Putting conflict aside, Israeli woman donates kidney to Palestinian toddler

• Idit Harel Segal, Israeli mother, donated her kidney to a three-year-old Palestinian boy.
• She said her choice was also her way to honor the values of her late beloved grandfather.
• Idit sent the boy a letter, telling him she hoped that he will live a long and meaningful life.

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“You don’t know me… You don’t understand my language and I don’t understand yours, but soon we’ll be very close because my kidney will be in your body.”

These were the words of Idit Harel Segal, Israeli kindergarten and a mother of three, to the boy she gave her kidney to.

On her 50^th birthday, Idit wanted to do something meaningful. Instead of getting something for herself, she chose to give. And what she had decided to give was not that simple, it was a part of her: her kidney.

The entire process was not simple, too. Besides of course the surgery, the recipient was a three-year-old Palestinian boy from the Gaza Strip.

The strict restrictions limiting the number of entry permits made it even more complicated. Fortunately, Jerusalem-based, nongovernmental organization Matnat Chaim managed to arrange for the surgical procedure on humanitarian grounds.

The three-year-old boy’s father also helped out. To move his son on top of the donor list in Gaza, he agreed to donate his kidney to an Israeli patient, a 25-year-old mother of two.

Things ran smoothly and the operation was done on June 16.

Prior to the surgery, Idit sent the little boy a letter.

“I hope with all my heart that this surgery will succeed and you will live a long and healthy and meaningful life,” she said.

Idit even met with the boy and his mother in the hospital, and sang to him until he nodded off.

“He fell asleep, then I left. I cried,” she recalled in an interview with the Associated Press. “It was really moving. Deep inside I knew I did something good.”

Idit admitted that her husband, son and father weren’t initially agreeing with her decision. But soon, the family came to appreciate her gesture.

Idit said that her choice was also her way to honor the values of the beloved grandfather she lost five years ago.

“I threw away the anger and frustration and see only one thing. I see hope for peace and love,” she told AP. “And if there will be more like us, there won’t be anything to fight over.”

Source: Good News Network