On the road from Nablus to Haifa, there are many junctions. Junctions that collide opposing views on a complex political reality. Junctions of different cultures, beliefs and perspectives. Junctions of “us” and of “them”.
On the road from Nablus to Haifa, Dr Moaman Haraz, a trainee doctor from the Palestinian Authority, has travelled regularly for over a year. On his way to work at the Rambam Health Care Campus, Dr Haraz passes through all these junctions. “When I’m here, people ask me about there. When I’m there, they ask about here. I’m stuck in the middle,” says Dr Haraz, adding, “The people around me are intelligent; they understand the reality as it is.”
Dr Haraz, 32, married and father of a three-year old boy and a one and a half year old girl, lives in Tubas, a city in the eastern Shomron, located between Nablus and Jenin. He arrived to Rambam in September 2008, after applying for his training at the hospital through the Peres Center for Peace, an independent Israeli organization that acts to advance peace in the Middle East according to the vision of Shimon Peres, the president of Israel. “People in the hospital where I worked encouraged me to apply. I did, and along with other chosen trainees, met for an interview with Prof Michael Soudry, chairman of the orthopedic division and director of Orthopedics Department “A” at Rambam, and Prof Lael-Anson Best, the chief of the hospital’s Division of Surgery and head of its Department of Thoracic Surgery,” says Dr Haraz. “Shortly after that I was accepted and began working at Rambam immediately.”
Before working at Rambam, Dr Haraz was largely acquainted with the Israeli reality through the media: “I wasn’t exposed to what goes on here,” he recalls. “I knew what I knew, but not from personal experience. I didn’t even speak Hebrew.”
At Ulpan Akiva in Netanya, Dr Haraz studied Hebrew for almost two months. In tackling a new language, he drew upon his experience as a medical student in Russia. When he got to Rambam, though, he still had difficulties. Unwavering -- and unembarrassed – Dr Haraz asked questions whenever he didn’t understand a word or idea. “I carried a notebook and wrote down everything,” he says. “The medical team here accepted me as a complete equal, and helped me all the time. With my patients, I communicate with the hotchpotch of languages I speak: Arabic, Russian, English and Hebrew.”
For Dr Haraz, being a doctor was a childhood dream. “Opposite the house where I grew up was a sick fund clinic,” he recounts. “I would always look out my window at the lines of people waiting to see the doctor, and would try to imagine what went on inside. There were far more people who required medical treatment than doctors. I wanted to be one of those who helped others.”
Dr. Haraz completed his medical studies in 2002 at the Dagestan State Medical Academy, in Makhachkala, Russia, and did his residency in Beit Lehem. Afterwards, he started working n Nablus in Rafidia Hospital, the largest medical center in the northern West Bank. When Dr Haraz began working in Rafidia his main area of interest was surgery. Over time, he became attracted to orthopedics, particularly orthopedic doctors’ ability to help their patients. Dr Haraz’s training in General Orthopedics “A” extends over a two-year period, of which a year has already passed. Dr Haraz would be happy to lengthen this period to continue benefitting from the extensive experience of the department’s medical staff.
Under the division’s umbrella, all different areas of orthopedics are gathered. In keeping with the irony that often characterizes the Middle East reality, the orthopedics division also stands out for its unique and widespread experience in treating war injuries, as Rambam is the medical center for wounded IDF soldiers in the northern Israel.
It may be surprising that at Rambam, Dr Haraz feels perfectly at home. “I never felt like a foreigner here. People at Rambam have always treated me as equal to other team members,” he says. “The Israeli-Arab side was more surprised by my decision to come to Rambam, and from my ability to fit in here. But they thought it was a good idea since it was all arranged by the Peres Center for Peace.”
Another reason Dr Haraz feels so comfortable at Rambam may be due the fact that like trainee doctors throughout the world, he devotes almost all his time to work. Compounding this is the fact that his house sits across the border. “My daily schedule is not easy,” says Dr Haraz. The route from Rambam to his city goes through Netanya, to Tul Karem and on to Nablus. As he cannot make this journey every day, Dr Haraz returns to his family once a week. During the week, he lives in a rented apartment along with several friends. “Every morning I leave the house at 4:00 am, and arrive at the hospital at 7:00. I make an effort to speak on the phone with my wife and children every day, and on weekends I’m always inseparable from them. This is hard for all of us, but they support me now so we can reap the fruits later. My wife is a mathematics teacher and she done all the calculating,” he jokes.
Now that Dr Haraz is already realizing his childhood dream, it is time to dream anew. After he completes his training period at Rambam, Dr Haraz intends to go back to Rafidia Hospital in Nablus and return to the community and its needy patients the investment that was made in him. Until the day that Dr Haraz can care for patients in Nablus and its surroundings, they come to him, at Rambam, for different treatments. This is just part of the varied medical services that Rambam delivers to residents of the Palestinian Authority.
“When patients come to Rambam from Nablus, it brings the two sides together,” says Dr Haraz. “I am very happy to treat them, and they are glad that I’m nearby. I give them personal contact, tell them that I am from there, and try to help them as much as I can.”