Jerusalem
and the Middle East
Church Association

Bishop Mouneer and Bishop Derek lead the Palm Sunday procession in Cairo

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Obituaries

Just how much Gaza and our hospital there experience life in the midst of pain and death has been described in the following touching letter by one of our Diocesan friends, whose courage to visit the people of Gaza in these difficult times has for us been a great sign of God’s love:

A parish called gaza

Having visited Gaza recently, I can tell you that in amongst all the misery there is much that is beautiful. There is hope, there is courage, there is defiance, and there is also, surprisingly, forgiveness. I have witnessed the Gospel, there on the front line of poverty and misery. I have witnessed solidarity between Muslims and Christians. I have seen with my own eyes, in the midst of anger and fear, what a better world can look like.

I could tell you about the bleakness of Gaza, with its bombed out buildings and roads. I could tell you about the young men hanging around with nothing to do - and the young men with guns looking for something to do. But let me tell you instead about a hospital there.

A scarred oasis

The Al Ahli Arab Hospital, among the narrow scarred streets, is an oasis of whitewash and green grass. It too carries scars, as a missile from an Israeli Apache helicopter damaged the chapel and clinics some time ago. The wards are spartan, the equipment is old and inadequate, and the surgery is dilapidated. The corridor acts as the overflow when the bombing gets too bad and the casualties too many.

The hospital is open to all, irrespective of their faith. It treats the poor without charge. It treats those hurt in the crossfire. This hospital works because the staff, Muslims and Christians, work unstintingly to take care of those around them. The Chief Surgeon is a Muslim and the Director of the Hospital is a Christian, but none of that matters.

Young patient at Al Ahli

Cancer, the hidden killer

Direct casualties of war are not the only victims in Gaza. War, curfew and disruption bring a hidden killer, and this is cancer. The increase in cancer has been dramatic. It is the women who are hardest hit by cancer, particularly breast cancer. The hospital is doing what it can, but it desperately needs a mammography machine for early detection and a better chance of saving lives.

I met a cancer outpatient, who lives with her family in a graveyard. Her children are malnourished and sickly, but full of life, with big, mischievous grins, as they jump from one gravestone to another. These make good hiding places since many of the tombs have been bombed open.

Their home is a hut, with no drainage. You need a heart of steel not to be moved by seeing them fight for a piece of meat found on the ground. The eldest daughters shared some of the flat bread baked in their clay oven; a meal more generous than the richest of my friends has ever given.

This woman is dying, but she is undefeated, loud and alive. And with her amongst this rubble and poverty, Palestine lives, bloody, torn, and divided, but like an eternal flame beyond the power of a foreign army to snuff it out. This is Gaza. This is the ‘parish’ in which the hospital operates.

The Ahli Hospital needs help. Specifically, pray for them sharing the prayer: “Pray not for Arab or Jew, for Palestinian or Israeli. Pray rather for ourselves, that we might not divide them in our prayers, but keep them both together in our hearts”.

Suheila Tarazi, Director, Al Ahli Arab Hospital

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