Remembering Dr Luna Mackay

That this House notes and celebrates the life and legacy of Dr Runa Mackay who was born on 30 July 1921 and who died on 31 May 2020 at the age of 98; acknowledges her lifetime of service to the Palestinian people by first working as a paediatrician at the EMMS hospital in Nazareth for six months in 1954, returning in 1957 for 20 years where she treated patients who would otherwise have gone without medical care; recognises that she then helped establish and worked with the Galilee Society of Health, Research and Service to serve local communities and also worked for the Israeli Ministry of Health as she felt she would have more power to improve conditions for Palestinians in the villages surrounding Nazareth; further notes that following her retirement in 1987 she began working for Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) to treat those in refugee camps in Lebanon, then at a children’s hospital in Hebron and later became a MAP trustee regularly visiting Lebanon and the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and started MAP in Scotland; believes Dr Mackay, who worked into her mid-90s, was an extraordinary woman; and further recognises the 60 years of dedication and service that she gave to treating people, particularly the Palestinian people.