7266 MDA Memorial Mission Reflections v4

by Daniel Burger, CEO of MDA UK

I left for Israel on 6th October full of trepidation; not for my physical safety but more for my mental health and wellbeing. Running Magen David Adom in the UK means that I am fully immersed in the saving of lives and the post 7.10 world that Israel is now living in. This is all-encompassing and I am not OK, I have really struggled at times. So I was concerned that I didn’t know how I would process the horrors one year on even though this was far from my first visit since that fateful Black Saturday.

And whilst I left Heathrow highly apprehensive, I have come back knowing that there is nowhere else I would rather have been last Monday.

The theme that seemed to follow us around was gratitude and optimism from the minute we landed and the random stranger who shouted Am Yisrael Chai to us at the airport to the final act of planting pomegranate and fig trees just before heading to the airport. Everywhere we went, people couldn’t believe we were here to stand in solidarity with Israel and bring a big hug from the diaspora.

Our group are regular travellers to Israel and some even have a home there, so this was planned to show us experiences, rather than simply going to high-end restaurants in Tel Aviv. This theme started at the M&H Distillery in Tel Aviv. Here is an amazing success story with an Israeli whisky distillery receiving the award for World’s best single malt – yes you heard that correctly! But it didn’t stop there as we had collaborated and bottled Netta’s Story; a whisky aged in one of Netta Epstein’s ale casks.  Netta was murdered in Kfar Aza whilst saving his fiancée Irene’s life. Fast forward 36 hours and we were drinking a toast to Netta outside his destroyed home with his mother; yes it was hard, yes there is so much destruction, yet there is hope. 

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This hope is seen clearly in the multiple vehicle dedications that took place from participants of the mission. These were so special, which of course every dedication is, but having been to the Tkuma Car Memorial and having seen the scale of the horrific atrocities inflicted upon innocent Israeli’s – massacred in their cars with more human remains being found only recently. There is a burnt-out Magen David Adom UK donated ambulance there, so by donating new vehicles we were able to replace the death and destruction with life and life-saving machines. Or perhaps it is the coming together for an ambulance dedication in the Bedouin town of Rahat where we dedicated a first responder car (from our previous mission participants) and we saw the Bedouin Muslim Mayor stand arm in arm with our Jewish Chairman and an Anglican Priest, who is the President of Christian Friends of MDA UK.  

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As we toured, we laughed and we cried in equal measure. We heard our tour guide sob, whilst even the most hardened former Mossad agent who led the hostage negotiations breakdown talking about his son’s unit currently serving in Lebanon and how they lost one of their own.

The MDA teams are truly remarkable and we learnt how they put their lives on the line to save others and how 36 will never be returning to their loved ones. I shall never forget the story of 22 year old paramedic Amit Mann who was found with a bullet to her head and wearing her medical gloves. She stayed in Kibbutz Be’eri to save others whilst knowing that help was not on the way. Her bravery is remarkable and is etched in my mind.

Walking down the ramp from security to the departure area, I looked at the faces of the hostages that were staring up at me. Their posters have evolved over time from simple photos to deeply personalised memorials and as I walked and as I read the names and looked at their faces, it struck me how many of them I feel I now know; yet I have never met them.

I’m not going to sugarcoat it and say it was an easy trip as it was draining, however, I would say….Go to Israel, support the economy, witness a fractured society rebuilding itself. It is not voyeuristic but rather the greatest form of kindness we can offer to Israel. Of course financial donations are much appreciated, yet it is the act of getting on a plane and making the statement that says “what unites us is greater than what divides us.”

I would also like to say a heartfelt thank you to all the participants as well as a big thank you to our exclusive media partner, The JC, and their generous supporters for their contributions to the MDA motorcycle.