I Shall Not Hate
A Gaza Doctor's Journey on the Road to Peace and Human Dignity
64 of 64 copies available
By turns inspiring and heartbreaking, hopeful and horrifying, I Shall Not Hate is Abuelaish's account of an extraordinary life. A Palestinian doctor with a degree from Harvard who was born and raised in a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip and "who has devoted his life to medicine and reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians" (The New York Times), Abuelaish has been crossing the lines in the sand that divide Israelis and Palestinians for most of his life—as a physician who treats patients on both sides of the line; as a humanitarian who sees the need for improved health and education for women as the way forward in the Middle East; and, most recently, as the father whose daughters were killed by Israeli soldiers. His response to this tragedy made news and won him humanitarian awards around the world. Instead of seeking revenge or sinking into hatred, Abuelaish called for the people in the region to start talking to each other. His deepest hope is that his daughters will be "the last sacrifice on the road to peace between Palestinians and Israelis."
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
January 19, 2011 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9781452620428
- File size: 235268 KB
- Duration: 08:10:08
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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This powerful firsthand account of grief, loss, and forgiveness is set against one of the longest running conflicts of modern times: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The author weaves his own coming-of-age against the history of two peoples in conflict. The message is, surprisingly, one of peace and calling individuals to consider the good in one another in place of broad, mostly negative stereotypes. For the most part, narrator Patrick Lawlor's tone is warm and engaging, which is exactly the effect the reader needs for this harrowing journey. However, he sometimes stumbles on the pronunciation of common Arab names. Also, the slight change in accent and tone he affects to take on the persona of one of the Palestinians can be slightly off-putting as it's a major change from the regular narrative voice he uses throughout. M.R. (c) AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine -
Starred review from October 25, 2010
Born in a refugee camp in 1955, Palestinian physician Abuelaish suffers a catastrophic loss when three of his daughters are killed in their home by Israeli fire in 2009. An Israeli television journalist's live broadcast of his call for help captures Israeli public and world press attention. "Most of the world has heard of the Gaza Strip," as Abuelaish says, "ut few know what it's like to live here, blockaded, impoverished, year after year, decade after decade." Abuelaish portrays everyday life in Gaza and tells the remarkable story of how he came to be "the first Palestinian doctor to be on staff at an Israeli hospital." The "tortured politics of Palestine, Israel, and the Middle East" are rendered graphic by his personal accounts of "the humiliation, the fear, the physical difficulty" of border checkpoints and bulldozed homes. Abuelaish tells of the "satisfying, even wonderful" moments, "the good chapter of a bad story," as well; an infertility specialist, he is as "thoroughly smitten" with his research as he is appalled that "Gaza hospitals are rundown and can't be repaired because of an embargo is preposterous." Abuelaish knows anger, but in this impassioned, committed attempt to show the reader life on the sliver of land that is Gaza, he demonstrates that "nger is not the same as hate."
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