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The social warrior whose will lives together in the mixed Lod - Walla! news

2022-05-14T14:07:24.579Z


Patan al-Zinati passed away at the age of 44, but managed to instill in her around her a deep commitment to Arab-Jewish partnership. In her social activities she helped every child and teenager in the mixed city, and called for avoiding violence. The President praised her: "An example and role model for working for society and partnership"


The social warrior whose will lives together in mixed Lod

Patan al-Zinati passed away at the age of 44, but managed to instill in her around her a deep commitment to Arab-Jewish partnership.

In her social activities she helped every child and teenager in the mixed city, and called for avoiding violence.

The President praised her: "An example and role model for working for society and partnership"

Eli Ashkenazi

14/05/2022

Saturday, 14 May 2022, 08:06 Updated: 08:25

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When she was on her deathbed and knowing that her death was imminent, Patan El Zinati did not stop hosting her room at the Hospice Visitors.

Among the visitors who came to her was her close friend, Yafit Chaikin.

"The pain did not leave her and she went through severe agony, but what was important for her to say to those who came to her was to continue to do good, to give good, to multiply love, to support the weak and strengthen them," Chaikin said.

"It was amazing to see and feel her strengths. Soon she will die and what was important to her was to ask us to continue on the path," Chaikin said.



On Sunday this week, Zinati passed away at the age of 44. "Her untimely death leaves us without a huge fighter for a life together and peace," Yair Revivo, the mayor of Lod, praised her.

"Surely in heart and soul, a full partner in the path she has dedicated her life to promoting brotherhood and evil between Arabs and Jews, it has promoted tolerance, understanding, trust, mutual respect and a deep commitment to multicultural partnership between Arabs and Jews," Revivo said of her.



She was born in Lod, in 1977 to Mona and Ismail, the eldest of three sisters and four brothers.

The father worked as a truck driver and works in a bakery, the mother made a living from cleaning jobs.

A warm and cohesive home, with an emphasis on investing in studies and education.

Israa, Patan's sister, said the extended family lived in the neighborhood and the family members would meet daily.

"Patan has always been at the center, the girl everyone loves," she said.

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"Her voice was unusual and brave."

Al Zinati (Photo: courtesy of the photographers)

She attended elementary school and middle school in Lod and a comprehensive high school in Arab Ramlod.

After graduating from high school, she moved to study education at Bar-Ilan University.

During her studies she married Ashraf and over the years they had four children - two sons and two daughters.

She later returned to Bar-Ilan University to study for a master's degree in conflict management and resolution.



After graduating with a bachelor's degree, she began teaching Arabic and history at the Neve Shalom - Wahat al-Salam Jewish-Arab school in the Jewish-Arab community of Neve Shalom near Latrun.

Her eldest son and daughter also studied there, but after ten years "an inner voice called for her to return to her home," said her friend, Chaikin.

She finished her work as a teacher and educator and began running a mediation center in Ramla.

According to Chaikin, "then also began to get carried away with the story of the Arabs of Lod, the desire to be part of the Arab society in the city and improve its situation."



At that time, in 2010, the city of Lod sank into political instability and a series of severe acts of violence.

A group of residents, Jews and Arabs, began to work in an attempt to improve the situation of the city and their goal was to establish a non-political civic organization, but disagreements between the Jewish and Arab residents were many and the parties were unable to build a bridge.



Only when it seemed that the Interior Ministry intended to hold mayoral elections, instead of reappointing the chairman of a called committee, did social activists in the city realize that they had to join hands and work for the appointment of a professional, richly experienced politician.

A voluntary body called the "Municipal Residents' Council" was set up in the city, numbering about a hundred activists.

Patan was among the prominent voices in the civic organization.


"She said she was very critical of the conduct of the state and the municipality, but stressed that she was also critical of her company. She did not speak only in terms of 'eat me, drink me.' Her voice was unusual and brave," Chaikin noted.

El Zinati at the graduation ceremony at Bar Ilan University (Photo: courtesy of the photographers)

The civic organization that was established in Lod succeeded in causing local elections to shake the city, instead of holding local elections, the Ministry of the Interior decided to appoint Meir Nitzan, the veteran mayor of Rishon Lezion, to chair the committee in charge of Lod.

Chaikin, a member of the Torah nucleus in the city who became a partner with Al Zinati, said of her friend that "she dedicated her life to the city and to the society that lived in it and fought for a Jewish-Arab partnership."



Mayor Revivo wrote in his eulogy that "in her various roles, Patan in Lod has fulfilled an important value mission, both as the director of non-formal education in Arab society in Lod and later as the director of the Chicago Jewish Community Center in Ramat Eshkol." At the mediation center, she previously worked as an educational mediation instructor at the Almanar School in Lod for four years.

In addition, she served as a member of the Community Forum for the Construction and Rehabilitation of the City of Lod.

At the same time, over the years, Patan has conducted workshops and facilitated mediation groups in the Arab and Jewish sectors. "The



Chicago Community Center, which she ran in Ramat Eshkol, was the basis for her extensive activities.

Asraa, her sister, said that "at work she did not see a source of livelihood for the family, but a social mission for the society in which she grew up and for the advancement of her belief in the need for a common life of Arabs and Jews."



Chaikin said that "Patan fought for every child and teenager. If they wanted to get rid of boys who went on a rampage to cause damage in the community center, she fought for them and said that more youth promotion workers should be found to accompany and support them.

When she saw children walking around on the street in the Ramat Eshkol neighborhood, she fought and was not quiet until they established a 'warm home' for them in the neighborhood.

The lack and pain of the other motivated her to do so.

Her smile with the dimples and the good eyes that came from them, thank you and goodness, touched everyone, every boy and girl. "

"The whole family with her."

Al Zinati (Photo: courtesy of the photographers)

Revivo wrote that after being appointed director of the Chicago Community Center in Ramat Eshkol, she said: "In the neighborhood where I was born and raised, Ramat Eshkol, I learned to accept and love the other and today I can fulfill a dream and manage the local community center "Peace, brotherhood, tolerance and mutual respect. I believe that the community center will continue to provide a proper response to the neighborhood's population, Arabs and Jews, and will become a model of living together, while preserving the religious and cultural identity of the neighborhood's residents in the city known as a mosaic of cultures.



" She, for example, was one of the prominent figures in the series "Lod, between despair and hope" broadcast on Channel 8. President Yitzhak Herzog chose to make his first official visit as president of Lod. Chaikin said that after the president and his wife, Michal, met The Women's Forum “they were blown away by Pathan.” This week the president came to comfort her family, as well as the Minister of Culture and Sports,Chilik Trooper.



"Patan was a symbol of a strong woman, a social leader in the full sense of the word, an example and role model for doing for society, for partnership, without fear and in complete faith," Herzog said.

"We won our first tour outside the President's House with the beginning of the priesthood in July 2021 to visit the city of Lod and also meet Pathan and hear from her about the situation on the ground and her plans to restore Jewish-Arab relations in the city. The strong and courageous will fill you with strength and comfort. "



Two years ago she contracted cancer and after a difficult struggle she managed to overcome it.

"In March, last year, her friends celebrated her recovery from the disease."

But even before her body was able to recover and strengthen, violent riots broke out in the city and throughout the country during Operation Wall Guard in Gaza.

Pathan came out calling for violence.

She did not side with either side but sought to lower the height of the flames.

The price she paid for her inquiries was great;

Her words were repeatedly violently and bluntly even threatened.

According to Chaikin, "it hurt her in an unusual way."



Asraa, the nurse, said that "in difficult moments Patan would talk to our father and he always told her to continue in the way she believes. Even in difficult times when she was thinking of quitting, and especially a year ago, he encouraged her and said the whole family was with her."



Last July the disease broke out again and Pathen embarked on another journey of dealing with the disease.

In recent weeks, her condition has deteriorated.

Sheikin says that "in her words to those who met with her, she left a detailed will. It was about family members, the mayor, education workers and traveling partners. She asked that we continue to work for the youth and that we continue to live together. It is difficult to keep her will. "

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Source: walla

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