More than six months ago in the pages of this newspaper, after the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre in Israel that killed at least 1,200 men, women and children and kidnapped several hundred more, we wrote an impassioned plea for both Israelis and Palestinian Muslims to adhere to their teachings that to save one life is to save all of humanity.
We wrote barely a week after the Israeli military invaded Gaza and we asked where these actions were going. Little did we know then but know now that more than 30,000 Palestinian men, women and children have died and that most of Gaza, its hospitals, its homes and its infrastructure, has been destroyed.
And we have to ask: what madness has entered the minds and souls of both Jews and Muslims, two peoples who gave the world the Ten Commandments, a belief in the one God, who were asked by the Creator of the Heavens and Earth to act as examples to the non-believers, to be “a light unto the nations” and to walk the “straight path to God” as the Prophets Moses and Mohammed asked of humanity?
We also described our own efforts to find a common ground between Jews and Muslims in the Greater Portland area. We described how Jews and Muslims, in a newly created organization called Interfaith Maine, stood shoulder to shoulder shortly after 9/11 and proclaimed that we would not allow the tragedy that befell America to stop us in our efforts to discover what united us and to search for ways to lessen the divide that separated our two religious communities.
We broke bread together, celebrating the breaking of the daily fast for Muslims called Iftar during the holy month of Ramadan and the beginning of the Jewish Sabbath.
We were also helped by a unique program in Otisfield called Seeds of Peace. Every summer, since 1983, dozens of young Israelis and Arabs, including Palestinians, have come together for several weeks of dialogue and the Maine summer camp experience. The face-to-face discussions were difficult and often heated. But at the end of the season, young Israelis and Arabs created a bond that extended beyond the Maine woods. It was a bond formed for one purpose: to find peace and understanding between communities that knew neither.
Finally, we discussed the work of Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish, known as the “Martin Luther King Jr. of the Middle East.” Nominated several times for the Nobel Peace Prize, Dr. Abuelaish, born and raised in a refugee camp in Gaza and renowned for treating patients in hospitals in both Israel and Gaza, suffered the unspeakable tragedy of losing three of his daughters and a niece who were killed when an Israeli tank fired a shell directly into their home in 2009. But this extraordinary Palestinian proclaimed to the world that if Israelis and Palestinians could find peace then “let my daughters be the last to die. Let this tragedy open the eyes of the world … If I could know that my daughters were the last sacrifice on the road to peace between Palestinians and Israelis, then I would accept their loss.” That peace did not happen and is not happening.
Instead, Dr. Abuelaish, who now teaches at the University of Toronto’s School of Medicine, has had to endure further tragedy. Since the beginning of the Israeli-Hamas war, more than 20 members of his family have been killed in Gaza, yet he still believes in the possibility of peace if only a way to achieve it can be found.
After the death of his daughters and niece, Dr. Abuelaish created a foundation to honor their memories and their love of life and learning as well as their hopes and dreams for a better educated world.
The Daughters for Life Foundation believes that lasting peace in the Middle East depends on the empowerment of girls and young women through educational opportunities that are often denied them. In so doing, they will become agents of change for the betterment of life throughout the Middle East. To help fulfill this vision, the foundation has established partnerships with several institutions across North America and Europe, including several universities that will sponsor these young women in their educational journeys.
The University of Southern Maine is pleased to announce that on the evening of April 16 from 5-7.30 p.m. in Hannaford Hall on its Portland campus, Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish will appear in person to discuss his vision and hope for peace. He will be joined by USM President Jacqueline Edmonson, who will announce the formation of a partnership between USM and the Daughters for Life Foundation. The event is free and open to the public .
Perhaps peace will have a chance.
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