Britannia Radio

Magen David Adom Changes the Borders of Israel
Yehudit Tayar

The Red Star of David, or as we know it here in Israel, Magen David Adom signed an agreement in 2005 with the Red Cross that MDA will work only within
the "internationally recognized borders of Israel" and thereby will cease the medical assistance in the Old City of Jerusalem, Gilo, Pisgat Ze'ev, Ramat Eshkol, French Hill, Ramot, (to name a few neighborhoods of Jerusalem that are affected by this agreement ), Judea, Samaria, the Jordan Valley, and the Dead Sea Region. In other words MDA agreed to cease rescue services outside of the pre-1967 borders.

Already the first implementation of this agreement has been the removal of the symbol of MDA from our ambulances in Judea and Samaria.

We, the volunteers on the ambulance are still called out by MDA to try and save lives. We get the calls from MDA with the old number that was removed from the ambulance and not the new one that was placed recently as a part of the signed agreement with the Red Cross. We are on call 24/7 and yet MDA never even told us volunteers that they basically agreed that we are no longer an accepted part of our own country.

We, the heads of Yesha, along with MK Uri Ariel and MK Arieh Eldad, are planning to push forward in the Knesset a bill demanding the MDA to cancel this agreement, and as the official medical organization of Israel to protect Israeli interests, citizens and Land no matter where they live. The Minister of Internal Security has already passed a new resolution in the Knesset that MDA will no longer be the exclusive rescue organization of the State of Israel.

Not a word was said to any of us - hundreds of volunteers - regarding this vile agreement that MDA signed until the word leaked out. When I asked the heads of MDA what this meant, I was told that the symbols would be removed from the ambulances and then after the inspection we could replace them. Talk about duplicity….

These ambulances were leased for the immediate medical response to emergencies in Israel, and the donors who gave their money in order to save lives now rightfully, as we volunteers do, feel betrayed.

Any organization representing Israel must respect the lives of all the citizens of Israel and not draw their own new borders because of monetary greed. MDA surreptitiously signed an agreement, never mentioned the implications of this agreement with the Red Cross, and thus betrayed not only the Israeli citizens, the volunteers in our ambulances but also the donors who gave their money with the understanding that MDA also serviced our communities.

In order to bring pressure to MDA to do the right thing, their Israeli and International offices must get phone calls and emails. MDA must retract this agreement immediately and if not, it is not acceptable they remain the medical organization for the State of Israel.

In order to bring pressure to MDA to do the right thing, their Israeli and International offices must get phone calls and emails.


Yehudit Tayar was on the steering committee of the Yesha Council to bring MDA ambulances into Yesha (since previously it was MDA policy not to have ambulances in Judea, Samaria and Gaza), and serves as a volunteer emergency medic, as well as one of the veteran spokespeople for the Jewish pioneers who live in Yesha.