Brussels, 24/09/2004 (Agence Europe) - On 22 September, the European Commission decided to provide assistance to a joint Israeli-Palestinian project to build a maternity unit, "Birthing Together", on the border of the Negev region of Israel and the Gaza Strip. With a hundred beds and ultra-modern equipment, the hospital will be a place where populations sharing the same problems can meet, the project's leader, Israeli doctor Yehuda Paz, explained to reporters. The catchment area includes some 150,000 Israelis and 450,000 Palestinians. Yehuda Paz said the unit would provide an opportunity for medical and administrative staff from both sides to work together, also sharing the job of preparing the unit, since the buildings have been co-designed by a Palestinian and an Israeli architect.
Alongside the actual building itself, the participants at a meeting organised by the European Commission focussed on the symbolic nature of the unit, since it will demonstrate what is possible in terms of the two communities working together and living side by side in peace. This vision, said Salah Abdel Shafi, Director General of the Gaza Strip's health programme, 'has to be realised.'