Arab parents donate son's kidney to Israeli

The family of a 12-year-old Palestinian boy, killed by Israeli soldiers, this weekend donated his kidney to an Israeli boy who desperately needed a transplant.

"It doesn't matter," they said, "whether the recipient was a Jew or an Arab." Ahmed Khatib was shot in the head and pelvis on Thursday during a firefight in the West Bank city of Jenin.
He was rushed to the emergency room at Rambam hospital in Haifa, but died without recovering consciousness.

The army expressed regret and ordered an investigation, but claimed the boy was toting a toy gun which soldiers mistook for a rifle. The family said he was with a group of boys waving toy guns to celebrate the Id el-Fitr festival.

Jamil Khatib, his uncle, said the boy's father, Ismail Khatib, agreed to donate the organ after he saw the young Israeli kidney patient suffering in the hospital.

"He felt he had to go beyond politics," the uncle explained.

"You shouldn't need a reason to act with humanity, but he had a brother, Shawkat, who died several years ago from kidney failure. He understood what it was like.

"Shawkat needed a kidney donation, but he never got one."

The extended Khatib family was divided over the donation.

Palestinian prisoners phoned and said they should not give the kidney to the enemy.

Some relatives contended that organ donation was forbidden by Islam.

But Jamil Khatib insisted that it was not forbidden and the dead boy's father agreed.

"I do not believe we should not donate for Jews just because they are our enemies," the uncle argued.

"If you capture a prisoner in war you should give him the best of medical treatment.

"Our religion encourages us to do that."

- INDEPENDENT