SANTA BARBARA, Calif.- Local Santa Barbara dentist and humanitarian Dr. James Rolfe is known for his work and 24 hour clinic right in Santa Barbara. For decades Rolfe has provided people in need of dental care within the community and outside the country like Afghanistan and more recently West Bank, Palestine.
"Any dental care at all in this whole province (of Afganistan) and they had to go to a barber and have their teeth extracted without anesthetic," said Dr. James Rolfe. "That was the only dental care that they could get. So, I had the same kind of feeling about Palestine, so I decided to go there and just find out for myself."
Rolfe says when arriving in Palestine to work with the United Nations hospitals, he found that the people were very depressed and had no hope to even take care of themselves and they had "basically given up."
Rolfe went to West Bank Palestine in May and is sharing what he saw after coming back.
"I knew things were really bad and I found out that they were even worse," said Rolfe.
"We really don't see how this is affecting the people. and you know I saw these people as the nicest, kindest most considerate people i've ever met. i didn't have any kind of conflict or disagreement with anybody."
The 85-year-old dentist says the work he does is challenging yet rewarding and he provides his own funding, allowing him to remain autonomous.
After returning from Palestine, Rolfe made a statement to put all his thought on paper and process what he saw.
"What I felt like that we really needed to support the Palestinian people, because it's about freedom. I think it basically depends on the United States. Israel would not being doing these things if it weren't for the united states supporting them. I think this is something we have to deal with internally and we even see people who are standing up for Palestinians being deported just because their voicing their opinion under the first amendment. the Palestinians are not allowed to be free and their not allowed to be free because of the united states policy."
To learn more about Dr. Rolfe and his efforts in Afghanistan and Palestine, click here.
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