by Isabel Ovalle
DOHA: Palestinian doctor Izzeldin Abuelaish (pictured), who presented his book, I Shall Not Hate, at Georgetown University here yesterday, declared that “the key to freedom is education,” saying that “words are stronger than bullets”. Abuelaish lost three of his daughters during the Israeli incursion with shell tanks into the Gaza Strip in 2009.
Three years later he is certain that “the world is blind”, because even after watching for three weeks how 1,400 Palestinians died, it still treats human beings as statistics, without realising that “killing one is like killing the world”.
Before a crowded auditorium, he said “that war is genocide”, as he reminisced about his childhood in a refugee camp, where he saw depravation and misery and fought every day to survive.
“I realised from the beginning that suffering is man made.” In this context, he encouraged everyone to act, “and not underestimate the size of our actions,” never forgetting that “hate is poison, a toxin that destroys, which antidote is success.”
Doctor Abuelaish insisted that education is “the biggest weapon to get rid of the misery of life”. From this point of view he invited the audience to ask themselves what leads children to become terrorists.
According to the Palestinian doctor, the first to practice medicine in Israel, the answer “is exposure to two diseases, suffering and violence.” From this perspective he advocated for investing in education, specially education of girls and women. Because “a healthy educated girl or woman will raise healthy educated children.” From Abuelaish’s point of view, it is time to demonstrate that the tragedy in Gaza will bring good and that “no one should be killed to get freedom”.
He said went to the best universities, but never forgot where he came from, “a place where millions of people are waiting to be saved from the misery of life”. Abuelaish insisted that it is time speak out, spread the message of freedom and discern what makes evil flourish.
After the tragedy that marked his life, doctor Abuelaish was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, because he never sought vengeance and always searched for understanding, never letting go of the dream of reuniting with his daughters to tell them that he has done justice, that he isn’t a victim of hate, and that the children in Palestine are finally “safe and free”. The Peninsula
