Building Bridges...

Chelsea soccer coach as unofficial peace envoy The Peres Centre for Peace saw Chelsea coach Jose Mourinho and Brazilian football star Ronaldo work for the Soccer Schools project to bring Israeli and Palestinian children from poor backgrounds to play football together

Schneider Children's Medical Center of Israel, also affectionately known as Schneider Children's, is the only comprehensive, highly specialized care hospital of its kind in the country and in the Middle East, dedicated exclusively to the well-being of all children and adolescents.
Schneider Children's also receives patients from the Palestinian Authority and Jordan, and from as far away as Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe, thus fulfilling its mandate to serve as a “bridge to peace” in the region. Since its establishment in 1991, Schneider Children's has become recognized as an institution of medical and academic excellence.

Israel's medical support for Palestinian society
Israel is accused…. but “the opposite is true”
Theo Dov Golan, a former Director-General of Israel’s Ministry of Health, and formerly Head of the Israeli Army Medical Corps.

Israel is constantly accused of misconduct and even ‘barbarian’ and ‘racist’ behaviour towards its Palestinian neighbours, especially at the United Nations where a disproportionate amount of time and energy of the world body is taken up on passing resolutions against Israel.
At my recent presentation to the United Nations Correspondents’ Association, one of the journalists addressed the so-called ‘barbaric treatment of the Palestinians by Israel’ which he was convinced was the whole story. When I explained that events in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict resulted from Israel’s being forced to protect its citizens from Palestinian terror, he exclaimed emotionally: “You Israelis, you Jews who have suffered so much in the past – from you the world expects a more humane response”.

As a physician, I unequivocally can give proof that the opposite is true. Israel has set an example of a level of humanitarian medical aid to others including Palestinians, which no other nation can compete with. cont'd..

Replacing a border with a bridge

An ambitious project in which Israel and Jordan will establish a joint advanced science and technology village on their mutual borders will be launched this week.

On Tuesday, on the border between Jordan and Israel in the Wadi Arava Desert between the Red Sea and the Dead Sea, the cornerstone will be laid for the Bridging the Rift Center. A private international foundation, Bridging the Rift, headed by Israeli Matti Kochavi - will develop the center. The project is backed by two major U.S. universities, Cornell and Stanford, as well as Israeli and Jordanian business people and former Israeli military officials.

According to the organizers, the goal is work on joint scientific projects and achieving rapprochement between the peoples. The Foundation's mission is to "build an effective bridge between peoples in conflict areas by demonstrating the benefits of peace in measurable sustainable ways and collaborative programs involving economic development, cutting-edge research and advanced educational opportunities."

Each of the countries gave up 72 acres of its territory for the purpose of building the center, and after its establishment it will constitute a kind of ex-territorial island, which will occupy an area of 144 acres. When construction is completed in three to five years, the small piece of desert will be transformed into a thriving science and technology village dedicated to studying the unique ecology of the Dead Sea region. The high-tech center will symbolically straddle the border so that half of the facility is in Israel and half is in Jordan.

(source Israel21c)

Israeli Palestinian Cooperation

Joint Palestinian – Israeli Statement on Tourism Signed
29/11/2004
At a joint press conference on November 24, 2004 in Jerusalem, Israeli Minister of Tourism Gideon Ezra and Palestinian Minister of Tourism and Antiquities Mitri Abu Aita signed a joint statement pledging to cooperate to promote tourism to the area:

Transforming the common image – Israeli and Palestinian health care and cooperation by Jeanine Hirschhorn
The pictures of Israel commonly shown by the media show attacks by Palestinian suicide bombers, stone-throwing youths and Israeli military incursions into West Bank and Gaza towns. Other pictures exist.

7,000 Israel Arab and Jewish children, came to Tel Aviv's Bloomfield Stadium. ...part of a new campaign sponsored by the New Israel Fund to promote co-existence and mutual respect in Israel.

Cooperation between Israel and the Palestinian Authority through MASHAV,
the Israel Foreign Ministry's Center for International Cooperation
prior to the current Palestinian uprising, the Intifada

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