Izzeldin Abuelaish Explained

Izzeldin Abuelaish
Birth Date:February 3, 1955
Birth Place:Jabalia Camp, Gaza Strip
Nationality:Palestinian
Education:University of Cairo MD
University of London OB/Gyn
Harvard School of Public Health MPH
Occupation:Doctor, professor, author, non-profit founder
Notable Works:
Michael and Amira Dan Professor in Global Health
Boards:Daughters for Life Foundation

Izzeldin Abuelaish (ar|عزالدين أبو العيش), is a Canadian-Palestinian medical doctor and author. He was born in Gaza, and was the first Palestinian doctor to work in an Israeli hospital and has been active in promoting Israeli-Palestinian reconciliation. During the Gaza War in January 2009, his three daughters and a niece were killed by Israeli tank fire directed at his home. He had been calling in reports about the effect of the war by phone to a TV station. In his regularly scheduled report, in tears, he described their killing on-air, in a video that was widely circulated in Israel and around the world.[1]

He emigrated to Canada and wrote a 2011 memoir entitled . He now resides in Toronto, Canada, with his remaining children.

Life and career

Abuelaish was born and raised in the Jabalia refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. He received his elementary, preparatory and secondary education in the refugee camp schools. Abuelaish received a scholarship to study medicine in Egypt. After completing medical studies at Cairo University in 1983, he earned a diploma in Obstetrics and Gynaecology from the University of London.[2]

From 1997 to 2002, he completed a residency in OB/Gyn at the Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba, Israel, followed by a subspecialty in fetal medicine in Italy and Belgium; then a master's degree in Public Health (Health Policy and Management) from Harvard University.[2]

Abuelaish was the first Palestinian doctor to receive a staff position at an Israeli hospital, where he treated both Israeli and Palestinian patients. He worked as a physician in the Gaza Strip and also worked part-time in Israel at Soroka Medical Center and Sheba Medical Center. After the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip in 2007, he was one of the few Gazans to continue entering Israel regularly. He lived in a multi-story building in Jabalia that he and his brother had built.

In 2008, his wife died of leukemia, and he was left to raise their eight children.

Immediately before the 2008–2009 Gaza War between Palestinian paramilitary groups and the Israeli military, he was a researcher at the Sheba Hospital in Tel Aviv[3] and already an important figure in Israeli-Palestinian relations.[4] His daughters had attended a peace camp with Israeli children in the United States.[5]

During the three-week war, he gave reports and interviews to the Israeli media on the situation in Gaza. On January 16, 2009, a few days before the end of the war, an Israeli tank fired two shells at his home, killing three of his daughters and a niece. An Israeli military investigation of the incident claimed that fire had been directed at his house after ″figures″ spotted on the roof of the building had been suspected of being observers directing sniper fire against Israeli troops. The incident occurred as he had been corresponding live with Channel 10 reporter Shlomi Eldar, and his reaction to learning of the deaths of his daughters was broadcast live to Israeli audiences.[6] [7]

The death of his daughters strengthened his resolve to promote reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians.[8]

He founded the Daughters for Life Foundation in memory of his three daughters who were killed. The organization provides scholarship awards to encourage young women from Palestine, Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and Syria to pursue their studies at universities in Canada, the United States and Belgium.[9] The foundation aims to invest in the potential for young women's leadership and to foster their success.[10]

In 2011 he was Associate Professor of Global Health at the University of Toronto.[11]

He wrote a 2011 memoir entitled .

In February 2013, he attended the Karachi Literature Festival in Pakistan where he narrated the events surrounding the death of his daughters killed in the Israeli airstrike. According to The Express Tribune, "there was hardly anyone in the audience who did not choke or wipe away a silent tear while listening to Palestinian doctor and author Izzeldin Abuelaish..."[12] Abuelaish described the event of his daughters' deaths as follows:

He became a Canadian citizen in 2015.[13]

Honours and awards

Honorary Degrees and Citizenships

Works

External links

Notes and References

  1. Israeli TV airs telephone call to father after children killed -English . January 17, 2009 . September 14, 2019 . . (English subtitles)
  2. Web site: Izzeldin Abuelaish . . 2021-05-11.
  3. Web site: Amy . Goodman . January 19, 2011 . Gaza Doctor Izzeldin Abuelaish Two Years After Israeli Attack that Killed 3 Daughters & Niece: 'As Long as I am Breathing, They are with Me. I Will Never Forget' . 2013-04-21 . Democracy Now!.
  4. News: Gazan Doctor and Peace Advocate Loses 3 Daughters to Israeli Fire and Asks Why . . 2011-01-18 . Dina . Kraft. 17 January 2009 .
  5. https://tomorrowswomen.org/about/ Tomorrow's Women
  6. News: Israel shelled Gaza doctor's home. 4 February 2009.
  7. Web site: Court rules against Gaza doc who sued over IDF shelling that killed 3 daughters. The Times of Israel.
  8. News: 13 December 2001 . Gaza: Life Without Borders. . . 13 March 2021.
  9. News: Palestinian Doctor's Peace Efforts Turn To Anguish . NPR . 2011-01-18.
  10. Web site: About. Daughters for Life Foundation . June 2, 2017.
  11. http://www.phs.utoronto.ca/faculty_template_new.asp?GetFile=Iabuelaish Izzeldin Abuelaish MD, MPH, Faculty Profile. University of Toronto – Dalla Lana School of Public Health.
  12. News: February 18, 2013 . Man fights loss of three daughters in Israeli strike . The Express Tribune . February 20, 2013.
  13. News: Ghert-Zand . Renee . December 13, 2015 . After 6 years in Canada, Gazan doctor Izzeldin Abuelaish gains citizenship . . January 4, 2019.
  14. http://wn.com/Niarchos Niarchos. WorldNews.
  15. http://www.sfcg.org/sfcg/sfcg_awards2009.html "The Common Ground Awards 2009". Search for Common Ground.
  16. http://www.mei.edu/Events/EventArchive/TranscriptsSummaries/tabid/507/ctl/Detail/mid/1644/xmid/812/xmfid/22/Default.aspx 2009 Annual Conference Banquet Award Acceptance. Middle East Institute.
  17. http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?language=EN&type=IM-PRESS&reference=20090921STO60934 10 nominees for 2009 Sakharov human rights prize. European Parliament.
  18. Web site: Queens College Center for Ethnic, Racial, and Religious Understanding Honors Three with its First-Ever 'Uncommon Courage Awards' . . 2011-01-18.
  19. Web site: Premier Selinger Awards Gandi Peace Award of Canada to Gazan Doctor Abuelaish . Winnipeg Jewish Review . 2011-01-18 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20110718063412/http://www.winnipegjewishreview.com/article_detail.cfm?id=455&sec=2 . 2011-07-18 .
  20. Web site: Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish, Faculty of Medicine | U of T News . News.utoronto.ca . 2012-01-17 . 2013-04-21.
  21. Web site: Peace Prize | Peace Studies . . 2013-03-02 . 2013-04-21.
  22. Web site: 25 Appointees Named to Ontario's Highest Honour. Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration.
  23. Web site: Canada's Top 25 Immigrants 2013. 2021-06-18. Canadian Immigrant. en-US.
  24. Web site: Public Peace Prize:Izzeldin Abuelaish. 2014-07-06 . August 9, 2014.
  25. Web site: Meritorious Service Cross Citation. 11 June 2018. Governor General of Canada. 14 March 2021.
  26. Web site: . 'Martin Luther King of Middle East' transforms tragedy into change . Yvette . Brend . June 11, 2016 . July 28, 2016.
  27. Web site: TMU 2023 October Convocation . . 13 October 2023.
  28. Web site: UBC May 2024 Graduation Convocation . 10 May 2024.

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