The Epic of Difficult Choices

Kamel Mohanna

Description

This book tells epic of difficult choices for the activist Kamel Mohanna, Kamel Mohanna is no ordinary man. Meeting this docto, with such affable manners and an unwavering smile, one cannot guess what extraordinary and unusual adventures this rich personality hides. Recounted by his talented biographers, Ibrahim Beydoun and Chaouki Rafeh, it is the complex journey of a Lebanese boy, born in the southern confines of the country, a front-line witness of the Palestinian tragedy from its very beginning. This drama unfolded on the other side of the border, close to the family home, as soon as the state of Israel was created. He witnessed the dramatic apocalypse of the secular dwellers of this land, suddenly abandoned by the whole world and forced into exile or into brutal occupation.

Sujets

• Médecine

Informations

• Publié par: Dar Al-Farabi for Publishing & Distribution
• Date de parution: 01 janvier 2017
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9796500282497
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

The Epic of

Difficult Choices

Written in Arabic by Chawki Rafeh

Revised and introduced by Dr. Ibrahim Beydoun

Translated to French by Danielle Saleh

Preface by Georges Corm

Translated to English by Ibrahim Khalil El-Jorr

Dr. Kamel Mohanna

The Epic of 'LI¿FXOW &KRLFHV

Reedited four times in Arabic by

Dar Al Farabi

A Man of Honor and Compassion

Kamel Mohanna is no ordinary man. Meeting this doctor, with such affable manners and an unwavering smile, one cannot guess what extraordinary and unusual adventures this rich personality hides. Recounted by his talented biographers, Ibrahim Beydoun and Chaouki Rafeh, it is the complex journey of a Lebanese boy, born in the southern confines of the country, a front-line witness of the Palestinian tragedy from its very beginning. This drama unfolded on the other side of the border, close to the family home, as soon as the state of Israel was created. He witnessed the dramatic apocalypse of the secular dwellers of this land, suddenly abandoned by the whole world and forced into exile or into brutal occupation.

The story of those childhood years largely explains the eventful journey of our future doctor. Having completed high school, he left his village and his country to study medicine in France. For a man driven by compassion after what he had seen in his childhood, medicine was a rational choice; it helps save human lives and heals the wounded that are caught under the fire of indiscriminate violence, who are dispossessed of their land and their belongings. His choice of France was certainly dictated by the fact that it was the country of human rights and enlightenment, and thus of justice and humanism.

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The Epic of Difficult Choices

His studies did not prevent him starting a life of activism within the Association of Arab students in France, of which he became the leader. At that time, in the 1960s, people had faced the injustice and violence of the Algerian national liberation war, which had subjected the native population to the worst treatment and torture by the French army. They were also loudly proclaiming the right of Palestinians to their homeland and to a sovereign state. Kameleventually got in trouble with the French authorities who were trying to contain the agitation of the Arab students in France; the “pro-Arab” activists were closely watched. He lived in constant fear of deportation. The pages of the biography dedicated to this episode of Kamel’s life closely recount the world of these ardent youth, from many different Arab countries, taking their first steps in political activism. Back then, they all suffered to see the land of human rights move away from the noble principles it had given the world, and try to silence the voices within its own territory of those in favor of the independence of the Algerian people.

A graduate of medicine, always anxious to alleviate human suffering, our young activist then left for Dhofar, a rugged mountainous region in the south of the Arabian Peninsula, where an armed resistance movement rose against the English colonial oppression, ally of the Sultan of Oman. There, he practiced with great devotion in the difficult conditions of that poor and disinherited geographic and human environment. He fell in love with one of their beautiful female fighters that he later sorrowfully left behind when he returned to Lebanon.

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The Epic of Difficult Choices

The severity of the events affecting his country called him back to Lebanon- a Lebanon now destabilized by massive Israeli military retaliation against guerrilla operations led from Lebanon by the Palestinian armed resistance, that emerged after the spectacular defeat of the Arab armies against Israel in 1967. He relieved the suffering of the wounded wherever he could, until he himself fell victim to indiscriminate bombings in the suburbs of Beirut in 1976, during the Battle of Tal el- Zaatar, while he was exercising his medical mission under an onslaught of bullets and fire.

His friends managed to evacuate him without delay, which ultimately saved his life. As soon as he recovered, he resumed his profession as‘savior of men’ and created clinics and medical centers in the areas most affected by the hostilities and the fighting. He founded the Najdeh humanitarian organization that aims to improve the living conditions of the residents of Lebanon’s Palestinian camps. In 1979, he founded the medico- social associationAmel. This association would soon become famous for its activities, such as creating health clinics, medical centers, field hospitals, maternity hospitals, centers for child protection and rehabilitation centers for people with physical disabilities in the poorest regions. Doctor Mohanna’s ambitious goal was to ensure access to health for the poorest, without discrimination, and to provide professional training through the association. He was very active during those extensive years of violence and misery in his country, sending the wounded to be treated abroad and assisting the disabled with physical

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