for a situation where we all can contribute to peace and health: to treat children, save lives, share knowledge, and train Palestinian doctors at Rambam, in order to improve the state of the health systems and the capacity to treat people in the PA areas, and to encourage others to donate and contribute to the betterment of health within our two nations,” the official said.
Rambam has a noted history of treating children from around the Middle East. Half of the children hospitalized in the pediatric oncology center in 2015 hailed from the West Bank or Gaza, the Times reported.
Other hospitals around Israel also frequently host patients from the Palestinian territories. In 2014, the thirteen-year-old daughter of current Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was transferred to Tel Aviv’s Ichilov hospital following complications from an earlier procedure. Previously, Haniyeh’s mother-in-law was treated for cancer in an Israeli hospital. In 2013, a critically-ill granddaughter of Haniyeh was admitted to an Israeli hospital, but doctors were unable to save her.
Israeli doctors have also treated Yahya Sinwar, the newly-selected leader of Hamas’ political wing. Sinwar was imprisoned in Israel over multiple murder convictions when he experienced severe head pain. He was taken to an Israeli hospital, where he was diagnosed with a brain tumor and given emergency surgery. A prison guard said Sinwar expressed gratitude at the time for the quick and professional medical care he received. After assuming his senior position in Hamas, Sinwar vowed to fight “for the liberation of all of Palestine.”
[Photo: David King / Flickr]