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November 08, 2005
Ancient Hatreds, It's in their Blood, Etc.
You'd think there'd be wall-to-wall coverage of a story like this. It has all the elements, tragedy, tension, forgiveness, death, happy endings, children, dead and resurrected.
The parents of a Palestinian boy killed by Israeli soldiers have donated his organs to three Israeli children.Ahmad Khatib, 12, was carrying a toy rifle when he was gunned down on Thursday in the West Bank town of Jenin.The soldiers, who were conducting a raid, had mistaken him for a militant.The boy died on Sunday but three Israeli girls underwent surgery to receive his lungs, heart and liver.
Ahmad's father Ismail Khatib said the decision to donate the organs was influenced by the act his 24-year-old brother died while waiting for a liver transplant.
Mr Khatib hoped the gesture would send a message of peace to Israelis and Palestinians.
He said: "In our religion, God allows us to give organs to another person and it doesn't matter who the person is."
The father of 12-year-old Samah Gadban, who had been waiting five years for a heart, called the donation a "gesture of love."
Riad Gadban said: "I want to thank him (Mr Khatib) and his family. With their gift, I would like for them to think that my daughter is their daughter."
The Schneider Children's Medical Centre in Israel reported that a 14-year-old Jewish girl has received Ahmad's lungs and a seven-month-old girl was given his liver.
Israel has a chronic shortage of donor organs that many medical officials attribute to Jewish religious taboos against such donations.
It was on page 24 of the Washington Post and a few mentions buried here and there. To make front page, it would have had to have been the other way around, I suppose. Something about Muslim prejiduces and ancient hatreds, and how we must save them.
Posted by zeynep at November 8, 2005 07:06 PM