Description
Heart-breaking, hopeful and horrifying, I Shall Not Hate is a Palestinian doctor's inspiring account of his extraordinary life, growing up in poverty but determined to treat his patients in Gaza and Israel regardless of their ethnic origin.
Izzeldin Abuelaish is a Palestinian doctor and infertility specialist who was born and raised in the Jabalia refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. He received a scholarship to study medicine in Cairo and earned a diploma from the Institute of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of London. He completed a residency at Soroka Hospital in Israel, undertook a subspecialty in fetal medicine in Italy and Belgium, and completed a master’s in public health at Harvard University.
He lives in Gaza but worked in Israel and has spent most of his life crossing the lines that divide Israelis and Palestinians — treating patients on both sides and advocating for improved health and education for women as a way forward in the Middle East.
On 16 January 2009, during Israel's incursion into the Gaza Strip, three of his daughters were killed by Israeli shells. Instead of seeking revenge or sinking into hatred, Abuelaish called for 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'.
Before his daughters were killed, Dr Abuelaish worked as a researcher at the Gerner Institute at Sheba Hospital in Tel Aviv. He now lives with his family in Toronto, where he is an associate professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto.
Endorsements
'who has devoted his life to medicine and reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians' — New York Times