The Human Side?

In 2005, the Hadassah Medial Center in Jerusalem, Israel was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize due to its equality in treatment, its ethnic and religious diversity, and its efforts to build bridges to peace. On my last trip to Jerusalem, I stayed with a Bolivian couple. They lived in an apartment complex next to the hospital that gave discount rates to patients. In the lobby milled sickly, skinny, bald residents, or pale children, their lips aseptically hidden behind blue masks.

It is a microcosm where death is present in every action, and risky procedures are debated over coffee. The Bolivian couple sighed over how many friends they had lost this year. During my stay they treated Nigerian guests. The boy was 24 with gorgeous, brown eyes and leukemia. He had never been sick a day in his life. He missed Africa and was returning home as soon as he could to await a match. While his brother, who had accompanied him, enjoyed the night life in Tel Aviv, he had trouble walking down the stairs. His frailty was visible through his sweat pants as he melted into the couch. He remained silent, his eyes drifting, while his mother discussed his bone marrow transplant.

Both the Bolivian couple and the Nigerian family had chosen Hadassah after being left without other options. The Bolivian girl had spent a year in Peru and was near death. Hadassah was the cheapest hospital and the most willing to perform experimental procedures. Neither patients had much money to spare. But the Nigerian woman said it best, "it doesn't matter the cost, you'll pay if it's your life."

Because of her treatment, the Bolivian woman had finally, miraculously lapsed into remission. The couple was leaving for home the next day. As they spoke of the ethnic conflicts in Bolivia, their city, Cochabamba, that they had to defend from "indigenous" rebels with sticks and rocks, the men they saw fall dead at their feet, the hate they experienced from those they considered fellow country men, it was obvious they did not wish to leave Jerusalem. The Bolivian man had taken me and my friend around the old city, to the significant Catholic sites, and spoke with affection for Jerusalem. He had found a people in Israel who had helped his love to live.



Living in America can mean that your spheres of influence are largely pro-Israeli. The media does a piss-poor job of unbiased coverage. Whether this is because there is some kind of Zionist conspiracy (i.e. Zionist owned media corporations) or, what I believe to be more likely, a complex and multi-faceted problem, which constrains journalists, such as a lack of historical knowledge, cultural acceptance, time to fact check and space for true analysis, a pressure for constant and easy news, a reader's short attention span and ultimately, the corruption of capitalism. One should never forget the news is a product. It is sold for consumption. And in the end, terrorism is sexy. Sex sells. In America, it seems easier to label an Arab as a terrorist than a Jewish holocaust survivor. But far worse, it is the tendency to create these terms such as "terrorist" that deny the labeled of context.

I'll admit that as a young person, learning about the Sbarro suicide bombings in Jerusalem in 2001, I was horrified by these acts of "terrorism". However, as I grew older, and was influenced by international experience and liberal ideology, my mind broaden to consider the reasons for such acts of desperation. Now on my fifth visit to Palestine and anticipating more, I am finding myself struggling in the other direction, to open my mind to how Israeli's could be drawn to commit such acts of terror.


I had wanted to visit a Jewish settlement on this visit. However, I was unsuccessful in finding the time and the means. I would love to visit Har Homa, an illegal settlement creeping like a virus onto Bethlehem's land, to discuss with a settler the infection that is a constant reminder as it fills the horizon, the view from the windows of Bethlehem.

But my experience with the Hadassah patients has helped to, in some small way, humanize Jerusalem for me, to remind me that a government is not the equivalent of its people, that perhaps there is hope that if a hospital can be renown for its equality, then perhaps this equality can extend to its Arab neighbors.

* Pictures of Bush's visit to the Old City