Saturday, November 12, 2005

Good story for the weekend

Read this:

The parents of a Palestinian boy killed by Israeli soldiers in the West Bank have donated his organs for use in Israel, in the hope of promoting peace.

Now this:
The vital organs of a Palestinian boy mistakenly killed by the Israel Defense Forces last week have been transplanted into the bodies of six Israelis, after the boy's family donated his organs "for the sake of peace between peoples," Israel Radio reported.

And this:
JENIN: The organs of a Palestinian boy killed by Israeli troops have been used for transplants in Israel, after his family donated them voicing hope that the life-saving gesture could bring peace a little closer.

That's the same story from three sources: Arab, Jewish and the Beeb.

I just learned about it from Rafah Pundits. Their version concludes:
...the Israeli army spokespersons announced that their troops have accidentally killed a Palestinian boy in the city of Jenin during a military operation. They claimed that the victim was mistaken by sniper from the army unit, who thought that the boy was an armed Palestinian man pointing a gun at the operating troops.

Ahmad’s parents were greatly devastated by the killing of their only son, but they decided to do something which really shocked the Palestinians, maybe the Israelis and probably the whole world. In fact, his parents decided to donate his body organs to Rimbam Hospital in Haifa City in Israel. In a very emotional statement to the Al-Quds local newspaper, Ahmad’s mother said:

"We decided to donate our son’s body organs to an Israeli hospital in order to help ill Israeli children to survive. Israel must understand that despite our son’s cold-blooded killing at the hands of an Israeli soldier, the family is absolutely determined to convey a message to his killer and to the rest of the army that you have wasted and continue to waste our lives, however we are humans and we appreciate life and will do anything to give life to other children"

Ahmed’s father said the family made the decision to donate his son’s organs

"For the sake of the world’s children and the children of this country. Ahmad’s body organs will be transplanted to a total of six children patients, including Israelis, Druze and an Israeli-Arab girl who had been waiting for heart replacement Surgery for over five years"

This is a great story. It has been picked up all over the place. Take your pick. Read about it, blog about it, e-mail it and pass it on.

If peace and reconcilliation were pursued as vigorously as hostility and conflict the world could become a better place.

Pretty naive on my part, huh?

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