Arab and Jewish medics bridge the divide saying 'let's save some lives'
AT THE same time that Israeli police and Palestinian youths were battling each other at the Temple Mount holy site in Jerusalem last week, a life was being saved nearby by a new emergency rescue project that brings together ultra-Orthodox Jews and Arabs.
As the clashes were going on at the site, known to Moslems as al-Haram al-Sharif, two Arab medics from the new east Jerusalem branch of the ultra- orthodox Jewish Ihud Hatzolah rescue service were arriving at the scene of a heart attack of a 45-year-old Arab woman in the Ras al-Amud neighborhood.
The medics were able to carry out a successful resuscitation, recalled Murad Alayan, head of the new branch. One of them then drove the woman to an ambulance of Israel's national rescue service, Magen David Adom (MDA), that was waiting on the edge of the neighbourhood and continued her treatment.
Arrival time of MDA ambulances at Arab addresses in Jerusalem is a contentious issue, with Palestinians complaining of frequent delays that cost lives. MDA officials say that after its ambulances – which are adorned with its Red Star of David – came under attack in recent years upon entering Arab areas, it was decided that they should wait at the edge of neighbourhoods until police escorts arrived.
That is why medics who live inside Arab neighbourhoods and know their way around them who can get to the scene early can make the difference between life and death. Indeed it was the death from a heart attack last year of an Arab man after an ambulance arrived too late that prompted Eli Beer, the director of Ihud Hatzolah, and Mr Aliyan, from the Arab Beit Safafa neighborhood, to launch the effort.
"Murad said let's save some lives in east Jerusalem and I said why not," recalls Beer.
Read more at The Scotsman.
Incredibly, there are some people opposed to this genuine step of peace, and they are not even Hamas.
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