22.05.2018
Archbishop of Dublin Calls for Support for Appeal for Al Ahli Hospital in Gaza
Archbishop Michael Jackson has urged support for an appeal for funds for Al Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City which is run by our partner diocese of Jerusalem. The hospital provides treatment for all people of Gaza without discrimination on religious, gender, social or political grounds. The hospital and its staff are under extreme pressure at this time of unrest.
This article appeared on the Anglican Communion News Service today:
The Anglican Diocese in Jerusalem has launched an emergency appeal for funds to support its al–Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City. The Anglican–run hospital has been overwhelmed by the number of casualties sustained during protests across the Gaza strip this month.
“Our Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza had been literally working around the clock to serve the wounded from the escalating violence in the Gaza Strip ever since the United States formally opened its Embassy in Jerusalem on 14 May 14,” Archbishop Suheil Dawani, the Anglican Archbishop in Jerusalem and Primate of the Anglican Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East, said. “The wounded coming to our hospital have no money, but no one is ever turned away. Most of the men, women, and children who are treated at [the hospital] have been injured from live ammunition, rubber bullets and tear gas intoxication.
“I appeal to all our friends around the world to give generously to this humanitarian crisis, as we, the Church, the hands of Jesus in this place, respond to this tragedy in love and compassion to the wounded.”
According to the World Health Organisation, some 2,768 people were injured; 1,357 of them with suffered gunshot wounds, so the immediate need is great.
Speaking to the Anglican Alliance, which is helping to co–ordinate the global response to the emergency appeal, the hospital’s director, Suhaila Tarazi, described the situation as “critical”. She said that “the death toll in Gaza continues to rise” and said that the hospital needs “to obtain emergency medicine, medical supplies, and fuel for generators. Ahli needs to support doctors and nurses who are working non–stop to meet the crushing flow of the injured and traumatized.”
She said that the hospital, as a humanitarian organisation of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, “adopts a rights based approach and provides healthcare to the needy without discrimination of faith, gender, social class or political affiliation.”
The Anglican Alliance urged people to “keep the people of Gaza, those affected by the violence, and the staff of al–Ahli Arab Hospital in your prayers at this time, and pray for peace, with justice, in the Holy Land.”
- The Anglican Alliance website has more information about the appeal and ways you can support it, either directly through the Diocese of Jerusalem or through national and regional Anglican agencies, including the US–based Episcopal Relief & Development, the Australian Anglican Board of Mission and Anglican Overseas Aid, the Canadian Primates World Relief and Development Fund, the American Friends of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, and the UK–vased Church Mission Society.