From Public Radio international, a feel-good story by Matthew Bell about an Israeli doctor treating patients in Tel Aviv who are ferried to him from Gaza:
One of the doctors working on Odai [al-Kefarna]’s case was Akiva Tamir. While the vast majority of Israelis have almost no personal contact with Palestinians anymore, Tamir is an exception….
“I think I have treated in my life more Palestinians than Israelis. They are my patients, like any other patients,” Tamir told me before examining Odai and the other new arrivals. “I don’t think that we Israelis hate Palestinians in general. And I don’t see hatred from their side. Down to earth, the people would rather cooperate and help each other and live a quiet life together, from both sides. It’s politics that’s the problem,” Tamir said.
And at times, he admits that it’s been difficult to completely separate himself and his work from the harsh political reality that’s defined Israel’s relationship to Gaza in recent years.
“We had difficult days,” Tamir said. “In Gaza, they deliberately bombed a school bus of Israeli children before we left Gaza. And on the same day, Palestinian children from Gaza arrived to be treated here. You know, it crosses your mind that there, people kill our children and here we save their children. But except of that, we love the children. It doesn’t matter that they are Palestinians.”
I asked Anees of Jerusalem to comment:
Do I need to comment? : )
It’s just proof that even a doctor (assuming they are supposedly
higher beings) who is doing kind of humanitarian work here, can fail
to see reality outside the Israel reality distortion field – ‘They are
irrational killers, all of them! We never did anything to them!’, is
the message he is telling us, unchallenged.And thus, proof that PRI – which is an American media company – is
very happy to continue to be within that field as well, a hasbara
mouthpiece to the unknowing American audience.Yadda yadda!
