A Doctor in Galilee
The Life and Struggle of a Palestinian in Israel
Hatim Kanaaneh is a Palestinian doctor who has struggled for over 35 years to bring medical care to Palestinians in Galilee, against a culture of anti-Arab discrimination. This is the story of how he fought for the human rights of his patients and overcame the Israeli authorities' cruel indifference to their suffering.
Kanaaneh is a native of Galilee, born before the creation of Israel. He left to study medicine at Harvard, before returning to work as a public health physician with the intention of helping his own people. He discovered a shocking level of disease and malnutrition in his community and a shameful lack of support from the Israeli authorities. After doing all he could for his patients by working from inside the system, Kanaaneh set up The Galilee Society, an NGO working for equitable health, environmental and socio-economic conditions for Palestinian Arabs in Israel.
This is a brilliant memoir that shows how grass roots organisations can loosen the Zionist grip upon Palestinian lives.
Kanaaneh is a native of Galilee, born before the creation of Israel. He left to study medicine at Harvard, before returning to work as a public health physician with the intention of helping his own people. He discovered a shocking level of disease and malnutrition in his community and a shameful lack of support from the Israeli authorities. After doing all he could for his patients by working from inside the system, Kanaaneh set up The Galilee Society, an NGO working for equitable health, environmental and socio-economic conditions for Palestinian Arabs in Israel.
This is a brilliant memoir that shows how grass roots organisations can loosen the Zionist grip upon Palestinian lives.
Dr Hatim Kanaaneh completed his medical and public health degrees at Harvard in 1970. He then returned to Galilee where, in 1973, he became the Public Health Doctor of the sub-district of Acre. He is the founder of the NGO, the Galilee Society (The Arab National Society for Health Research and Services) and author of A Doctor in Galilee (Pluto, 2008).
'Scarcely any personal narratives of the lives of Israel's Arab minority exist. Kanaaneh's fascinating exposure of this little known subject is written with passion and authority' - Dr Ghada Karmi
'A moving account of the plight of the Palestinians by one of them' - Desmond M. Tutu, Archbishop Emeritu
'Blends the personal with the political, the past with the present and the emotional commitment with the rational analysis. It is a fascinating first hand account from the perspective of a Palestinian who defeats the imposed partition of the land and the fragmentation of its people: he belongs to Palestine on both sides ... both a native of the land and a refugee in it' - Ilan Pappe
'Sheds a unique light on the lives of ... Palestinians in a beautifully readable and engrossing memoir. His account of the rank racial discrimination, difficult social circumstances and pervasive poverty of most Palestinians in the Jewish state is leavened by Kanaaneh's humour and his eye for striking detail. This is a truly touching book that is hard to put down' - Rashid Khalidi
'Kanaaneh succeeds brilliantly in bringing to light his community, and 'the wall of seclusion and concealment' behind which Israel hasisolated its Palestinian citizens' - Emma Williams, The Lancet
1. Cat and Mouse
2. A Second Homecoming
3. Legends of the Diwan
4. Present Absentees
5. My First Shaheed
6. Lost in the System
7. The Evil Eye
8. Galilee Folkways
9 . Galilee Panoramas
10. Genocide, Here and There
11. Out of the Closet
12. Tribal Politics
13. Tales from Area Nine
14. Donkeys with Neckties
15. Different Resistance
16. Suffering the Lashes
17. Agonies of War
18. In the Shin Bet's Sights
19. Reaping the Whirlwind
20. Deja Vu
21. A Little Piece of Palestine
Notes
Index
2. A Second Homecoming
3. Legends of the Diwan
4. Present Absentees
5. My First Shaheed
6. Lost in the System
7. The Evil Eye
8. Galilee Folkways
9 . Galilee Panoramas
10. Genocide, Here and There
11. Out of the Closet
12. Tribal Politics
13. Tales from Area Nine
14. Donkeys with Neckties
15. Different Resistance
16. Suffering the Lashes
17. Agonies of War
18. In the Shin Bet's Sights
19. Reaping the Whirlwind
20. Deja Vu
21. A Little Piece of Palestine
Notes
Index
Published by Pluto Press in Jun 2008
Paperback ISBN: 9780745327860
150mm x 230mm