Military

DATE=10/29/00

TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT

TITLE=ISRAEL/HOSPITAL

NUMBER=5-47267

BYLINE=SHOSHANA LONDON SAPPIR

DATELINE=JERUSALEM

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: The violent clashes that rocked the Middle East in the past weeks have ripped the tender fabric of Arab-Israeli relations, deepening mutual fears and alienation. But a Jerusalem hospital founded and supported by an American Jewish organization continues serving Jew and Arab alike, offering first-rate medical care to whoever needs it. Shoshana London Sappir reports from Jerusalem.

TEXT: /// SFX NATURAL SOUND--AMBULANCE SIRENS ///

In the orthopedic ward at Hadassah hospital in Jerusalem two patients lie side by side, surrounded by their families. An Arab and a Jew. Both were born 30-kilometers away in Hebron, the West Bank town that has been a flashpoint of Palestinian-Israeli violence for years. Seeing these families interact in the hospital, you would never know they were on opposite sides of a bitter conflict.

Sanaa Hisham Abu Minshar is sitting by her 15-year-old son Jalal, who broke his back and his leg falling off a roof.

/// ACT SANAA IN ARABIC ///

They give us real good treatment. They come and take care of him real well, they reassure us...

/// FADE UNDER, END ACT ///

She says "They give us good treatment. They care for him and make us feel comfortable". When Jalal was injured, the local Palestinian hospital advised the family to take their son to Hadassah. The mother appears at ease when she says she is not afraid of being in an Israeli hospital, and is grateful for the excellent care.

Shmuel Bajayo, a retired Israeli policeman, was born in Hebron 85-years ago, and moved to Jerusalem as a child. He is lying in the next bed with a fracture. Asked what it was like to room with Palestinians at this politically tense time, Mr. Bajayo said: "We are brothers. We and they are one family."

The head of the American Jewish organization that founded the hospital nearly 90-years ago, and continues to support it, says this kind of relationship between Arabs and Jews can be found at Hadassah any day of the year, in practically any room in the hospital.

Bonnie Lipton, President of Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America:

/// ACT BONNIE LIPTON1 ///

Our patients, Arab and Jew, Christian, Muslim, share rooms together, and particularly when one walks into pediatrics or in the Mother and Child Center in Ein Kerem, all you have to do is look into a room and you will see an Arab child surrounded by family, and in the next bed you may see a Jewish child with 'payes' and with the father with a traditional black hat. And when one parent needs to leave to have a cup of coffee the other parent looks over, watches over the other child.

/// END ACT ///

Despite political tensions and street fighting, Palestinians continue seeking care at Hadassah, not only in an emergency but as their hospital of choice: Most Palestinian women from the Jerusalem area deliver their babies at Hadassah. About one-third of the hospital's patients are Arab, and in the pediatric ward the rate can reach one half.

As the region's biggest medical facility, Hadassah has treated the wounded from both sides of the Middle East conflict; in war, terrorist attacks and clashes such as are taking place these days. Mrs. Lipton says even though the hospital is Israeli and Jewish, its medical policies are strictly professional.

/// LIPTON ACT 2 ///

I have seen unfortunately on more than one occasion when we have had bus bombings and the victims have been brought to our hospital and when the perpetrators of the crimes have survived I have seen the perpetrator treated before a victim because the decision that was made at the time of triage was that the perpetrator required the more immediate care. Very hard for people to believe and yet the stories here are so real and say so much about the people who staff this hospital.

/// END ACT ///

Hadassah has a history of breaking political and religious barriers. Stories have circulated for years of patients from countries at war with Israel secretly making their way to Jerusalem for treatment.

/// LIPTON ACT 3 ///

We have stories that we could share and names of kings and princes and leading government officials from neighboring Arab countries whose confidentiality we would never breach, never breach, who have been coming to us for years when they have serious problems in their families.

/// END ACT ///

Mr. Bajayo and his wife remember days long past when Arabs and Jews could be good neighbors. Indicating the Abu Minshar family, they do not see why things can not be that way again.

/// ACT MR. AND MRS. BAJAYO, HEBREW ///

(Mr. BAJAYO): The relations are wonderful. We live together, we know each other. After all we were born in the same country, them and us.

(Mrs. BAJAYO): We want peace for our children and grandchildren and great grandchildren.

/// END ACT ///

The relations are wonderful, Mr. Bajayo says. We want peace, adds his wife, for our children, our grandchildren and our great grandchildren.

In the words of Mrs. Lipton, what Hadassah hospital does is not just healing, diagnostics and research. It is also building bridges to peace. (SIGNED)

NEB/SLS/PFH/RAE