The Jenin refugee camp was established after the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Lying in Palestinian territory, it is still filled, 60 years later, with Arabs expelled from Israel during that war, and with their children and grandchildren.

On November 3, 2005, a group of these children were playing with wooden rifles. Israeli soldiers, mistaking the rifles for real weapons, started firing and shot twelve-year-old Ahmed Ismail Khatib. When the soldiers realized their mistake, they rushed the boy to a hospital in Haifa. After two days, he died, another casualty in an endless cycle of violence.

But Ahmed’s parents chose to step out of that cycle and honor their son’s life by giving life to others. Six patients in the hospital were awaiting organ transplants. All the patients were Israeli. Ahmed’s heart was given to a 12-year-old girl, his lungs to a 14-year-old girl with cystic fibrosis, his kidneys to a 4-year-old girl and 5-year-old boy, and his liver to a 7-month-old girl and a 58-year-old woman. Six lives were given a new chance out of the terrible death of one small boy.

Ahmed’s father, Ismail said, “I feel that my son has entered the heart of every Israeli.” In the face of criticism from some Palestinians, Ismail explicitly linked the extraordinary donation of his son’s organs to peace. “It was to give a symbol of peace so that people could live together.” “I don’t mind seeing the organs in the body of an Israeli, or a Palestinian. The Palestinian people want peace – for everyone.”

This gesture of peace has created a network of gratitude and good will among the people directly affected. Two weeks after Ahmed’s death, the Khatibs returned to the hospital to meet the children who received the transplants and their families. As the meetings occurred, not only the families, but also doctors, nurses, visitors and other patients smiled and cried, laughed and wept.

The mother of 12-year-old Samah, who received Ahmed’s heart, told the Khatibs, “We are one family. I hope you will accept me as your sister.” Ahmed’s mother, Ablah, responded, “We are also her parents now.” And to the parents of Menouha Levinson, who received one of Ahmed’s kidneys, the Khatibs said, “We hope her wounds will heal soon. We hope that she will work to promote peace once she grows up.”

The Khatibs themselves would probably have chosen any other means to advance peace. But what they were given was the death of their son. In the face of his death, and the violence that caused it, they chose to say No to violence, Yes to generosity. Ismail Khatib: “Everyone knows that the olive branch is a symbol of peace, so instead of an olive branch, I have sewn the seeds of my son’s organs inside the children of Israelis. We’re talking about young children. Their religion doesn’t make a difference.”

Resources:
“…and an inspiring story,” USA Today, November 10, 2005, A 14.

“One Boy and Six Lives,” byline: Rebecca Lippiatt-Long, www.happynews.com, December 2, 2005.

“We are Samah’s parents too”, byline: Meital Yas’ur-Beit Or, www.ynetnews.com, November 15, 2005.

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