wfn.org | Diocese of Jerusalem - Ahli Arab Hosptial Gaza

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

Sept. 30, 2002

GAZA Dr. Ali of Ahli Arab Hospital couldnt keep his hands from quivering
as he recounted the events of the past week.

How the tank and helicopter had shelled the area outside his home in Rafah
one night. How he, his wife and his children lay on the ground, listening to
the nearly deafening explosions. The discovery of his 19-year-old neighbor
the next morning, decapitated by a bullet fired from a helicopter.

Such accounts are increasingly common along the Gaza Strip these days, the
result of Israeli nightly military raids. Yet Ahli Arab Hospital, a ministry
of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, continues to function amidst the
chaos, providing medical aid to Gaza residents in need.

As Christians, we have a duty to serve all people without discrimination
and to help people who are helpless, hospital director Suhaila Tarazi said
this week.

Ahli Arab remains the only Christian hospital in Gaza. The medical center
was built by the Anglican-based Church Missionary Society in 1882. It became
a Southern Baptist hospital in the 1950s, and then the Episcopal Diocese of
Jerusalem obtained leadership in 1982.

The hospital serves a largely Muslim population in this region of 1.2
million people, including hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees. Its
services include general medical, surgical, obstetrics/gynecology and
emergency care. It also offers physiotherapy and medical outreach services.

Like other agencies, the hospital has suffered amidst the recent conflict.
Bullets, which rained down from Israeli guns one night earlier this week,
put holes in the tin shelter that hangs over the hospitals ambulances and
blew out the back window of one of the vehicles. Such attacks have prevented
ambulances from getting out of the hospital at times.

The medical center also has had struggles with infrastructure needs most
notably, an 18-year-old kerosene-powered boiler, featuring portions that are
taped together. The boiler is necessary for hygiene, sterilization of
equipment, laundering and physiotherapy.

Staffing shortages create problems, too. The hospital has 80 workers and 30
part-time employees. Some 30 percent of the staff works in the southern part
of the Gaza Strip, Tarazi said. If the checkpoints are closed, the hospital
loses one-third of its staff.

The local economy also has created challenges. Unemployment in Gaza has
reached 75 percent, according to figures from the World Bank.  Gaza
residents who used to work in Israeli factories have lost their jobs since
the most recent Intifada began, said Mohammed Al Naqa, social worker for
Ahli Arab Hospital.

As a result, many Gaza residents have a difficult time paying their hospital
bills. Ahli Arab Hospital has responded by offering free care to victims of
conflict-related injuries. Gaza residents injured by the artillery generally
are sent to government-run Ministry of Health hospitals, but Ahli Arab
Hospital handles patient overflow.

The medical center also has started offering transportation to Ahlis Mobile
Outreach health clinics for residents of Al Mawasi a nearby village of
10,000 people. Ahli Arab employees are not allowed to enter the village
because of Israeli occupation, but soldiers allow some residents to leave
the town to board a hospital shuttle outside the village. Despite these
efforts, the hospital staff has noticed a shortage of men attending the
clinics because soldiers will not allow most men out of town.

Such clinics and free services are costly, and the hospital had a $400,000
deficit for the first six months of this year, though it continues to
receive support from charities.

Most of these problems would start to disappear if Israeli occupation in
Gaza came to an end, she said.

We are in the third millennium, and I cant believe this slavery attitude
still exists, she said. We are all creatures under one God, whether were
Christians, Muslims or Jews and we should have the right to live the right
to express our feelings.

Im a Christian. I believe (this) is the Promised Land, but God doesnt
tell people to go and kill the people of the Holy Land.

Tarazi and a few other Ahli Arab staff members have United States passports,
and they could easily return to the West where they do not face persecution
because of their Arab ancestry. However, Tarazi says the hospital is the
mission to which she feels called.

A lot of people dont believe in miracles, but I do, she said, because
each corner of this hospital has a story of how God is working for his
people.

Tarazi pointed to a Precious Moments figurine on the table as she discussed
the struggles facing Gaza. The display featured a little girl staring into a
tunnel with a bunny rabbit holding up a candle on the other side.

  This means a lot for me, she said, while holding up the miniature statue,
that there will be a light at the end of the tunnel.

Nancy Dinsmore
Development Office
Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem

Email:	devedjer@netvision.net.il <mailto:devedjer@netvision.net.il>
Fax:  972 2 627 3847