A Palestinian Boy’s Death Gives 5 Israelis The Gift Of Life
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A Palestinian Boy’s Death Gives 5 Israelis The Gift Of Life (VIDEO)
A Palestinian Boy’s Death Gives 5 Israelis The Gift Of Life (VIDEO)
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By Wide Angle
When a 12-year-old Palestinian boy was killed in the West Bank city of Jenin by Israeli soldiers who mistook his toy gun for the real thing, it could have been just one more blip on the news: one more war, one more child, one more human tragedy that ripped the heart out of a family and a community, but rippled no further into the world’s consciousness.
But something extraordinary happened that turned Ahmed Khatib’s tragic 2005 death into a gift of hope for six Israelis whose lives were on the line: while overwhelmed with grief, Ahmed’s parents consented to donating their son’s organs. Suddenly, amid the violence and entrenched hatred surrounding an intractable conflict, a simple act of humanity rose above the clamor and captured worldwide attention.
Heart of Jenin tells the story of Ahmed’s tragic death and his father Ismael Khatib’s journey to visit three of the organ recipients two years later. One of Ahmed’s kidneys went to an Orthodox Jewish girl and his other kidney went to a Bedouin boy. While his parents hesitated to donate Ahmed’s heart, it now beats in the chest of a Druze girl.
“I see my son in these children,” Khatib says.
Crossing from northern Israel to the Negev desert and ending up in Jerusalem, Khatib encounters every complexity of the conflict: deep-seated animosity, hardened judgments, and heartfelt generosity. While laying bare the deep divisions between Israelis and Palestinians, Heart of Jenin offers a rare vision of common humanity and hope.
| Family of Palestinian boy killed by IDF donates organs to Israeli patients |
| By Associated Press November 6, 2005 |
| A Palestinian couple whose son died after being shot by Israeli soldiers donated his organs Sunday to three Israeli patients desperately waiting for transplants. |
Ismail Khatib said his decision to donate his son Ahmed’s organs
was rooted in his memories of his own brother, who died at 24 waiting
for a liver transplant, and in his family’s desire to help others,
regardless of their nationality.
“I don’t mind seeing the organs in the body of an Israeli or a
Palestinian. In our religion, God allows us to give organs to another
person and it doesn’t matter who the person is,” said Khatib, who added
that he hoped the donation would send a message of peace to Israelis
and Palestinians.
Ahmed, 12, was shot by Israeli soldiers Thursday while they were
conducting a raid in the West Bank town of Jenin. The soldiers said
they mistook the boy for a militant during a shootout and later
discovered he was carrying a toy rifle.
Ahmed was brought to an Israeli hospital and was put on life
support. He died of his wounds late Saturday and his parents quickly
agreed to donate his organs.
On Sunday, three Israeli girls _ two of them Jewish and the other
Druse _ underwent surgery to receive his lungs, heart and liver.
Twelve-year-old Samah Gadban had been waiting for a heart for five
years when doctors called her family late Saturday and told them of the
donation. By Sunday afternoon, the Druse girl had a new heart and was
recovering at Schneider Children’s Medical Center in the Israeli town
of Petah Tikvah.
Samah’s mother sat by her bed holding her hand, while her father,
Riad Gadban, juggled phone calls from friends and relatives in the
cardiac intensive care unit’s waiting room.
Gadban called Khatib’s decision to donate his son’s organs a “remarkable gift.”
“This morning, I did not know anything about the boy. I only knew
that the doctors said they had a heart,” Gadban said. He heard Ahmed’s
story while his daughter was in surgery. “I don’t know what to say. It
is such a gesture of love.”
Khatib said he hoped to meet the recipients of his son’s organs to ensure that they were healthy.
“The most important thing is that I see the person who received the organs, to see him alive.”
Samah’s family will invite Khatib and his family to a party they plan to throw when she leaves the hospital, Gadban said.
“I want to thank him and his family. With their gift, I would like
for them to think that my daughter is their daughter,” Gadban said.
The national transplant center reported that a 14-year-old Jewish
girl received Ahmed’s lungs and a 7-month-old girl was in surgery
Sunday evening receiving his liver. The family of the 14-year-old girl
declined to be interviewed and the baby’s parents were awaiting the
outcome of their daughter’s surgery and unavailable for comment.
Israel has a chronic shortage of donor organs that many medical
officials attribute to Jewish religious taboos against such donations.
Esty Katz, a spokeswoman for Rambam Hospital in Haifa, which
harvested Khatib’s organs, said Khatib’s decision was unexpected and
appreciated.
“Sometimes you think for sure they won’t agree, they won’t donate. But then we have surprises,” she said.
