Organ Transplants Bring Israelis, Palestinians Close

Al Monitor, The Pulse of the Middle East | By: Shlomi Eldar
Photo: Roni Cohen, daughter of the late Efrat Cohen, is pictured with Malika Jama'in, who received her mother's kidney, at Soroka hospital. (photo by Beer Sheva Soroka Hospital)

"If you look for a light at the end of the tunnel, you'll find it in Israeli hospitals," Zeev Rotstein, the director of Sheba Hospital at Tel Hashomer, once told me. "A bridge to peace is being built right before our eyes. Its foundations should no doubt run deeper and its columns be shored up. But the fact remains that hospital wards turn people who were just shy of death into lifelong ambassadors, ambassadors of coexistence."

Indeed, in the corridors of Israeli hospitals, almost on a daily basis and away from the media, human stories are woven. Stories that can only be found there â€" on the fine line between life and death, where all preconceived notions, prejudice and hatred are set aside. Here are a few of the tales that have unfolded since the beginning of this month at Israeli hospitals.

At the Rambam Medical Center in Haifa, 32-year-old Muhammad Aqrat from Haifa and 57-year-old David Ben-Yair from the nearby suburbs lay side by side. Muhammad's wife donated a kidney to Ben-Yair, and in return for the noble act that saved his life, Ben-Yair's son donated a kidney to Muhammad.

______________________________________________________ 
"You have the power to SAVE lives." 
To register as a donor in California: 
www.donateLIFEcalifornia.org | www.doneVIDAcalifornia.org 
Outside California: 
www.organdonor.gov | www.donatelife.net

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