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CNN Live Today
Injured Israelis, Palestinians Often Treated Side by Side
Aired May 06, 2002 - 14:24 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: Not far from the frontlines, when the shooting is over, Palestinian and Israeli Jews often find themselves healing their wounds under the same roof. CNN'S Carol Lin found that they are on the same side of the emergency ward.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CAROL LIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): An Israeli settler is shot in the head when Palestinian gunmen attack his West Bank home. Consider where he ends up: at this hillside hospital, lying just inches away from two Palestinians from the Church of the Nativity standoff.
(on camera): That's got to be weird.
JULIE BENBENISHTY, TRAUMA NURSE: Yes. It's very strange. It's not strange for us, because we have been doing it for a number of years.
LIN: Julie Benbenishty, an Israeli, has been a trauma nurse for more than 20 hears at Hadassah Hospital, where suicide bombing victims and Palestinian gunmen are treated under the same roof. Sometimes, in the same room.
(on camera): Do they know that they are lying side-by-side?
BENBENISHTY: I don't know so. I don't think so. I don't think it would be ethically professional to tell one patient about another patient.
LIN: What about the families, though?
BENBENISHTY: I think the families in the waiting room probably spoke between each other. But here, they just ask us the questions pertaining to their family member.
LIN: Do people ever ask you, as an Israeli -- do they challenge you? How can you treat those people?
BENBENISHTY: Yes, we are asked all the time. Everyone on the staff is. We're asked all the time, and we say, we treat everyone who walks in the door as a patient.
LIN (voice-over): Hadassah Hospital is just being pragmatic. This is Jerusalem's main trauma center. They don't have space or time to segregate patients. And this is the eye of the storm, smack between the West Bank and Jerusalem.
So, Arabs and Jews heal together and work together. 15 percent of the staff is Arab.
Dr. Ahmad Eid grew up in Israel to become one of the country's most famous transplant surgeons.
DR. AHMAD EID, CHIEF SURGEON: I know the people from both sides. You can bring them together, make a team, and just start working.
LIN: Sometimes, it's not that easy. More than a dozen staff members have lost loved ones in terror attacks. The intifada is taking its toll.
BENBENISHTY: Sometimes we express very emotional opinions, but we keep it between ourselves.
LIN: Hadassah's nurses are now asking for group therapy to cope with making the emotional switch at work.
Still, Hadassah remains a strange sanctuary, where one minute, Israeli soldiers guard a suspected Palestinian gunman. The next moment, one is sharing a newspaper with the Palestinian's brother.
In the cancer ward, Palestinian and Israeli children share a magic moment. A solution to the Mideast crisis? No, just an unexpected glimmer of hope.
Carol Lin, CNN, Jerusalem.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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