Four Israelis Get Slain Palestinian's Organs

Larry Kaplow

Cox Washington Bureau

Jerusalem --- Amid growing hatreds that can strangle any impulse for generosity, the poignant gift of one Palestinian family was startling.

Mazen Julani, a 33-year-old assistant pharmacist, was shot and killed Friday by an unknown assailant while sitting in a cafe here. Though his relatives believe the killer was an Israeli, they donated Julani's organs at Israel's Hadassah Ein Karem hospital.

As of Tuesday, four Israeli Jews and a Palestinian had received his organs. A 37-year-old Israeli was given Julani's heart.

''I pray for peace so I will be able to meet the donor's family and thank them,'' heart recipient Igal Cohen told the Yedioth Ahronot newspaper.

The Julani family was influenced by the fact that the victim's brother, Majdeh, is awaiting a kidney transplant. That gave them empathy --- and hope that a donation could move him up the list.

''We know the feelings of families waiting for their sons to get an organ,'' said Maher Julani, brother of both the slain Mazen and kidney patient Majdeh.

The donation caused a stir Tuesday in the Israeli press, which portrayed it as a moment of hope amid despair on both sides.

Hospital officials say it is the first instance during the 8-month-old uprising in which a Palestinian has donated organs to Israelis.

In part because of their culture, organ donations are not as common among Israelis or Palestinians as with Westerners.

There have been some instances in which Israelis donated organs that were transplanted in Palestinians.

Of the nearly 600 people killed in the latest fighting over the last few months, roughly 480 have been Palestinians. Most ended up in Palestinian hospitals, where transplants rarely take place.

Only in Jerusalem is there frequent interplay between Palestinians and Israelis in the field of medicine.

While Julani lay near death over the weekend, about 20 members of his family met with doctors, who asked for the organ donations.

There were some doubts among the relatives. It was feared that some Palestinians outside the family would resent that his organs might be used by Israelis. And there was concern about whether Islam permitted donations, regardless of where they wound up.

Two religious leaders assured the family it was permissible.

''They said that if we are able to save a human life, we should,'' said Maher Julani, who is a taxi driver. ''Our religion encourages tolerance.''

The family knew the organs would go to whoever was next on the Israeli national organ transplant system's computerized list, most likely Israelis.

Doctors transplanted one lung, both kidneys and the pancreas, heart and liver. One Israeli received two organs --- a kidney and a pancreas.

''We wish them a healthy life,'' Maher Julani said as he sat in mourning under posters of his brother that were printed by the Fatah political party. The posters proclaimed him a ''martyr'' of the intifada, or Palestinian uprising.

Nava Klein, organ donation coordinator for the hospital, said the donation will boost Majdeh Julani's priority on the computerized list.

But after meeting with the family several times as they hashed out the tough decision, she said there was more to it than self-interest.

''They have done a truly wonderful thing,'' she said.

Mazen Julani, a soft-spoken father of three toddlers, was shot Friday about an hour after a Palestinian suicide bomber killed 20 Israelis in Tel Aviv.

Julani was drinking coffee with friends in a Palestinian-run cafe in Jerusalem, family members said, when a bullet that was fired from a passing car penetrated a window and hit him under the left ear.

Israeli police said the killer was on foot and could have been a common criminal. Police acknowledge that the well-liked pharmacist has no record of any criminal or political activity and may not have been the intended victim.

Such criminal acts are rare in Jerusalem. The road in front of the cafe leads to Jewish neighborhoods, and the family believes the shooting was an act of revenge for the Tel Aviv bombing.

Copyright © 2001 Cox Interactive Media.

This article posted September 24, 2001.