A Jerusalem hospital embodies spirit of cooperation
By Steven Erlanger The New York Times
Friday, April 1, 2005
JERUSALEM The elegant stonework, arched bell tower, vast courtyard and crusader
crosses of the Augusta Victoria Hospital in east Jerusalem stem from an earlier
time, when imperial Germany wanted a foothold in the Middle East. Now the
hospital is about to open the first pediatric oncology unit for Palestinians, a
small step toward a more modern future and better health.
.
This should be a simple story. But it is about Palestinians and Israelis, so it
is intricate. Even "nice" stories, like this one, are so shaded with emotional
and national sensitivities that goodness can become hard work.
.
Augusta Victoria, with 161 beds, is the second-largest hospital in east
Jerusalem, and is largely underwritten by the Lutheran World Federation and by
the United Nations Refugee Works Administration.
.
The new clinic, which opens Friday, is a project of the hospital, the Israeli
Peres Center for Peace, a variety of Italian foundations and the Hadassah
University Hospital in Jerusalem, which provided training, for a fee, for the
oncologist, Dr. Yusri Saifi, and four nursing staff. The project is an
outgrowth of a complicated nexus of aid, training and political nuance provided
by the Italians, the Israelis and the Palestinians themselves.
.
Hadassah sees it as a good work, helping the Palestinians, through the agency
of Dr. Michael Weintraub, the director of the hospital's Pediatric
Hemato-Oncology unit. The group has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize and
is carefully publicizing projects like this one, which can get under the skin
of its Palestinian partners.
.
Dr. Tawfiq Nasser, the first Palestinian director of Augusta Victoria, which
largely serves Palestinian refugees and the poor with the help of the Lutheran
World Federation, is as passionate about maintaining Palestinian equity and
pride in the project as he is about the building itself, parts of which he has
had carefully restored.
.
The man in the middle, Dr. Dan Shanit, director of the Peres Center's medical
and health care department, has coordinated the project.
.
His effort to open a Palestinian pediatric cancer center has been the work of
more than five years. It already foundered once because of the Palestinian
Authority's reluctance to allow a large hospital in Gaza, where it was
originally to be located, to be a partner with a hospital in Tel Aviv. Now the
clinic is a nongovernmental project, funded mostly by Italians.
.
Hadassah "is just one of many hospitals that take part in such projects, and
Palestinian partners are terribly sensitive and don't want to be used as
propaganda," Shanit said. He credits Nasser and Augusta Victoria for
understanding the need for such a center "and grabbing it with both hands."
.
About 70 percent of children diagnosed with cancer can be cured, and there are
about 150 Palestinian children diagnosed with cancer every year from the West
Bank alone. Given the $50,000 to $100,000 cost of treatment in Israel, "most of
those children won't be treated or will be misdiagnosed, and then it's too
late," Weintraub said. Hadassah, which provides Palestinian children a
discount, cannot cover all the costs or handle the whole caseload. "Opening a
pediatric oncology center in Palestine is the best answer."
.
East Jerusalem was annexed by Israel after the 1967 war. In a peace settlement,
east Jerusalem, in whole or in part, may or may not end up in a new Palestinian
state. Still, the Israeli separation barrier against suicide bombers, a large
concrete wall, cuts off the hospital from most of its clientele, which is poor,
not covered by Israeli health insurance.
.
Nasser, 40, is a Christian and a Palestinian nationalist, who says he sees
projects like this one as "peace through health - trying to address fear on the
Israeli side and anger on the Palestinian side." He lives in Ramallah, on the
West Bank, and commutes through Israeli military checkpoints every day, like
most of his staff.
.
So the hospital has arranged a bus service for both staff and patients,
coordinated with the army, that cuts the time they spend at Israel's many
checkpoints at, near and around the barrier.
.
"It's tiring," he said. "I have to run a hospital and a bus company, too."
.
Nasser's own sensitivities about the Israeli involvement are echoed in his
staff. "We refuse any relationship of occupied and occupier," he said. "Our
doctors feel equal, so there you don't have negativity and partiality. And I'm
very comfortable with my national ambitions, and I'm not compromising them by
dealing with the Israelis this way." In fact, he said, "it's good for the
Israelis to see the professional and caring side of Palestinians, and for
Palestinians to see that not all Israelis are at checkpoints."
.
Asked if he protested too much, he laughed and said: "It's more difficult for
us than for the Israelis. We have the anger. We have the lack of resources. I
have to convince my doctors that partnership doesn't mean that the Israelis are
taking over the hospital."
.
Saifi, the oncologist, a quiet and thoughtful man, says he is worried about the
ability of the Palestinian Authority to keep its financial commitments, about
the need for better pathology and intensive-care departments and the lack of
radiated and filtered blood for his patients.
.
"I'll go to work April 1," he said softly. "But I have a lot of questions in my
mind about how to manage."
.
In some ways this is also a simple story - or a simpler one - of two doctors,
Weintraub and Saifi, one Israeli and one Palestinian, who worked closely
together to save the lives of children who would otherwise die. Weintraub, 47,
and Saifi, 40, have a strong relationship, of mutual admiration and care. And
there is love here, too.
.
"He brings a lot of commitment to this and a lot of courage," Weintraub said of
Saifi. "I work in a great academic institution with every resource. But he's
starting something, and by himself. He's an experienced pediatrician, but this
is a very difficult profession, emotionally and physically. It's a major
challenge, and he's up to it."
.
Saifi, showing visitors the area for the new clinic, said of Weintraub: "He's a
real man. He doesn't just make advertisements. He told me he'd be with me all
the time, for consultations and help." He stopped, and his voice broke a
little. "He's inspiring to me: He's a good manager and a good man. I love him."
.
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