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American Morning
Israelis and Palestinians Working Side By Side in Hospital
Aired May 06, 2002 - 07:39 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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Not far from the front lines in the Middle East conflict there is still a place where Palestinians and Jews are on the same side. When the shooting is over, both sides find themselves healing their wounds under the same roof.
In a rare look at some of the more positive news coming out of this conflict, CNN's Carol Lin discovered Palestinian militants, Israeli soldiers and others fighting for the same cause, survival, in the emergency ward. It is a front line turned inside out, and Carol Lin joins us now from Jerusalem with more on that.
Good morning, Carol.
CAROL LIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, good morning, Paula.
Yes, we wanted to take a look at literally the other side of the front line. And where we are right now is the Hadasa Hospital (ph) where just in the surrounding areas right now a girl who was wounded in the cafe moments (ph) bombing, an Israeli soldier who was shot during the Jenin incursion and a Palestinian baby who was born during that incursion with a defective heart, now healing here at this hospital. It is a rare moment and a rare crossroads where you see suffering from both sides of this conflict.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LIN (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 BENBENISHTI, TRAUMA NURSE: It's -- yes, it's very strange. It's not strange for us because we've been doing it for a number of years.
LIN (voice-over): Julie Benbenishti, an Israeli, has been a trauma nurse for more than 20 years at Hadasa 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? BENBENISHTI: I don't think so. I don't think so. I don't think it would be ethnically professional to tell one patient about another patient.
LIN: What about the families though?
BENBENISHTI: I think that the families in the waiting room probably talk between each other, but here they just ask us the questions pertaining to their family member.
LIN: Do the people ever ask you as an Israeli -- do they challenge you how can you treat those people?
BENBENISHTI: Yes, we're asked all the time.
LIN: Really?
BENBENISHTI: 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): Hadasa Hospital is just being pragmatic. This is Jerusalem's main trauma center. They don't have space or time to segregate patients by politics. And this is the eye of the storm, smack between the West Bank and Jerusalem so Arabs and Jews heal together and work together. Fifteen 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. We 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.
BENBENISHTI: Sometimes express very emotional opinions, but we keep it between ourselves.
LIN: Hadasa's nurses are now asking for group therapy to cope with making the emotional switch at work. Still Hadasa remains a strange sanctuary where one minute Israeli soldiers guard a suspected Palestinian gunmen, 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.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LIN: A glimmer of hope indeed, Paula. In fact, right now what people are hoping for is that the situation in Bethlehem is resolved peacefully. However, the entire staff here is also preparing for any wounded incoming from the Church of the Nativity standoff if it goes down badly. But of course that situation right now remains static, and we're all waiting here to hear word of whether any patients will be coming in from that situation -- Paula.
ZAHN: Boy that is the first look any of us have gotten as to that level of cooperation between the Arabs and the Israelis at this point. How unusual is this kind of teamwork right now?
LIN: Paula, it's very unusual. There are very few places in this country where you're going to find Arabs and Israelis working together. The big difference here, I mean you have a dynamic where you might have an Israeli boss and a Palestinian worker but the difference here is that they're all professionals, careers are on the line, careers and lives are at stake here and so they work as co- equals.
But over the next couple of days, we're going to be taking a look at this dynamic because we thought it'd be interesting to see where the middle ground lies in this conflict. Tomorrow you're going to be meeting a general who fought in the Lebanon and Six Day War who now is trying to bring an entire city together but is also believing this conflict has gotten so bad that it may take a wall between the Palestinians and the Israelis to find peace. As well as the next generation, an Arab mother and her daughter and what the future holds for her daughter -- Paula.
ZAHN: Well we'll be looking forward to those reports all week long. Carol Lin, nice to have you with us this morning from Jerusalem.
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