In Israeli hospitals, schools and businesses, Palestinians, Jews and Israeli Arabs are working together for a better future.
According to The Guardian, the Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital is “a rare island of calm” where everyone works side by side to care for patients. Rashad Rizeq, 32, a Palestinian from Ramallah, is a member of the cardiology ward’s residency. Mr. Rizeq says he wanted to become a doctor after witnessing his grandmother fail to get proper cardiology care when she had a heart attack. He plans to take what he’s learned from his residency and bring it back to Palestine. Remarking on his residency, he comments that “the only real challenge I face is passing through the checkpoints. This is hard and frustrating, I have to leave the house by 4am, to reach the hospital by 7am, and sometimes I don’t get home until 8pm.”
In Jerusalem, Max Rayne “Hand in Hand” school is located on the “green line” between the Jewish neighborhood of Patt and the Arab neighborhood of Beit Safafa. The school has a mix of Muslim, Jewish and Christian students, and teaches both Arab and Hebrew. “We’re not here to solve the conflict, but we aim to create change,” says Principal Nadia Kanani, an Israeli Arab. “It’s easier to not do something – to ignore the other side and say: ‘We’re here, they hate me, I hate him, I don’t see them, they’re far away.’ But we chose the harder way.”
Run by Forsan Hussein (a Muslim Israeli) and Ami Dror (an Israeli Jew), Zaitoun Ventures is an investment firm that supports Arab-Jewish startups. In the first year, they invested about £14m and plan to increase that to £75m this year.
