Izzeldin Abuelaish () is a Canadian-Palestinian medical doctor and author. He was born in Gaza, and was a Palestinian doctor who worked in an Israeli hospital and has been active in promoting Israeli-Palestinian reconciliation. During the Gaza War in January 2009, his three daughters and niece were killed by Israeli tank fire directed at his home. He had been calling in reports about the effect of the war by phone to an Israeli TV station. In his regularly scheduled report, in tears, he described their killing on-air, in a video that was widely circulated in Israel and around the world. (English subtitles)
He moved to Canada, where he was recruited by the University of Toronto and wrote a 2011 memoir entitled I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor's Journey on the Road to Peace and Human Dignity. He now resides in Toronto, Canada, with his remaining children.
Life and career Abuelaish was born and raised in the Jabalia refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. He received his elementary, preparatory and secondary education in the refugee camp schools. Abuelaish received a scholarship to study medicine in Egypt. After completing medical studies at Cairo University in 1983, he earned a diploma in Obstetrics and Gynaecology from the University of London.
From 1997 to 2002, he completed a residency in OB/Gyn at the Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba, Israel, followed by a subspecialty in fetal medicine in Italy and Belgium, then a master's degree in Public Health (Health Policy and Management) from Harvard University.
Abuelaish was the first Palestinian doctor to receive a staff position at an Israeli hospital, where he treated both Israeli and Palestinian patients. He worked as a physician in the Gaza Strip and also worked in Israel at Soroka Medical Center and Sheba Medical Center. After the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip in 2007, he was one of the few Gazans to continue entering Israel regularly. He lived in a multi-story building in Jabalia that he and his brother had built.
In 2008, his wife died of leukemia, and he was left to raise their eight children.
Immediately before the 2008–2009 Gaza War between Palestinian paramilitary groups and the Israeli military, he was a senior researcher at the Sheba Hospital in Tel Aviv and already an important figure in Israeli-Palestinian relations. His daughters had attended a peace camp with Israeli children in the United States.Tomorrow's Women
During the three-week war, Abuelaish gave reports and interviews to the Israeli media on the situation in Gaza. On January 16, 2009, a few days before the end of the war, an Israeli tank fired two shells at his home, killing three of his daughters and a niece. An Israeli military investigation of the incident claimed that fire had been directed at his house after ″figures″ spotted on the roof of the building had been suspected of being observers directing sniper fire against Israeli troops. There was no reason to bombard the house and kill three innocent daughters and niece. The incident occurred as he had been corresponding live with Channel 10 reporter Shlomi Eldar, and his reaction to learning of the deaths of his daughters was broadcast live to Israeli audiences.
The killing of his daughters strengthened his resolve to promote truth, justice and reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians.
He founded the Daughters for Life Foundation in memory of his three daughters who were killed. The organization provides scholarship awards to encourage young women from the Middle east and North Africa including Palestine, Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and Syria to pursue their studies at universities in Canada, the United States and Belgium. The foundation aims to invest in the potential for young women's leadership and to foster their success.
In 2011 he was associate professor of Global Health at the University of Toronto.Izzeldin Abuelaish MD, MPH, Faculty Profile. University of Toronto – Dalla Lana School of Public Health. Retrieved on 2011-01-18
And in 2019 was promoted to Full Pressor of Clinical Public health and Global health.
Abuelaish wrote a 2011 memoir entitled I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor's Journey on the Road to Peace and Human Dignity. The book has been translated into 23 languages and been national and international bestseller.
In February 2013, he attended the Karachi Literature Festival in Pakistan where he narrated the events surrounding the death of his daughters killed in the Israeli airstrike. According to The Express Tribune, "there was hardly anyone in the audience who did not choke or wipe away a silent tear while listening to Palestinian doctor and author Izzeldin Abuelaish..." Abuelaish described the event of his daughters' deaths as follows:
He became a Canadian citizen in 2015. In 2024, French director Tal Barda adapted Abuelaish's 2011 book into the documentary film I Shall Not Hate.Olivier Du Ruisseau, "«I Shall Not Hate»: épopée politique au Festival de cinéma de la ville de Québec". Le Devoir, September 11, 2024.
Honours and awards
2009: Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought finalist 2009: Stavros Niarchos Prize for SurvivorshipNiarchos. WorldNews. Retrieved on 2011-01-18 2009: Search for Common Ground Award of Search for Common Ground"The Common Ground Awards 2009". Search for Common Ground. Retrieved on 2011-01-18 2009: Middle East Institute Award of the Middle East Institute2009 Annual Conference Banquet Award Acceptance. Middle East Institute. Retrieved on 2011-01-18 2009, 2010, 2011, 2016: Nobel Peace Prize nominee 2009: Nominee, Sakharov Human Rights Prize10 nominees for 2009 Sakharov human rights prize. European Parliament. Retrieved on 2011-01-18 2009 & 2010: Named one of the 500 Most Influential Muslims Since 2009 until now by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre 2010: Uncommon Courage Award; Queens College Center for Ethnic, Racial and Religious Understanding 2010: Mahatma Gandhi Peace Award of Canada, Mahatma Gandhi Centre of Canada 2011: Lombardy Region Peace Prize 2012: Calgary Peace Prize, Calgary Centre for Global Community and Consortium for Peace Studies at the University of Calgary 2012: Dr. Jean Mayer Global Citizenship Award 2012: Middle Eastern Monitor Magazine Book Prize (London, UK) 2012: Walter Reuther Social Justice Award 2013: One of the 500 Most Powerful Arabs in the World 2013: Member of the Order of Ontario, awarded by the Province of Ontario 2013: Top 25 Canadian Immigrant Award winner 2014: Winner in the internationally reputed category of the Public Peace Prize 2015: Medicine and Health as a Catalyst to Peace 2015: Award of Excellence for Promotion of Human Rights and Peace 2015: Personality of the Year in Palestine 2016: Living Legend Award, Human Symphony Foundation (Washington, DC) 2016: Governor General Medallion 2017: Meritorious Service Cross, gifted by the Canadian monarch, his or her Governor-in-Council 2018: Max Mark Cranbrook Global Peacemaker, Wayne State University, Center for Peace and Conflict Studies. Eric Montgomery, Fred Pearson
Honorary degrees and citizenships
2011: Honorary Doctor of Laws, Queen's University 2011: Honorary Doctor of Laws, University of Manitoba 2012: Honorary Doctor of Laws, University of Western Ontario 2012: Honorary Citizenship from the Government of Buenos Aires, Argentina 2013: Honorary Doctor of Letters, Victoria College, University of Toronto 2014: Honorary Doctor of Laws, McMaster University 2014: Honorary Doctor of Laws, University of Saskatchewan 2014: Honorary Diploma in Peace and Conflict Studies, Sault College 2015: Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, New College of Florida 2015: Honorary Doctor of Laws, York University 2015: Honorary Doctor of Laws, University of Calgary 2016 Honorary doctorate of Laws Brock University 2016: Honorary Doctor of Science, Simon Fraser University 2016: Honorary Doctor of Laws, Brock University 2016: Honorary Doctor of Laws, University of Windsor 2016: Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, Saint Joseph's College of Maine 2021: Honorary Doctorate of Law; Doctorate Honoris Causa University of Antwerp, Belgium 2022: Honorary Doctorate of Laws Wilfrid Laurier University 2023: Honorary Doctor of Laws, Toronto Metropolitan University 2024: Honorary Doctor of Laws, University of British Columbia
Works
References
External links Izzeldin Abuelaish Two Years After Israeli Attack that Killed 3 Daughters & Niece – video report by Democracy Now!, January 19, 2011 Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish – I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor's Journey on the Path to Peace and Human Dignity, book tour presentation at Powell's Books in Portland, Oregon, January 18, 2011.