Arab volunteers have joined the Hatzolah volunteer ambulance corps that serves Mea Shearim, the Old City of Jerusalem and, now, the Arab neighborhoods that border them.
Fazi (L) and Hezy (R)
Here are some excerpts from Ynet's report:
…The story of Fadi Bahir and Hezy Roth can definitely be adapted into a feature film: Imagine an ultra-Orthodox man dressed in black, entering an Arab neighborhood in east Jerusalem in order to save someone's life. Hours later, an Arab man runs into the heart of the haredi neighborhood of Mea Shearim in order to provide medical care.
This is their story. Hezy and Fadi volunteer together at United Hatzalah, an emergency medical services organization similar to Magen David Adom. Hezy is a resident of Mea Shearim, while Fadi lives in the Arab neighborhood of At-Tur.
Arabs residents from east Jerusalem have recently began volunteering at United Hatzalah, joining the organization's 1,800 volunteers – most of them haredim. They help mostly in Arab neighborhoods, which the Jewish volunteers are often afraid to enter.…
…Fadi [works] as a maintenance man at the Al-Aqsa Mosque. ”I’m approached by people in the middle of Mea Shearim, asking me for help. I have found myself more than once, with or without Hezy, in the middle of a yeshiva – performing resuscitation."
It turns out that the Arab and haredi streets have quite a lot in common. The massive Magen David Adom ambulances find it difficult to make their way between the alleys and are not familiar with the location of houses, and paramedics are sometimes afraid of visiting hostile places.
This is where the interfaith team comes in: They don't [need] any police escort, and can easily find their way on their motorbikes.
"It can sometimes take an ambulance 50 minutes to arrive," says Fadi. "The person can die 10 times on the way.…”
And Hezy adds, "When a person is in danger, he doesn't care who saves him. This connection seems completely natural to us, but we're each considered 'weirdoes' in each other's neighborhoods.”…
You can read it all here.