Eid

Dimanche 6 Novembre 2005

Cette semaine, j’ai pu profiter de quelques jours de vacances pour l’Eid, la fin du Ramadan. Ramallah était plein d’animation le soir. L’atmosphère etait festive. On en aurait presque oublié, ne serait-ce que quelques instants l’occupation militaire. Pourtant, au devant du cortège un enfant porte le portrait d’un des derniers martyrs. Jour après jour, la même lithanie de nouvelles tombe, et seuls les noms changent. Arrestations, incursions militaires, tirs, attaques de colons, humiliations au checkpoints; continuation de la confiscation des terres pour le Mur…cette semaine à la manifestation de Bi’lin un journaliste de Al-Jazeera s’est fait arrété, a été battu et sa caméra confisquée. Cette semaine je n’étais pas à Bilin, cela aurait pu être moi.
Qu’ont acheté les jeunes garçons palestiniens avec les sommes qu’ils ont reçues en cadeau ? des fusils ou pistolets en plastiques….un garçon de 12 ans est mort cette semaine, les soldats israéliens lui ont tiré dans la tête et se sont justifiés en affirmant avoir pris le jouet pour une arme reelle….ils ne vont bien sûr ne pas être inquiétés. Est-ce qu'ils seulement mauvaise conscience ? Je n 'en suis pas sure.
Les parents du garçon ont décidé de donner les organes du jeune garçon à l'hopital de Haifa, au nom de la paix entre les peuples. Belle leçon d'humanité.

ENGLISH



Article from Haaretz:

Family of boy killed by IDF donates his organs for peace

By Amos Harel and Arnon Regular, Haaretz Correspondent

The family of Ahmed al-Khatib, a 12 year old fatally shot last week by Israeli troops who mistook his toy gun for a real rifle, have donated his organs at a Haifa hospital "for the sake of peace between peoples."

His organs helped save the lives of six patients. His heart was given to a 12-year-old girl; his liver was divided in two and given to two patients, a six-month old baby and a 56-year-old woman; his kidneys were given to a 5-year-old boy and his lungs were given to a 5-year-old boy and a 4-year-old girl, Israel Radio reported.

The boy died of his wounds on Saturday.


Dr. Tzvi Ben-Yishai, a spokesman for Rambam Medical Center in Haifa, where Khatib had been treated, said that the boy's parents decided to donate his organs "to bring hearts closer and bring peace closer."

The boy's uncle, Jamal Khatib, confirmed that the family had donated the organs.

"This is not a political issue, but a personal one," the boy's father told Channel Two news. "I had an older brother who suffered from kidney failure and there were no transplants available. When the doctor told me that my boy was clinically dead, I remembered my brother and thought of ways to help."

The Thursday shooting incident occurred when soldiers entered the Jenin refugee camp as part of an ongoing operation to arrest Islamic Jihad operatives.

Shots were fired at the soldiers from the western part of the camp, and bullets hit one of their jeeps. According to Palestinian sources, Islamic Jihad and Fatah gunmen both participated in the exchange of fire, and teenagers threw rocks at the jeeps.

The soldiers thought they saw an armed man some 130 meters away, and one of the soldiers fired, hitting the suspected gunman in the head. A Palestinian ambulance picked up the wounded suspect, but when the soldiers approached the site, they found a plastic gun.

The IDF Spokesman's Office distributed photographs of the toy to show how real it looked.

Khatib was taken to the hospital in Ramallah, but when the seriousness of his condition became clear, the Palestinian Authority arranged to have him transferred to Israel.

Palestinian sources said Khatib was apparently not one of the boys who had been throwing rocks at the soldiers