Local Family Fights Terror One Baby at a Time

Media Coverage

Local family fights terror one baby at a time
Post Star August 2002

By Thom Randall

CORINTH -- A local family is on a mission in the terrorism-torn Mideast to help save children's lives and convince Israelis and Palestinians to overcome their half-century of hatred and distrust.

Philip and Martha Berg have moved to Jerusalem on a medical mission to save lives of critically ill Palestinian children -- by delivering them to Israeli doctors for treatment.

The Bergs started work this week supervising Shevet Achim/Light to the Nations, a mission to help bring needy Palestinian children to Israeli doctors for life-saving treatment, primarily heart surgery.

The mission identifies Palestinian children on the West Bank or Gaza Strip with urgent medical needs, makes arrangements between the child's family, hospital and doctors, and provides transportation for the child to the Israeli hospital.

In a situation charged with hatred and distrust, it will be the Bergs' job to bridge the political and cultural gulf between each child's parents and medical officials and the Palestinian and Israeli authorities, Philip Berg said.

"There are hundreds of Palestinian babies who desperately need heart surgery and other operations, but their parents don't have access to sophisticated health care where they are," Berg said. "The Palestinians need services, but they don't work directly with the Israelis due to the prevailing distrust."

The Bergs flew to Jerusalem a week ago, accompanied by their children, Asher, 3, Adam, 2, and Nathan, 1.

The Bergs were fixing up their new home Tuesday in Jerusalem, where the Christian mission is based, Philip Berg said in a phone interview. Actual efforts to begin helping Palestinian babies will begin in about two weeks, after they spend time training with the mission's founder, Jonathan Miles.

Miles is turning over key responsibilities to the Bergs after he was deported in late June by Israeli authorities for overstaying his visa.

Berg said he expects Miles will teach them how to overcome the tangle of bureaucracy and obstacles to bringing Arab children into Tel Aviv for treatment. Miles will continue to assist the mission from Jordan, Berg said.

"It can take dozens of phone calls beforehand to make the arrangements and to get Palestinian families comfortable about coming past checkpoints and into Israel," he said. "Then when we get to the border checkpoint to pick up the child, sometimes we have to convince soldiers not to block their entry."

Light to the Nations has saved the lives of hundreds of Palestinian children in its six years of existence, according to news reports.

Operating in conjunction with a doctor-based organization called Save a Child's Heart, Light to the Nations brings children to the Wolfson Medical Center in Tel Aviv, where they are treated by Israeli doctors who perform surgeries at no charge. The mission also raises funds for medicines and to pay the reduced rates charged by the hospitals for treating the children.

The mission may not change the world, but it likely will increase the ties between some Palestinians and Israelis for many years, Berg said. "The mission won't solve the Mideast problem, but it shows people there's a glimmer of hope now in bringing people together," he said.

Martha Berg said she's looking forward to fostering hope and trust where there is now desperation and distrust.

"It's exciting to think we'll play a little part in bringing people together and shatter some perceptions they have about each other," she said, adding that she has heard that despite the political bitterness, there's no discrimination against Palestinians in the Israeli hospitals.

Berg said he met Miles through the church they both attended in Israel. Berg worked on a kibbutz in Israel for 10 years, then was employed as a teacher and administrator, including several years at Jerusalem University College, where he met his wife in the mid-1990s.

The Bergs' home church, Rockwell Falls Presbyterian Church of Lake Luzerne, has set up a fund to directly bankroll the medical mission. Those interested may send checks made out to "Special Mission Fund" to the church, the Rev. Tom Parsons said.

Our name Shevet Achim is taken from the Hebrew of Psalm 133: How good and how pleasant for
brothers to dwell together in unity...for there the LORD commanded the blessing--life forevermore.