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Monday, October 26, 2009
Violence Just Fuels the Fight for Peace
By Polly Summar
Journal Northern Bureau
SANTA FE — If anyone could have been immune from the bloody conflict in Gaza in January, it might have been Palestinian Izzeldin Abuelaish, an internationally trained obstetric gynecologist who spoke out for peace and easily navigated Gaza's checkpoints to deliver both Israeli and Palestinian babies.
But an Israeli shell hit his apartment and killed three of his children, severely injuring a fourth. Abuelaish, who was known as a friend of Israel's, picked up the phone and called a TV journalist. The incident quickly became an international story. The next day, a cease-fire was declared.
Killed were three of the doctor's eight children — his daughters Bessan, 20, Mayar, 15, Aya, 14 — and a niece who was 17. Another daughter, Shatha, 17, as well as a niece and two brothers, were severely wounded.
Bittersweet for New Mexicans was that Bessan had attended the Creativity for Peace summer camp here in 2003 and returned to the camp with her younger sisters, Shatha and Dalal, the following summer.
"It was the worst thing that's ever happened to our organization," said Dottie Indyke, executive director of Creativity for Peace. "It was our worst fear coming true."
But Abuelaish and his surviving children have not wavered in their commitment to peace. "To be angry, it would be difficult to continue forward," Abuelaish said in a phone interview. "Thank God, my children were highly resilient, to understand that what has been lost can never come back, and to show that they would fulfill the dream of their sister."
Abuelaish offered to come to Santa Fe to speak. "He said he wanted to come and see where his daughters had been, he wanted to come for his daughters," Indyke said.
"I am going to speak about my daughters," Abuelaish said, "how I sent them to this camp. ... I fully support this camp. We have to look forward. We have to be bigger and greater for those challenges. They are not going to be the end and the last challenge in our lives."'
The talk, called "Forgiveness: An Engine for the Peace Journey," will be held at 7 p.m., Tuesday, at the James A. Little Theatre, 1060 Cerrillos Road.
Today, Abuelaish and his children live in Toronto. He started teaching last month at the University of Toronto's Dalla Lana School of Public Health.
"It's pain, not anger you feel," said Abuelaish, whose wife died in September 2008 from cancer. Bessan had encouraged her father to go back to work after her mother's death and shouldered the mothering duties for her younger siblings. "To be angry, it would be difficult to continue forward. Thank God, my children were highly resilient."
Creativity for Peace
Based in Santa Fe, Creativity for Peace has organized 11 summer camps outside the city since 2003, as well as ongoing gatherings for the 146 former campers in the Middle East.
The organization's mission is to nurture understanding and leadership in Palestinian and Israeli adolescent girls and women so they will aspire to take on significant roles in their families, communities and country that advance peaceful coexistence.
When several donors gave Creativity for Peace funds to buy food and medicine for people in Gaza in 2006 and 2007, Abuelaish and his brother helped distribute the goods.
The former campers are planning a memorial service in Nazareth in January to mark the year anniversary of Bessan's death.
"Bessan was the most committed to others, to humanity, to understand others, to love others," Abuelaish said. "My children were committed to humanity, they were committed to be human. Once we are human, we are peaceful inside and outside."
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