Surgical Strike For Peace

When the ambulance brought a critically injured Israeli settler to Hebron's dilapidated Alia Hospital on a sunny November day in 1997, Khaled Abu Ajamia could have — should have — refused to operate. By law, Palestinian surgeons are not allowed to work on Israelis in Palestinian hospitals. But Abu Ajaima examined him anyway and saw that without immediate help the settler — who was suffering from heavy abdominal bleeding after a car crash — would die. So Abu Ajamia operated, saving the man's life. "We had very limited facilities and I took a big risk, and sometimes I think it was...