Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, September 1998, page 26

Special Report

“Real Americans” Combining to Provide Medical Treatment to Injured Arab Children

By Stephen J. Sosebee

Dania is too young to understand the threats against her country as she recovers from extensive reconstructive surgery in Michigan. Like any six-year-old girl, she is relieved to be through her painful surgery and on the road to recovery, and happy to see nurses who smile and doctors with plentiful medicine, both in short supply back in her country, Iraq. She is one of the fortunate few Arab children currently in the U.S. for medical care they cannot get in their homeland.

As the U.S. was threatening Iraq again with military strikes earlier this year, and the Netanyahu government continued to sow seeds of hatred rather than peace with its Arab neighbors in Palestine and Lebanon, Arab children from these countries found a much more human face from doctors, volunteers and relief groups in the U.S. Recent humanitarian efforts, spearheaded by the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF), a nonpolitical, nonprofit group based in Ohio, has united various other charities to provide Arab children free medical care in the U.S. that they cannot get in their own countries.

“People always say ‘united we stand and divided we fall,’” says PCRF treasurer Farid El-Asmar. “And that is how we look at our joint efforts with other relief groups here in the U.S. The more we work together, the more suffering children we are able to reach.”

One often sees activities by the different political and religious groups supporting Israel unconditionally, and that has been a great source of strength to the Jewish State. Organizations concerned about the welfare of the Arab population in the region have for too long been in competition for funds with other like-minded organizations.

This has led to division among relief groups and a weakening of morale among those who are trying to do something positive for the needy of the region. Happily, over the past several months healing the wounds of war, sanctions and occupation in the Middle East has increased cooperation among some organizations in the U.S.

Last November, the PCRF arranged with a Dearborn-based nonprofit, the International Relief Association (IRA), to bring Banan Ali and Dania Abdul Jaber from Iraq to the U.S. for free medical care. The PCRF arranged for local doctors and hospitals to donate their services on a charitable basis, while the IRA brought the girls from Baghdad to the U.S. “We all know how greatly the people of Iraq are suffering these days,” says IRA director of public relations Muthanna Al-Hanooti. “Some people look at the starving and suffering children and wonder what they can do. We are offering a solution to people who want to help but don’t know how.”

Dania, an orphan who lost both parents in a fire that badly scarred her face and hands, had plastic and reconstructive surgery at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in Ann Arbor, under the care of Dr. David Bing. In December, Dr. Richard Rashid operated on Banan’s eye at Memorial Hospital in South Charleston, West Virginia.

“The least we can do.”

“I feel it is a duty to help these children,” says Dr. Rashid, a member of the National Arab American Medical Association. “When the PCRF contacted me I did not hesitate to treat her. It is the least that we can do.”

It is this spirit of many doctors throughout the U.S. that supports the humanitarian efforts of groups like the PCRF and IRA. Last September, nine-year-old Salam Safy was flown to Sacramento for extensive plastic and reconstructive surgery at the Shriners Hospital for Crippled Children.

“Sometimes the obstacle we face is not locating a hospital or doctor to treat our children, but to find an Arab family that will host an injured youth,” explains PCRF vice president Sue Nasir. “When Mohammed and Bahia Massoud offered to house Salam, it was a great relief because this poor girl is having many operations and long-term care.”

Indeed, the Massouds have opened their home to Salam as if she were their own child. “It has not been easy, but we feel it is a duty to help these kids,” says Mohammed. “Especially those who are victims of Israeli oppression at home. Palestinians and Arabs have to support them in any way we can.”

Salam was almost burned to death as a baby in the Al-Amari refugee camp near Ramallah when Israeli soldiers trying to arrest her teen-age brother knocked an open flame into her crib. The Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) and United Palestine Appeal (UPA) in Washington, DC assisted the PCRF in bringing Salam to California. The UPA has worked with the PCRF since 1995 to help transport dozens of injured youths to the U.S.

“You look at these children and see the true victims of terrorism in the Middle East,” says HLF director Shukri Abu Bakr. “We are grateful to have the chance to help heal the wounds of these kids.”

The effort to help injured children crosses religious and national boundaries. Last October, 15-year-old Miri Zeineddine arrived in Philadelphia for treatment to replace her leg that was lost when an Israeli shell hit her home in the village of Safat Al-Batik in south Lebanon. Miri, a Lebanese Shi’i Muslim, was brought by the PCRF and is staying with the family of Nizar and Samia Warasneh, Sunni Muslims from the West Bank.

“Miri is a human being and she has suffered more than any child should,” says Nizar. “We are willing to help any child who needs help, regardless of their religion or background. Imagine if Miri were your child. This is how we have to think about helping her. As if she were our own sister or daughter.”

This year more Palestinian, Lebanese and Iraqi children will be coming to the U.S. for the medical care they cannot get at home. The PCRF will be working with other relief groups to bring kids like 15-year-old Badwan Abu Mayyala, who was shot in the head last June by Israeli soldiers in Hebron and can no longer speak. Babies with congenital heart defects and other injured and sick children will be operated on throughout the country.

While the U.S. continues its merciless embargo of Iraq and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s intransigence further undermines what’s left of the Oslo accords, the help offered Arab children proves that most Americans are quite different from those who make knee-jerk pro-Israel, anti-Arab American policy in the Middle East. Through joint efforts of several U.S.-based relief groups, the future for kids like Dania, the little orphan from Baghdad, is now much brighter.

Phone numbers of charitable organizations mentioned in the article: The Palestine Children’s Relief Fund: (330) 678-2645; International Relief Association: (801) 772-2357; The Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development: (972) 699-9868; United Palestine Appeal: (202) 659-5007.