Dr Hassam Idris Abu Safiya,
paediatrician and neonatologist,
Director of Kamal Adnan Hospital,
Beit Lahia, Gaza, was kidnapped.
He was summoned by loud hailer. Someone –
a colleague perhaps – photographed him,
in his white coat, walking carefully
and decisively through rubble
towards an IDF Merkava tank.
Since then he has been imprisoned without charge;
savagely beaten; malnourished; denied
medication; and a change of clothes.
***
Will history judge these times as a
categorically defining moment?
The dichotomy, disjunction seems clear:
are you for humanity or hatred?
There are those who care, and those who do not;
those who try do something, anything,
to make a difference; and those who
trim, lie, exult. The Talmud tells us –
and the Koran echoes the sentiment –
‘Who saves one life saves all’.
By David Selzer