Medical Initiative For the Benefit of

The Children of Palestine

Ear Surgery for Palestinian Children

By Dr. Ibrahim K. Ladaa

Message from Nablus, August 11, 2003

Dear Colleagues,

Salamat.

In the evening I was picked up by my colleagues in Nablus to have a look at the old town.  We went to a part of the old city (al-Kasbah) in which the oldest soap factories of Nablus were situated along with 4 to 5-storey flats or family residences.  They are trying to rebuild and renovate this district.  However, it is difficult to restore century-old works of culture. Nablus was always famous for its soap factories.  The soap is made from olive oil.  Soap was manufactured in Nablus as of centuries ago, at a time when the monarchs and princes of Europe freed themselves of lice by scratching their backs with sticks instead of bathing.   Before the destruction of this part of town there were three factories with a total of 150 work shops.  Young people, both boys and girls, are helping the workers of the municipality to get rid of the debris. All the inhabitants of Nablus agree that the al-Kasbah must be restored.

After a time we went to a typical cafe in the old town, a cafe purely for men. It is very peaceful and you can enjoy the scent of jasmine, lemons and white roses.  In these cafes you can order a “Naffas” or “Argileh,” a hookah/water-pipe.  There are different ways of preparing an Argileh.  The tobacco is not pressed so very much for strong men and older women. If you press it by hand the juice stays in the tobacco and can thereby be inhaled.  According to the degree of the pressing and the type of the tobacco, an Argileh can be ordered from strong to light.  

Nowadays, there is also the fashionable al-Me’assel tobacco.  This can be ordered in different flavors, from apple or strawberry to apricot. These types are especially popular with young people of both sexes.  And so there are cafes offering lightly shaded alcoves for their mostly youthful guests.  These are especially popular among the students of the university so that they can smoke their Me’assel.

Of course they smoke more than just one Naffas.  Nevertheless, cancer of the larynx, oropharynx or lung cancer occurs only rarely, perhaps because of the absence of alcohol.  On the other hand, heart attacks in young and old are very frequent, even in thirty-year-olds.  People suffer from extreme stress: a father of seven children who is unemployed and can not provide for his family, curfews of several weeks, ambulances not allowed in, and pregnant women giving birth at the Mahsum (checkpoint).  These are all factors which produce still more stress.  Between Ramallah and Nablus, a distance of about 50 km, there are three permanent  Mahasim (plural of Mahsum) and two so-called flying Mahasim.

While you are sitting in the cafe and smoking your Argile, you feel the bitterness rising inside you concerning the monster that Israel is building only a few kilometers away.  The building of a 600-km. long, 1.5-metre thick and over 8-metre high wall is being built with great fervor. Israel says it is the fault of the Palestinians.  Why do people always blame others when it is quite obvious that it is the fault of the occupation?  The wall is being built on Palestinian land; it robs the Palestinians of 40% of their fertile agricultural land and the ground water that is under it.