Kidney of man killed by Arab mob is donated to Muslim lady

V THE KIDNEY of a Jewish electrician who was lynched and killed by an Arab mob in Lod, near Tel Aviv, last week, has been donated to an Arab woman.

In a move that has been widely hailed as a symbol of coexistence, the organ belonging to Yigal Yehoshua, 56, was transplanted this week to Randa Awis, a 58-year-old Muslim resident of Beit Tzafafa, Jerusalem.

“I thank Yigal’s family,” Ms Awis said. “From heaven they will be comforted and Yigal is in a better place.

“For me, they have become part of my family.

“I wish for peace between us Jews and Arabs.

“All my life I have lived with Jews and there has never been such a thing. It hurts me for the little children who are harmed in this war.

“There should be peace between us. I feel much better now.

“This Jewish kidney has now become a part of me.

“My daughter grew up with Jews and speaks Hebrew like them. We are all human beings.”

The Jerusalemite added: “I thought someone was making fun of me when I was told that after nine years, I had a kidney.”

Ms Awis’ daughter Nivin told Israeli radio: “We had not known where the kidney was from until we saw an internet article stating that five of his organs had saved five people, including a 58-year-old woman. We understood then that this was our mum.”

After receiving official confirmation that this was the case, she added: “We cried, we were in shock. It hurt us that a family had lost its dear one and this saved my mother. It’s crazy that this happened by Arabs and we too are Arabs. “It is indescribable.”

The daughter suggested a meeting between her family and that of Mr Yehoshua.

“We’ll tell them that we participate in their sorrow, we are not in favour of the murder of children or adults, no murder whatsoever,” she said.

“We will say thank you for what they did for us, easing our lives. For our mother it was previously very difficult.”

Her neighbourhood in Jerusalem had been affected by communal tensions as well, she added.

“You feel it in the air. People look strangely at you. We pass by Jews and they throw a nasty word. There is fear, we go out less. It is very painful that this is happening.

“I don’t want to generalize about my people.

“There are always extremists, both among Jews and among Arabs.”

But she said that she had still not given up hope. “I think there is a chance for real peace,” she said.

“I want to say thank you to the family of Yigal Yehoshua, to wish for peace for my people and the Jewish people, for Gaza — and to tell the Prime Minister that it is possible to coexist and it’s happening now.

“I am here in a hospital and see how Jews and Arabs are working together and it is possible.”

Mr Yehoshua was attacked last week by Arab rioters in Lod, the mixed Jewish-Arab city near Tel Aviv that has become notorious for internecine violence recently.

The married father-of-two was struck on the back of the head with a stone.

After doctors struggled for days to save his life, he died on Sunday.

His family took then decision to authorise his organs for transplant and they were then donated to five patients.

His wife, Irena, has spoken of the harrowing moment when she saw his shirt soaked with blood.

He was an embodiment of coexistence, she said, who had tragically been killed in senseless sectarian violence that has rocked Israel since the conflict in Gaza started.

“Yigal was a symbol of coexistence,” she told Israel’s N12 news site. “He was not afraid of anything.

“He worked as an electrician and repaired houses for everyone, Arabs or Jews.”

Mr Yehoshua had been driving though the city when his car was targeted with stones.

Despite being seriously injured, he managed to drive home, where his wife saw “the window shattered and his shirt soaked in blood”.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: “I share in the sorrow of the family of the late Yigal Yehoshua who was murdered in a lynch carried out by Arab rioters in Lod. We will settle accounts with whoever participated in this murder. Nobody will escape punishment.”

Israeli officials vowed to search for those responsible for Mr Yehoshua’s death and bring them to justice. “The State of Israel will lay its hands on anyone who took part in the murderous pogrom and will bring them to justice,” said finance minister Israel Katz.