OPINION: How my Jerusalem hospital gives a glimpse of what coexistence could look like
by Lamis Shibli Ghadir, an Arab social worker in the Ein Kerem Paediatric Intensive Care Unit at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem.
I’m an Arab social worker at Hadassah University Hospital in Jerusalem, which models co-existence. I work with Jewish, Muslim, Christian and Druze children, whether they live in East Jerusalem, West Jerusalem, Settlements, Bethlehem, Ramallah or Gaza. Our school, for instance, is 40 percent Arab, 60 percent Jewish. Children cook together, listen to music together, and celebrate each other’s holidays.
At the hospital, I shield patients from the conflict and build trust, but communication can be difficult. Half the children speak only Arabic. We have three Arab social workers in the paediatric wing (two of us in oncology, where 30 per cent of patients are Palestinian). We teach nurses and doctors basic Arabic, and have translators, too, but they are only a partial solution: a Jewish social worker talking through a translator still cannot understand the child’s culture as an Arab social worker can. A nurse recently called me saying: “This father won’t hold his child. I don’t think he wants his baby.” I said: “This is an Arab man. Maybe he isn’t used to taking care of a baby at this age. It’s not unusual.”
Security can be an issue too. Children must be accompanied. I help secure the permit, liaising with the army and advising the parents. For children from the West Bank, it is easy: everyone can come. But for Gazan children, security concerns mean young parents cannot enter Israel, so the child is accompanied by one grandparent. To get any others, they must first go back to Gaza. Sometimes, if a Palestinian child from the West Bank needs urgent attention, the parents come in the ambulance without a permit, so I must arrange it. Some come illegally, with no arrangement. It’s an issue, given our money problems, but we cannot say to a father or a mother: “Give us money, or you cannot enter.” Hadassah is not a bank, it’s a hospital. For Palestinians, access is very important. West Bank hospitals are not at the same level. They lack plastic surgery and brain surgery. If they come to us through the Peres Center for Peace, they do not have to pay. It’s fantastic for them.
Security is a concern for families, too. Yousif, 9, from East Jerusalem, had heart surgery here during the last Gaza war. His mother cried constantly, even when he improved. The nurses asked me why. I spoke to her. She told me she had a relative in Gaza and asked me not to tell the staff, saying: “I’m afraid that if they know, they won’t treat Yousif like they do the Jewish children.” I reassured her that our staff would never do that, and over time, she had more and more conversations with the nurses and developed a very close relationship with them. Together, they celebrated Yousif’s birthday, and on his first day out of bed, a nurse took him to the mall and bought him gifts. Finally, his mother told them: “I’m sorry, I have a relative in Gaza.” It didn’t matter. They gave her a big hug.
At Hadassah, we try to separate health from politics. Half our team are Arab, half Jewish. We don’t discuss politics with patients because we don’t want to impact the quality of care we give. A Jewish girl, aged 8, came in. A falling kettle had burned almost half her body. Her father had been killed by terrorists during the Second Intifada. Her mother, 43, an Orthodox woman living in a settlement, was widowed with six children. Our policy is that, in such situations, it must be a Jewish social worker, but she couldn’t understand this and asked for me, because I had experience in plastic surgery. I went with her to the doctor. After, she asked to talk with me every day. She was there for six weeks. We developed a wonderful professional relationship. We never talked about the father. On the last day, she gave me a hug and said “thank you for everything”.
Sometimes we see children who have been arrested for throwing stones. They come to us from jail or the police. Parents must consent to surgery, but the police may not want the family to contact the child, so we talk to our lawyers. Once, we had a ten year old boy who had been shot with rubber bullets. He was in pain and could not see. We told the police: “Sure, do your investigation, talk to the child, but we need the parents, because he is a child!” They consider what we say, but it is complicated.
Recently, an ultra-Orthodox woman, 39, had her tenth child here, but the baby had a severe heart defect. The mother was suffering from depression and was on anti-depressants while her baby was in intensive care. She wanted to be near her baby, but she was afraid because the other families in there were Arab, and the Har Nof synagogue attack had just happened. I said: “I know all the mothers in there. They are facing the same difficulties as you. They are concerned about their children, just as you are. They cry all the time too. I promise to come and talk with you every day.” It was a long and difficult conversation, but finally she came. Like many Jewish people, she didn’t recognise me as Arab, and told me her difficulties. People bring the outside world to Hadassah and as a social worker I have to deal with what they bring. I have to understand each individual. This mother was suffering from depression and she was afraid. But now she has a wonderful relationship with the other mothers in the ICU.
We also worked with Musa, a baby boy born with a heart defect, whose mother had seen a Palestinian doctor in Ramallah and been told her son would die after he was born. She got a second opinion at the Islamic Hospital in East Jerusalem, where doctors advised her to give birth here, where the child could be operated on. It was very complicated surgery and he spent the first year of his life in paediatric ICU with us. I remember the first time he smiled. The doctor took a picture and ran down the hall shouting: “Musa smiled! Musa smiled!” He has just celebrated his second birthday at home with his family. He needed a feeding machine and ventilator, so the Palestinian Authority gave us the money to buy this.
So, at its best, I think Hadassah gives a glimpse of what co-existence can look like. I also think medical crises can help people overcome their fears and preconceptions.
Thank you for helping to make Jewish News the leading source of news and opinion for the UK Jewish community. Today we're asking for your invaluable help to continue putting our community first in everything we do.
For as little as £5 a month you can help sustain the vital work we do in celebrating and standing up for Jewish life in Britain.
Jewish News holds our community together and keeps us connected. Like a synagogue, it’s where people turn to feel part of something bigger. It also proudly shows the rest of Britain the vibrancy and rich culture of modern Jewish life.
You can make a quick and easy one-off or monthly contribution of £5, £10, £20 or any other sum you’re comfortable with.
100% of your donation will help us continue celebrating our community, in all its dynamic diversity...
Engaging
Being a community platform means so much more than producing a newspaper and website. One of our proudest roles is media partnering with our invaluable charities to amplify the outstanding work they do to help us all.
Celebrating
There’s no shortage of oys in the world but Jewish News takes every opportunity to celebrate the joys too, through projects like Night of Heroes, 40 Under 40 and other compelling countdowns that make the community kvell with pride.
Pioneering
In the first collaboration between media outlets from different faiths, Jewish News worked with British Muslim TV and Church Times to produce a list of young activists leading the way on interfaith understanding.
Campaigning
Royal Mail issued a stamp honouring Holocaust hero Sir Nicholas Winton after a Jewish News campaign attracted more than 100,000 backers. Jewish Newsalso produces special editions of the paper highlighting pressing issues including mental health and Holocaust remembrance.
Easy access
In an age when news is readily accessible, Jewish News provides high-quality content free online and offline, removing any financial barriers to connecting people.
Voice of our community to wider society
The Jewish News team regularly appears on TV, radio and on the pages of the national press to comment on stories about the Jewish community. Easy access to the paper on the streets of London also means Jewish News provides an invaluable window into the community for the country at large.
We hope you agree all this is worth preserving.
