Israelis and Emiratis to exchange kidneys in a first time since Abraham Accords
Donors and recipients in Tel Aviv, Haifa and Abu Dhabi will undergo surgery this week
Michael Daventry is Jewish News’s foreign and broadcast editor
An Israeli woman is set to donate a kidney to a patient in Abu Dhabi in the first exchange of its kind since relations were normalised with the United Arab Emirates.
Shani Markowitz Manshar, 39, was due to undergo surgery at Sheba Medical Center near Tel Aviv this week to give her organ to a recipient in Abu Dhabi, the news site Ynet reported.
The same organ donation programme will see another patient at Rambam Health Care Campus in Haifa receive a transplant from the UAE.
Manshar’s mother, who also requires a kidney transplant, is set to receive an organ from Rambam as part the exchange.
Israel’s National Transplant Centre says there are over 1,000 Israelis awaiting organ transplants — the vast majority are waiting for the correct kidney match.
Eitan Moore, a professor at the Sheba Transplant Centre, said this week’s complicated exchange had been made possible by the Abraham Accords.
“Now I can talk to my colleagues in Abu Dhabi freely, thanks to the Abraham Accords,” he said, according to Haaretz.
“This is a step that may promote peace. When I spoke to the doctors from Abu Dhabi, they said that they were also happy to be partners for the first time.”
The UAE and Bahrain were among the countries joining the Abraham Accords, which saw the establishment of diplomatic relations with Israel.
Morocco and Sudan have since followed suit.
Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia are among other countries in the region that have not yet followed their lead.
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