Faces of Israel: Dr. Aziz Darawsha

Dr.Aziz Darawsha has been appointed as the new head of the Hadassah Hospital Emergency Medicine Department in Israel. He will be replacing Dr. Yaacov Assaf, who is retiring after 18 years of service. Dr. Darawsha was born in an Arab village near Nazareth and is the oldest of eleven children. His father was a farmer who had completed four years of elementary school. His mother never learned to read or write. Three of his siblings are also doctors.

Dr. Darawsha has a masters degree from Ben -Gurion University of the Negev in health management systems. He studied medicine at the University of Sofia in Bulgaria, and specializes in cardiology, internal medicine and emergency medicine. Since 2010, Dr. Darawsha has been the chairman of the Israel Society for Urgent Medicine and has been an honorary member of the American College of Emergency Physicians since 2011. He has published more than 20 articles on emergency medicine in leading international medical journals

Previously, Dr. Darawsha has served as Chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine at the Emek Medical Center in Afula in Northern Israel.

Dr. Darawsha has four sons. One is a graduate of Hadassah’s medical school and is currently doing a fellowship in neurosurgery.

                  Faces Of Israel: Diversity. Democracy. Innovation.

Faces of Israel: Meet our new Miss Israel, Yityish Aynaw

Yityish (Titi) Aynaw is Miss Israel 2013 and will represent Israel at the November Miss Universe Pageant. Israel is very proud of this poised young woman who has overcome tremendous adversity.

Aynaw was born in Chahawit, a small village in northern Ethiopia, near the city of Gondar. Orphaned at age 12, she arrived in Israel with her brother to live with their Ethiopian Jewish grandparents. Like the estimated 125,000 Ethiopian Jews who have come to Israel, Aynaw struggled to assimilate into her new environment.

As Titi stated during an interview with the BBC, "I was raised by my grandmother. Nothing was handed to me on a plate. I had to work very hard and long to achieve things in my life. I felt a responsibility to prove myself in everything I did and to improve myself as well."

She became student council president, excelled in track and field, and won first place in a national student film competition. After graduation, she joined the army, and became responsible for training 90 soldiers, teaching them how to fire a weapon, perform security checks, and to detect bombs.

In less than a decade, Yityish Aynaw went from a orphan in Ethiopia to having dinner with the president of the United States. She is a true Israeli success story.
                                  

Faces Of Israel. Diversity. Democracy. Innovation.                          

Faces of Israel: Mais Ali-Saleh is the Valedictorian of Israel's Technion

 Mais Ali-Saleh, an Israeli Arab has graduated first in her class at Israel's renowned Technion. Why yes, the apartheid state is full of surprises.   

From the Huffington Post:

Guess who graduated first in this year's medical school class at the Technion, Israel's version of M.I.T.? The answer will surprise you. It's a 27-year-old stereotype-buster: a charming, feminist, smart, open-minded and observant Islamic woman named Mais Ali-Saleh who grew up in a small village outside of Nazareth, in Israel's Galilee.

Ali-Selah's academic excellence not only marks her own personal achievement but also proves that contrary to propaganda spouted by proponents of the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) Movement -- whose latest convert is Stephen Hawking -- an academic boycott of Israel is the wrong approach to solving the Israel-Arab conflict. Moreover, it ultimately hurts the very people it claims to help. Ali-Selah put it best when she said, "An academic boycott of Israel is a passive move, and it doesn't achieve any of its purported objectives." On trips to Europe, Ali-Selah said that people she met were surprised to learn that Israeli Arabs studied engineering and medicine in Israel, and that they lived among Jews. This lack of awareness helps the BDS Movement win misguided supporters. Boycotters like Roger Waters repeat a falsehood -- that Israel is an apartheid state -- and deny a fundamental truth: Arabs, in particular Arab women, have more freedom, liberties and academic opportunities in Israel than in any Arab country. Yes, they do.

 Rather than an academic boycott -- which targets researchers who want to disseminate knowledge rather than restrict it -- Ali-Selah suggests a more active stance: encouraging academic life within the Palestinian Authority and strengthening academic ties with Palestinian universities, planning joint research projects with Palestinian scientists, and admitting more Palestinian scholars to European and American universities for academic programs.

 Ali-Selah said that because she did medical research, the boycott did not negatively impact her work, but sooner or later, she said that it will impinge upon academic researchers she knows, both Jews and Arabs. That's why Stephen Hawking and others interested in advancing the cause of peace in the Middle East should focus their energies on supporting more of Israel's success stories like Mais Ali-Selah's, and pressuring Arab countries to emulate Israel's academic freedoms and democracy.

Is Mais exceptional? Absolutely,  but not in "that way".  Last year’s Valedictorian was Arza Haddad, a Christian woman whose Lebanese family found refuge in Israel.  Arza’s degree was in aeronautical engineering, working with a team developing ramjets.
                       Faces of Israel:  Diversity. Democracy.  Innovation.

Faces of Israel: Bedouin officers in the IDF

From the Israel Defense Forces (IDF ) Blog:

Meet the Bedouin Soldier Who Enlisted in the IDF Against His Father’s Wishes

When Ibrahim graduated high school with honors, his father urged him to forgo on the army draft and direct his potential towards academic studies. When he enlisted regardless, his father banished him from the house. Now, upon completion of his officer’s course, Ibrahim describes the pride he holds for his country, the obligation he felt to enlist in the IDF, and the friends he met on his way to completing his dream of serving in the IDF.

In Ibrahim's home village of Bu'eine Nujeidat in northern Israel, military enlistment is routine. Most of the youth are recruited for full army service at age 18, with IDF officers often coming to speak with high school students in the village about contributing to the army in a significant way. Military uniforms hanging to dry on clothes lines outside apartment patios is not an unusual sight for the village’s residents. Israeli law, however, does not require them to enlist.

Ibrahim was impacted by the presence of IDF soldiers coming to his school every year, and their discussions about the purpose of the army and the importance of enlisting.

So, he decided to join. “When I graduated from high school in 2006, I was all set to join the army,” Ibrahim said, indicating that his recruitment date was set for the summer of 2006 -  the same summer during which northern Israel was under heavy rocket attack. Those attacks eventually lead to the Second Lebanon War.

His father, however, constantly delayed his enlistment. "My father did not want me to join the army," Ibrahim said. "I had excellent grades. He wanted me to go learn and find a profession. He said having an education was preferable to being in the military. He had no idea what people do in the army, thinking the army is only about war and that’s all.”

 

 Ibrahim joined the IDF against his family's wishes, and they cut off contact with him. But before long, his drive and commitment to his country won them over:

 Following weeks of no contact with his family, Ibrahim returned to the place where he grew up and sat down with his father. Ibrahim discussed the long and difficult conversation he had with his father: "He asked, 'Why did you do that to me? What was missing in your life? Why did you leave school six months before graduating?'" Ibrahim recalled. “I told him I was an adult and that I stand by my decision. I am an independent person and I want to determine my own future. Eventually, he accepted it."

After talking with his father and reconciling with his family, Ibrahim  returned to base with renewed determination. "After three months I joined the commander’s course. He [my father] was happy about that,” Ibrahim said with pride. “He came to my ceremony.”

Eight months later, Ibrahim successfully completed his officer’s course. Ibrahim's family attended the graduation ceremony, which was held last month.

As for his future plans, Ibrahim insists that, for now, his life is in the army. "I’d like to stay until I become company commander. I want to contribute to this country. I am a part of this country. Everyone serves in the IDF, and there is no reason that I would not do the same.”

                    Faces of Israel.  Diversity. Democracy. Innovation