Four years ago today, a young Palestinian Israeli woman was brutally raped and murdered in Melbourne.
It was a senseless, opportunistic crime that had nothing to do with politics, religion or vengeance. Simply, Aiia Maasarwe was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
It mattered little to the perpetrator that she was loved by her community in Baqa al-Gharbiya, a predominantly Arab city in central Israel; and by her new friends at La Trobe University, where she was an exchange student from Shanghai University.
In 2019, 73 other women died in gender-related violence in Australia. They also had names, relationships and purpose.
Like them, Aiia’s life was tragically cut short. Unlike most of them, her dream of making a difference in life will continue, notwithstanding that hers has ended.
This is what her father Saeed told the court during a sentencing hearing that followed the trial of her killer. And it is what happened after the Maasarwe family accepted an offer to perpetuate Aiia’s memory through the creation of the Aiia Maasarwe Memorial Medical Fellowship Program.
The AMMMFP is an initiative of the Australian-based Project Rozana, which aims to build relationships between Israelis and Palestinians through health.
There are many ways that Israelis and Palestinians are working cooperatively, but few impact every level of society daily the way health care does.
Read the article by Ron Finkel in The Australian.