Though Israel and Jordan signed a peace treaty in 1994, relations between the countries have been minimal. And this makes the first-ever Jordan-Israel Academic Emergency Medicine Collaboration, at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU), all the more notable.

“I would like our graduates to feel very proud to have had their education at this noble, high-ranking and humanitarian university,” said Dr. Mohammed al-Hadid, head of the Jordanian Red Crescent, in his address to the first graduating class.

“Ben-Gurion University is very active in the local communities and plays a central role in development in the fields of industry, agriculture, education and in building relations with its neighbors,” he continued.

Al-Hadid was one of the program’s initiators in collaboration with Prof. James Torczyner, founder and director of the McGill Middle East Program in Civil Society and Peace Building, and former BGU Rector Jimmy Weinblatt (now president of Sapir academic college).

“It was a big success academically, socially and in terms of integration,” Dr. Bruria Adini, program director, tells ISRAEL21c.

In addition to fostering mutual respect, the initiative assures that in the event of a natural disaster in the region, Israel and Jordan will work together to save lives.

Regional cooperation

Seismologists warn that fault lines along the Syrian-African Rift could cause an earthquake in Israeli and Jordanian cities. That’s why BGU organized the Joint Disaster Management Project as part of the emergency medicine program.

Jordanian and Israeli students, with officials from Magen David Adom and Jordanian Red Crescent, set up a mock earthquake disaster scene in the middle of the Timna Valley to check regional preparedness among first-responders.

“We’re not going to wait for something to happen,” said al-Hadid. “We have started to do something before it happens and that is get to know each other, know what we are good at, exchange expertise and experience, because then our joint effort will be for saving as many people as we can in case something does happen in this region.”

“It gave us all a great feeling of achievement,” says Adini about the training exercise. She would like to see the program continue and include not only Jordanians and Israelis but also Palestinians, Lebanese, Syrians and Egyptians.

The EMS program was funded by the Israeli Ministry for Regional Cooperation, the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the European Union and private donors.

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(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)