You read that correctly. Israelis are stepping up to do what they can, despite the complicated politics and security considerations involved.
And I am not just talking about demonstrations.
An Israeli grassroots initiative to help Syrian children has swiftly gained traction, having raised over a quarter of a million shekels, from over 1,600 donors, in the first 48 hours of a crowdfunding campaign which was launched on Thursday night.
Titled “Just Beyond the Border,” the campaign seeks to raise a target 600,000 NIS in just over a month. The funds will go toward purchasing emergency aid including food, medication and supplies for the winter for Syrian refugees.
The campaign page, on the Mimoona crowdfunding platform, details exactly what different amounts of donations will be put toward, from 25 NIS all the way up to 100,000 NIS. The equipment will be purchased in Israel and will be transferred to young refugees with the help of the Israeli Flying Aid organization (IFA) NGO, which delivers lifesaving aid to communities affected by natural disasters and human conflict.
“Hundreds of thousands of children from war-torn Syria, are now facing winter,” a campaign flyer reads. “We will not stand idly by as the horrors unfold.”
The project is being coordinated by Israelis from across the country, including men and women, both religious and secular Jews, together with Muslims and Christians, who during the last Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) organized a mass prayer for the victims of the Syrian conflict.
Since this report, the amount raised now stands at over 564,000 shekels, almost at the 600,000 shekel target.
And that’s not all we are doing.
https://www.facebook.com/NowThisNews/videos/1259559234134198/
And there’s more:
Israeli army reserve doctors demanded Saturday to be called up by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and sent to Syria to treat victims of the country’s bloody civil war.
Doctors from the Paratroopers Brigade wrote in a letter to IDF Chief-of-Staff Gadi Eisenkot that they can no longer be passive “witnesses” to the “indiscriminate slaughter” taking place in neighboring Syria.
“We know there are security considerations, and we know there are diplomatic considerations. But there is a principle, there is a truth, and there is morality: We must demand from ourselves to be there for them,” the letter, quoted by Israeli news site 04040, reads.
The letter will also be sent to the head of the Israeli army medical corps, but has yet to reach its recipients.
As you can appreciate, it’s complicated. We are at war with Syria. But we are somehow finding ways to help where we can.
