Aryeh Myers from Magen David Adom (MDA), Israel’s National EMS organization and National Blood Services, described how the service always treats not only injured Israelis but injured Gazans in exclusive comments to PJ Media.
While Hamas uses civilians as human shields and the Palestinian Authority financially rewards the terrorists, the Israeli government and first responders always prioritize protecting civilians, both theirs and the enemy’s, as much as possible. Myers told PJ Media about the heartbreaking and graphic realities of the Hamas-Israeli conflict from Oct. 7 up through the present day, and he praised MDA’s work both in Israel and internationally. First responders sometimes even treat the genocidal terrorists who committed the terrorist attacks, not separating out any injured individuals.
As related in our first piece on Myers, the Hamas jihadis specifically tried to kill first responders on Oct. 7. Unlike their enemies, Israeli first responders never assess a patient’s religion or political affiliation before treating him. “It's no secret that the state of Israel has a large Jewish majority, but that means that [somewhat under] 80% of the population here are Jewish, but 20% of the population — the minority, and a very significant minority — are Christians and Muslims and Druze, and members of all sorts of different parts of society,” Myers said.
All of these people, he explained, “were also very much directly affected by what was going on, whether that was Oct. 7, whether that was in the time since then, whether that was during the Iranian attacks, we had people from all parts of society being affected by these attacks, and on the flip side of that, we've got about 20% of our staff and volunteers representing those communities, so we have tons of staff who wear the same uniform as everybody else, and who respond not only in their communities.” Last year, a Hezbollah attack on the Druze village of Majdal Shams left 12 children dead and 50 people injured.
Related: Exclusive: Israeli First Responder on Oct. 7 Horrors and Ongoing Tragedy
Myers gave as an example the “largest Bedouin community in Israel … a town called Rahat in the Negev desert, and it’s … a population of about 100,000, and we have many volunteers in that community as well. But they don't only volunteer within their own community. They're on ambulances, and they're responding to calls in the Jewish communities as well, and in the next cities.” Myers emphasized, “If you go to Jerusalem, you go to Haifa, you go anywhere across the country, you will see people from all races, all religions, in the streets and living in those areas, but you also find those people within, again, responding to anybody who's in need.”
MDA’s only question is whether an individual needs medical aid. “We don't walk into someone's house and ask them what religion they are before we start treating them. We treat them because they are a person who needs to be treated, and irrespective of their politics,” Myers stated. “It's been very, very difficult for us to face [the] situations where terrorists themselves have needed treatment, and they've received that treatment.” MDA truly does treat anyone.
Even if MDA is facing a terrorist, “the person in front of us is a human being. And whilst it might not always be easy to think about, I mean, the concept of having to treat somebody who's just attacked us … that's the reality of life here in Israel,” Myers told me. “And you have to look at that reality, and you have to understand that Hamas very clearly declares that what it seeks is the destruction of the Jewish state. It just seeks the destruction of the State of Israel, and particularly the Jews living there.” In contrast, “the only thing we try to do in Magen David Adom is to save lives, and to save as many lives as we possibly can.”
MDA is not only generous toward the so-called Palestinians, but to people suffering from natural or man-made disasters around the world. MDA gave humanitarian aid to “Turkey, in Ukraine, in the Philippines, in Haiti, after natural disasters, after earthquakes, and the Ukraine war.”
He clarified, “It's not a question of going there because there are Israelis there that we want to help, or there are Jews there that we want to help. We are there because there are people there who need us, and because we have the skills and the experience with big incidents, with mass casualty incidents, to be able to assist in those situations.”
For more information on Magen David Adom and its work, you can visit its website, and check back in to PJ Media for more exclusive interviews from Israel.
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