Ten years ago, as a features writer for the Sunday Telegraph, I was reporting on the West Bank when I had an experience that has stayed with me.
As I crossed a ridge near the town of Efrat — home, as it happens, to the Dee family — I saw three small children sobbing in the scalding summer heat. No adults could be seen.
I hurried over, accompanied by my photographer, videographer and fixer. The siblings were peering into a well. Their father had taken them there for a swim, they said. Afterwards, he had gone back in to retrieve a ball. He had not come out.
While the rest of the team phoned the emergency services, led the children into the shade and gave them a drink, I took off my shoes and lowered myself into the well.
The small opening led to a broad cavern that made a natural swimming pool. It was shady and cool and very silent, with slippery walls. Nothing moved. I hunted as best I could in the water but found nothing. After some time, I climbed back out into the blinding sun.
It turned out that Hillel Rudich, a 32-year-old artisan baker, had suffered a heart attack in the well, which was five metres deep. It took volunteers from the Magen David Adom (MDA) emergency services three hours to recover his body.
On that occasion, there was nothing the medics could have done to prevent the nightmare. We had simply stumbled upon the scene too late, and poor Hillel had died before they had arrived. But their dedication and bravery left a deep impression.
These were people with jobs and families of their own, who were giving up their time to do this vital work. Although that day had ended in tragedy, there were many other days that had ended happily as a result of their courageous efforts.
I’m no great philanthropist, but I have donated small amounts to MDA over the years. I have long been inspired by its ethos. Whoever heard of an ambulance service that is run by volunteers?
People from all walks of life keep their equipment to hand and dash off at short notice in case of emergency. More than 26,000 volunteers, from aged 15 upwards, contribute more than a million man-hours per year. Only, as they say, in Israel.
That’s why my fiancée Roxanna and I will be following in the footsteps of JC columnist Rob Rinder — who rose to the same challenge in 2021 — and joining an MDA trek this November, to raise money for much-needed lifesaving equipment for those heroes.
Our hiking route will travel through both Israel and Jordan, reflecting the culture of MDA, as part of the broader International Committee of the Red Cross family. This is a world in which saving lives is all that matters, regardless of race, colour, nationality or religious belief.
The history of MDA is testament to this principle. It was founded in 1930, by a nurse, Dr Mushalam Levontin, as a volunteer organisation, providing medical care to all of Palestine’s residents, whether Jewish, Muslim, Christian or Druze. Those were tumultuous times, and MDA was soon tending to the victims of the many riots and attacks that plagued the Mandate.
They were also divisive times, with internecine rivalry leading to widespread unrest. MDA stood out as a beacon of humanity.
Yet subsequent Israelophobia — as I have come to call it — meant that the International Committee of the Red Cross refused to accept the red Star of David as a recognised symbol until 2006. At the same time, the Palestinian Red Crescent was admitted as the only society without a nation.
This eventually changed, thanks to the efforts of the Arab doctor and respected president of the Jordan National Red Crescent Society, Dr Momammed al-Hadid. Through his lobbying, supported by that of others, MDA eventually took its rightful place in the family of nations.
Today, MDA is responsible for all Israel’s first aid training, and provides and maintains its fleet of 1,716 ambulances, medicycles, lifeboats and air ambulances. It cooperates with the Palestinian Red Crescent, shares expertise internationally on mass casualty events, and collects and supplies 300,000 units of blood annually.
Last year, it opened the world’s most secure national blood bank, a 48,000 square metre facility that can withstand a direct ballistic missile attack, biological and chemical weapons, earthquakes and cyber terrorism. This remarkable work costs money.
That is where Magen David UK comes in. For years, it has maintained an umbilical cord to the Jewish state, sending support to rescue people like Hillel Rudich in the future.
In a region where taking life is sadly widespread, we are honoured to be raising funds to enable them to be saved. Please give generously. Thank you.