"I dedicated my entire life for peace, for medicine." - Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish, MD, MPH

Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish, MD, MPH

Izzeldin Abuelaish, often referred to as “the Gaza Doctor” in foreign media, is a Palestinian medical doctor and infertility specialist who has dedicated his life to peace in the conflict between Israel and Palestine.

Born and raised in the Jabalia refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, Dr. Abuelaish has overcome many personal hardships, including poverty and violence, to become one of the most outspoken, prominent and beloved researchers, educators and public speakers on peace and development in the Middle East. His personal doctrine is that hate is not a response to war. Rather, open communication, understanding and compassion are the tools to bridge the divide between Israeli and Palestinian interests. “All can live in harmony,” he says. “And all can reach their full potentials spiritually, emotionally, physically and intellectually.”

Dr. Abuelaish received his elementary, preparatory and secondary educations in the refugee camp school system in Jabalia, Gaza. As a child and as an adult, he and his family endured the dismal and severely impoverished conditions of the refugee camp, as well as the constant humiliation and inhumanity of the siege and its associated checkpoints and travel restrictions.

At all times, Dr. Abuelaish strived to maintain a balanced and positive perspective toward his and his family’s experiences and the Israeli people, knowing that the latter are not representative of the sentiments that fuel one of the world’s longest conflicts and the conflict that threatens overall world security.

Dr. Abuelaish, who has worked in Israeli hospitals caring for patients and delivering babies of both Palestinian and Israeli descents, has always said that all people, regardless of their religious and political beliefs, are equal, deserve access to quality education and health care, and should have every opportunity to lead fulfilling and rewarding lives.

From a young age, Dr. Abuelaish set his sights on becoming a doctor and studied hard to achieve his dream, despite having to work outside his profession to support both himself and his family. He eventually garnered a scholarship to attend medical school at the University of Cairo. Following this, he obtained a diploma in Obstetrics and Gynecology with the Ministry of Health in Saudi Arabia in collaboration with the Institute of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of London. He later completed a residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Saroka Hospital in Israel, followed by further study in fetal medicine and genetics at V. Buzzi Hospital in Milan, Italy and Erasme Hospital in Brussels, Belgium. He then went on to earn his Master’s degree in Public Health, Health Policy and Management at Harvard University. Dr. Abuelaish was the first Palestinian doctor to receive a staff position at an Israeli hospital. For many years, he worked as a senior researcher at the Gertner Institute in Sheba hospital in Israel.

Among Dr. Abuelaish’s many awards, he is the 2009 recipient of the Stavros Niarchos Prize for Survivorship. He also won the 2009 Search for Common Ground Award, the 2009 Middle East Institute Award, the 2010 Uncommon Courage Award from the Centre for Ethnic, Racial and Religious Understanding at Queen’s College (New York), and the 2010 Mahatma Gandhi Peace Award of Canada. Dr. Abuelaish has also been named one of the 500 Most Influential Muslims in 2009 and again in 2010 by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre in Jordan. He was one of the three finalists for the 2009 Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought, and, in 2010, he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Dr. Abuelaish believes that doctors can act as messengers of peace, and work toward bridging the divide between people in conflict everywhere. Dr. Abuelaish believes that the real enemy, in not only Palestinian and Israeli relations but all conflicts, is ignorance, a dehumanization of others and an inability to understand and communicate with others. He believes the future must be about tolerance, dignity, respect and an embracing of our universal humanity and interconnectedness.

Currently, Dr. Abuelaish is an Associate Professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto, Canada. He is presently coordinating and teaching three courses in public health: Women’s Health in Countries of Conflict, Health as an Engine for the Journey to Peace, and International Perspectives on Health Services Management. These courses center on understanding the underpinnings of social and political conflict, and providing tangible and pragmatic ways to promote health as a strategy to building peace.

The Book (“I Shall Not Hate”)

“What can you do? You can do a lot. You can support justice for all by speaking out loudly to your family, friends, community, politicians and religious leaders. You can support foundations that do good work. You can volunteer for humanitarian organizations. You can vote regressive politicians out of office. You can do many things to move the world toward greater harmony…

“I know that what I have lost, what was taken from me, will never come back. But as a physician and a Muslim of deep faith, I need to move forward to the light, motivated by the spirits of those I lost. I need to bring them justice… I will keep moving but I need you to join me in this long journey.” -from I Shall Not Hate

Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish – now known simply as “the Gaza doctor” captured hearts and headlines around the world in the aftermath of horrific tragedy: on January 16, 2009, Israeli shells hit his home in the Gaza Strip, killing three of his daughters and a niece.

By turns inspiring and heartbreaking, hopeful and horrifying, this is Abuelaish’s account of a Gazan life in all its struggle and pain. A Palestinian doctor who was born and raised in the Jabalia refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, Abuelaish is an infertility specialist who lived in Gaza but plied his specialty in Israeli hospitals. From the strip of land he calls home (a place where 1.5 million refugees are crammed into 360 square kilometres of land), the Gaza doctor has been crossing the lines that divide the region for most of his life, as a physician who treats patients on both sides of the border and as a humanitarian who sees the need for improved public health and education for women as the way forward in the Middle East.

But it was Abuelaish’s response to the loss of his children that made news and won him humanitarian awards around the world. Instead of seeking revenge or sinking into hatred, in this personal account of his life, Izzeldin Abuelaish is calling for the people of the Middle East to start talking to each other. His deepest hope is that his daughters will be the last sacrifice on the road to peace between Palestinians and Israelis.

From http://www.randomhouse.ca/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780307358882

Buy the book at Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.ca/Shall-Not-Hate-Doctors-Journey/dp/0307358895/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1307044291&sr=8-1

Reviews

Review by Joseph Berger, The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/22/books/22doctor.html

Review by The Economist

http://www.economist.com/node/18226585

Review by Peter Oborne, The Telegraph http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/8300930/I-Shall-Not-Hate-A-Gaza-Doctors-Journey-on-the-Road-to-Peace-and-Human-Dignity-by-Izzeldin-Abuelaish.html

Review by Jonathan Garfinkel, The Globe and Mail http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/article1568932.ece

“This story is a necessary lesson against hatred and revenge.”—Elie Wiesel, Nobel Peace Prize laureate

“Abuelaish knows anger, but in this impassioned, committed attempt to show the reader life on the sliver of land that is Gaza, he demonstrates that ‘[a]nger is not the same as hate.’”—Publishers Weekly

“In this book, Dr. Abuelaish has expressed a remarkable commitment to forgiveness and reconciliation that describes the foundation for a permanent peace in the Holy Land.”—President Jimmy Carter

“What is said in this impressive book is less remarkable than who says it…. Anger is fine, he says, but we must all find the inner strength not to hate. He himself has done so quite magnificently.”—The Economist

“A vivid, haunting and all but heartbreaking account. . . . Fast-paced, skillfully organized and highly evocative.” — Toronto Star

“Scrupulously honest… heartfelt, moving and beautifully written in a distinctive voice…. what is most remarkable is that [Abuelaish] is able to convey not only a baseline faith in the human spirit, but hope for the future.”—Emily L. Hauser, The Dallas Morning News

“Because Abuelaish has this sort of deeply nuanced approach to the ongoing Israel-Palestinian conflict, precisely because he yearns to point out the good in those who are supposed to be his enemy, we cannot ignore or deny his damning portrayal of life under occupation.”—Jane Eisner, The Forward

“An eye-opening story of a remarkable person.”—Alden Mudge, BookPage

“I met Dr. Abuelaish just a few days after the loss of his three daughters. We faced each other as we were about to shake hands. And then, without much thought, we held each other in a warm embrace … It is so rare, I thought, in this debilitating and devastating area we inhabit, to meet a person like him, a man who despite his own losses, continues his belief in humanity and its potential for good, despite all … Through his eyes I could see another way, a way the two nations could treat each other. A way that could extract what is good, special, and humane in both of them. I could see an alternative that could light up the great similarity of both peoples, one that gets denied and put down time and time again. This option, now so scorned and held in such contempt, suddenly sprang to life, embodied in the man I was watching.”—David Grossman

“A deeply affecting narrative told in a voice of poignant simplicity, punctuated by injunctions to love that are far from corny, tried as they are by the searing experiences of a righteous man striving to act decently in a place of madness.”—Kirkus Reviews