Doctor Hadžir expelled from Palestine as a child: Israel cannot destroy the Palestinian people

Jusef Hadžir (Youssef Hajir), a surgeon and former director of the wartime hospital in the Sarajevo settlement of Dobrinja, is one of the Palestinians who had to leave their homes in 1948 and find refuge in Syria. He was only three years old. His father and brother were killed at the time, reports Anadolu Agency.

He came to Bosnia and Herzegovina as a scholarship holder, where he graduated from the Faculty of Medicine, started a family, and lives there today. The retired doctor is now witnessing horrific scenes from Gaza again, following the Israeli attacks launched on October 7th.

- I was born in 1945 in Haifa. The Palestinian people have always been a beacon in the Middle East. We had our own money, state, flag, theater, like any state at that time. Tel Aviv was a suburb of Jaffa where we welcomed them. We welcomed them as people, and this is how they repay us now.

My mother told me, I don't remember, how they packed us into trucks, transported us across the border to Lebanon, and then we walked to Syria. We were barefoot and naked. We begged for food from people in the villages we passed through. Then we settled in a Palestinian camp in Homs.

There was no water, the conditions were inhumane and unhygienic. I came to Bosnia and Herzegovina as a scholarship holder; two Palestinians from Syria and I received it. We learned the language, and then enrolled in the Faculty of Medicine. I graduated, but I had nowhere to return to. My family had nothing to eat. I stayed and started working - stated Hajir.

He thought the situation he experienced as a child in Palestine, and later in Syria, would not repeat itself. However, then came 1992, and the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina began.

- I stayed here during the war, and I think I repaid a part of my debt to Sarajevo and Bosnia and Herzegovina. I helped everyone. I established a hospital in Dobrinja. Every day, at every moment, I remember what happened to me in Palestine. Those images of horror, poverty, and hunger reappear. I wanted to prevent that from happening here - explained Hajir.

I do not condone the killing of civilians

He is one of several hundred witnesses who testified at the Hague Tribunal in the case against Radovan Karadžić, former President of Republika Srpska and accused of genocide and war crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

- I have never felt hatred. I don't feel it now, I can't. I want to feel it now towards all of this that is happening, but I cannot reach that level of hatred - stated Hajir.

Gaza is experiencing a severe humanitarian crisis with no electricity, while water, food, fuel, and medical supplies are running out.

- What is happening in Gaza now is very depressing, sad, and inhumane. I do not condone the killing of civilians. First and foremost, I am a doctor and a humanist; I will help anyone. During the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, I treated and operated on many Jews. I never looked at those people differently.

The West, which blindly supports Israel, also does not see the whole picture. Every action has a reaction. What they did in recent months on the West Bank and the incursions into Al-Aqsa had to provoke a reaction. Unfortunately, it came in this way, with the killing of civilians. That is my people. We have daily attacks on the West Bank where my relatives live - said Hajir.

Two states

However, he stated that he still cannot hate anyone.

- I also feel sorry for what they went through, since the Holocaust. They were not welcome anywhere. Arabs never drove them away. They lived in that society. My brother was married to a Jewish woman at that time, and she left for Syria with us - recounted Hajir.

He believes that the solution to the current situation is two states.

- Israelis and Palestinians had agreed on that - two states. However, Israel never moved towards it. I do not condone brutality, but I also understand the Palestinians; they have had enough. This way of treating Palestinians is wrong, and nothing good can come of it.

And they cannot destroy the Palestinian people, they must know that, and each generation will be harsher than the current one. They must tell Israel that enough is enough. As a Palestinian, I say that I am sorry for all the victims. We are people who think about the future - added Hajir.