Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, November 2002, pages 96-97

Human Rights

PCRF Brings Falastin to Washington, Hope to Palestine

Falastin needed someone to fix her heart. The Palestinian infant, named affectionately after her homeland, suffered from a condition called Atrial Septal Defect, which left her with a 2-centimeter-hole in the wall separating the left and right chambers of her heart. As a result Falastin’s heart and lungs had to work twice as hard to move blood and oxygen, which made it difficult for the little girl to breathe. The diagnosis handed to Falastin’s family in their West Bank village of Khirbat Musbah was that Falastin would need to undergo risky open-heart surgery to repair the defect.

Unfortunately, like so many West Bank families, the Alis could not afford the travel and medical costs such an operation would entail. Fortunately, however, the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF) could. Established in 1991 to provide free medical care in the U.S. for children who cannot be adequately treated in the Middle East, the PCRF has sent more than 130 children to the U.S. alone, providing treatment for conditions ranging from orthopedic surgery to rebuilding a child’s lost eye.

According to PCRF President and CEO Steve Sosebee, the group relies on a worldwide network of volunteers who “ open their homes to host children, pick them up from the airport or donate money and clothing to ensure that they are well taken care of.” Numerous top surgeons, doctors and nurses also have offered their services free of charge and thus saved the lives of many children.

What makes the PCRF unique is that it is a non-political, non-profit, purely humanitarian organization. The point, as Sosebee explains it, is not to promote a pro-Arab political agenda—the point is to help kids who need help. While the PCRF doesn’t discriminate when deciding whose medical needs are most urgent, however, the same sadly cannot be said of the Israeli government, whose policy of arbitrarily denying Palestinians passage through military checkpoints in the occupied territories nearly cost Falastin her life.

The Ali family’s journey from just outside Ramallah to the United States via Amman, Jordan, was harrowing, to say the least. As PCRF volunteer Rania Awwad noted, “the story of their journey here tells the entire story of Palestinian suffering today.”

Leaving their home 10 days prior to their scheduled departure from Amman, the family was forced to wait in line for eight days before being allowed to leave the West Bank. Conditions at the checkpoint—including oppressive heat, complete lack of shelter, and only the sparse food and water offered by roadside vendors—posed a serious threat to Falastin’s already wavering health. “Pleading with the [Israeli] authorities that this was an emergency situation,” said Awwad, “was no more useful than talking to a wall.”

When Falastin and her mother finally arrived in Washington, DC on Aug. 10, doctors discovered that the hole in her heart was small enough to seal with a catheter-inflated balloon. No open-heart surgery meant no serious complications, scarring, or long recovery. Falastin’s surgery went exceptionally well, and the very next day the once-grouchy two-year-old little girl was bouncing around the lobby of DC’s Ronald McDonald House, crunching M&Ms and cheerfully smashing this reporter’s gift of a stuffed toy against the wall. Falastin and her mother are back in the West Bank now, where the political and humanitarian situation is steadily deteriorating. Thanks to the PCRF’s tireless efforts, however, at least one little part of Palestine is whole again.

To learn more about the PCRF and how to help, call (330) 678-2645, e-mail <pcrf@pcrf.net>, or visit <www.pcrf.net>.

—Nizar Wattad

Jesse Jackson Leads New Civil Rights March

Freedom Plaza in downtown Washington, DC was the gathering place for a Sept. 13 civil rights march led by the Rev. Jesse Jackson and his Rainbow/PUSH coalition. Representatives from the AFL-CIO, NAACP, SEIU, ACLU, NOW, AAI, The Sierra Club, People for the American Way, League of United Latin American Citizens, the Washington Peace Center, the Progressive Jewish Alliance, and others joined the rally of about 1,000. In preparation for the march, Jackson said, “We will have our voices heard on Sept. 13 in Washington, DC and we will have all our votes counted on Tuesday, Nov. 5.”

Before marching to the Justice Department, where the demonstrators posted the rights of the people in a democracy, a rally provided Jackson a forum to call for civil rights for women, workers and students here at home. Americans wanted “to stop terror, not to spread it,” he said, and the U.S. should “lead the world, not rule it.” Receiving a nominal amount of media coverage by the mainstream press, Jackson addressed journalists directly, telling them “we have a right to be heard.” The message his and others’ voices were sending to the media and to the government was that significant portions of the American public want “negotiation over confrontation,” and “minds over missiles.” We hope they are listening.

—Sara Powell