Senior Palestinian Official Donates To Israeli Hospital That Saved His Life

TEL AVIV – A senior Palestinian Authority official has donated tens of thousands of shekels to the pediatric oncology department of Rambam Medical Center after receiving life-saving cancer treatment at the hospital.

The PA official, who was identified only as M., made a donation to help hospitalized children in an effort “to build peace through medicine,” a statement from Rambam said.

He was diagnosed several months ago with cancer and received treatment at the hospital. He said he was moved by what he experienced during his time there, in particular, the efforts made to treat everyone regardless of their background.

“When I arrived at Rambam, I saw a medical team that treats its patients with dedication, but I also saw the suffering of sick children,” he said, according to the statement. “Palestinian children, Israelis, Syrians and children from other countries who are being treated at Rambam for serious illnesses and are in need of all the help they can get.”

His donation will go toward building a children’s recreation room at the Institute of Radiology of the Joseph Fishman Oncology Center.

“I decided to make a donation to help save human lives apart from any political considerations,” he said.

“Both Israeli and Palestinian societies suffer from violence and I am striving for a situation where we all can contribute to peace and health: to treat children, save lives, share knowledge and train Palestinian doctors at Rambam in order to improve the state of the health systems and the capacity to treat people in the PA areas, and to encourage others to donate and contribute to the betterment of health within our two nations.”

“Medicine is a bridge between peoples and my hope is that with the help of this small contribution and others like it in the future, we will all see a better tomorrow,” the official added.

Rambam, the largest hospital in the country’s north, treats some 1,200 Palestinian children and adults from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip every year. Half of the beds in Rambam’s pediatric cancer wing are filled by children from Gaza and the West Bank.

COMMENTS