Education and Healthcare

In any society, Education and Healthcare are pillars of progress.  In any society, war, suffering, and lack of progress are associated with ignorance, greed, and apathy.  The biggest challenge for freedom and return in Palestine is the same.  This past week and even as we commemorated the tragedy of the massacre at Deir Yassin, my wife and I had the honor to be invited to two openings in Palestine symbolizing sacrifice and progress: opening of a Pediatric Oncology facility in Beit Jala and of the new Engineering Department at AlQuds University.  When we lived in the US, my wife and I worked with Huda Al-Masri and her husband Steve Sossebee (founders of Palestine Children Relief Fund-PCRF) for several cases of children coming to the US for treatment. We had the honor of hosting two families in our house in Connecticut. Now PCRF was able to create totally through private donations the Huda Al-Masri Pediatric Oncology Department at Beit Jala government hospital (the only such facility in the West Bank).  Huda passed away from cancer and we were honored to see how grown up her two daughters are and to see this fitting memorial to her hard work finally get going. The inauguration of the Najjad Zeenni faculty of engineering building at Al-Quds university showed how expatriate Palestinians could contribute to building Palestine.  Zeenni was born on a ship going from Jaffa to exile in 1948 and became a successful engineer and company executive (now living in Abu Dhabi).  We also met Mr. Fawzi Kawash, another good key Palestinian who made it his life’s work to bring support for Palestinian academic and research institutions. There are thousands of other Palestinians working behind the scenes.  We must do more in education and healthcare.  I spend more and more time on these issues (and less on politics) as we expand our clinical cytogenetics laboratory (testing for cancer and genetic abnormalities), build the natural history collection, do more research and education, helps some students pay their bills, and take students and colleagues on field trips to wilderness areas.

On April 6th, the PCRF officially opened the Huda Al Masri Pediatric Cancer dept. in Beit Jala Hospital
http://www.pcrf.net/on-april-6th-the-pcrf-officially-opened-the-huda-al-masri-pediatric-cancer-dept-in-beit-jala-hospital/

Earlier report on the start of work for the faculty of Engineering building at Al-Quds Univesrity
http://www.anera.org/resources/press-releases/anera-and-al-quds-break-ground-for-new-engineering-school/

Scholarships for Palestinian students to study in Cambridge
http://www.chu.cam.ac.uk/alumni/development/palestinian_studentship.php

We must never forget the massacre in Deir Yassin By Dina Elmuti
http://electronicintifada.net/content/we-must-never-forget-massacre-deir-yassin/12341

(New book) The Prisoners’ Diaries: This is a compilation of 22 Palestinian prisoners' experiences in Israeli jails. 1,027 prisoners were released in 2011 as part of the exchange with Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit and 22 of them were interviewed by journalists. These accounts were translated into English at the Centre for Political and Development Studies (CPDS) in Gaza, and edited.
http://theprisonersdiaries.blogspot.com/

(racism in action) Seeing the forest and the trees: The untold story of the Jewish National Fund
http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/magazine/seeing-the-forest-and-the-trees-the-untold-story-of-the-jewish-national-fund-1.400530

Youth move back to Palestinian village stolen from their families
http://electronicintifada.net/content/youth-move-back-palestinian-village-stolen-their-families/12352

British Jewry in turmoil after tribunal blasts pro-Israel activist for bringing harassment case: Ruling in case brought by mathematics lecturer was meant to be culmination of 11 years of pro-Israel activism, but ruling that 'attachment to Israel... is not intrinsically a part of Jewishness' has caused shock waves in the Jewish community. http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/jewish-world-news/british-jewry-in-turmoil-after-tribunal-blasts-pro-israel-activist-for-bringing-harassment-case.premium-1.514173