PROFILE
GAZA-BORN DOCTOR
SPREADS A MESSAGE OF HOPE By Lisa Evans
Palestinian-Canadian Izzeldin Abuelaish is an advocate for peace, despite the various tragedies he has encountered in his life, and strongly believes that education is the key to long-lasting peace in the Middle East and around the world.
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alestinian-Canadian Izzeldin Abuelaish is an advocate for peace, despite the various tragedies he has encountered in his life, and strongly believes that education is the key to long-lasting peace in the Middle East and around the world. Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish was the first Palestinian doctor to work in an Israeli hospital. Tragedy struck on January 16, 2009, when Abuelaish’s three daughters and niece were killed in his own home by an Israeli tank fire attack. While one would assume that such a devastating tragedy would cause a father to want to seek revenge on those who took the lives of his beloved daughters, Abuelaish turned his grief into hope and has become an advocate for peace and for the education of girls in the Middle East. Over the years, his message of peace and hope in response to the devasting loss of his children has earned him several humanitarian awards worldwide. He now resides in Toronto with his remaining five children, has authored a book called I Shall Not Hate, and is the founder of the Daughters for Life Foundation, a registered charity that creates accessible education opportunities for young women from the Middle East through strategic partnerships with academic institutions and empowers them to bring lasting change to their communities.
Life as a refugee
Abuelaish was born and raised in Jabalia Refugee Camp in the Gaza Strip. Life as a refugee was a constant struggle, but Abuelaish found hope in the camp. “In life, there are two types of disasters: natural disasters and man-made disasters,” he says. Abuelaish realized that the challenges he was facing were the latter, and he had the power to challenge them. He discovered that education was the only way to escape his circumstances. Abuelaish was educated in refugee camp schools and earned a scholarship to study medicine in Cairo, Egypt. He later received a diploma in obstetrics and gynecology from the University of London, UK. From 1997–2002, he
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CANADIAN IMMIGRANT Volume 17 Issue 5 | 2020
