One boy and six lives

Jenin is one of the most hotly contested areas in Palestine. Jenin City and its adjacent refugee camp are filled with descendants of refugees expelled from Israel during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. In a long history of tension, the last few years have been filled with violence.

On November 3, while celebrating Eid, one of the holiest days in the Muslim calendar, Ahmed Ismail Khatib, a 12-year-old Palestinian boy was shot by Israeli soldiers in Jenin. Ahmed and his friends were playing with toy rifles and were mistaken for militants.

The soldiers, realizing their mistake, called for Ahmed to be rushed to a nearby hospital in Haifa, Israel. Ahmed lay in hospital for two days, and on November 5, he died.

Instead of reacting to his death with anger and grief, Ahmed's parents responded with love. Ismail and Ablah Khatib decided to donate his organs to Israelis.

Ahmed's heart now rests in the body of a 12-year-old girl, his lungs are breathing for a 14-year-old girl with cystic fibrosis, his kidneys now belong to a 4-year-old girl and 5-year-old boy and his liver to a 7-month-old girl and 58-year-old woman.

All together, Ahmed saved 6 lives with his death. "I feel that my son has entered the heart of every Israeli." Ahmed's father, Khatib, told an Associated Press reporter.

Israel suffers from a shortage of organs. According to Science and Theology News, the consent rate for donation is about 45 percent. Jewish religious law prohibits the desecration of a dead body and requires that all body parts be buried. Organs for Israeli patients often come from Cypress, which has an exchange agreement with Israel—donated organs for trained surgeons. Israel also offers a financial incentive to families for donated organs. However, Ahmed's family was told about this incentive after they made the decision to donate his organs.

"It was to give a symbol of peace so that people could live together," Khatib explained to a BBC reporter. "Everyone knows that the olive branch is a symbol of peace, so instead of an olive branch, I have sewn the seeds of my son's organs inside the children of Israelis.

"We're talking about young children. Their religion doesn't make a difference," he said.

Khatib and his wife were invited to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, according to Palestine's Ma'an news agency. Khatib responded positively when he said, "If this would serve the Palestinian problem and advance a just peace, I will meet with Sharon and bring him a message of peace." There is no news yet when this may take place.

This is not the first time organ donation has been used as a bridge for peace between Jews and Arabs. In 2002, the family of Yoni Jesner, a 19 year-old who died in a bus bombing in Tel Aviv donated his organs. One of his kidneys was transplanted into an Arab girl from Jerusalem.

The holiest of all spots on earth is where an ancient hatred has become a present love, the book, A Course in Miracles, stated. Maybe this part of the world will truly become the Holy Land.