For years, Road to Recovery has helped Palestinians get to medical appointments across the border in Israel, but the Hamas attack on October 7 made its volunteers’ work much harder. more difficult.
In 1993, Yuval Roth’s brother was killed by Hamas. But rather than view Palestinians as dangerous, he joined the Parents Circle-Families Forum, a group bringing together Israelis and Palestinians who lost family members in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
In 2006, a Palestinian member of this forum approached Yuval Roth, asking him to help transport a sick family member to Rambam Hospital in the Israeli city of Haifa.
For years, Palestinian citizens have only been admitted to Israel in exceptional humanitarian cases. And a number of Israelis wanted to make travel out of the Palestinian territories less difficult for people affected by extreme personal circumstances.
Yuval Roth agreed to drive this Palestinian to his meeting and began recruiting some of his friends to help him as well. Soon after, he received a donation from songwriter Leonard Cohen.
With this support, Yuval Roth decided to transform his volunteer collective into a non-profit organization, and Road to Recovery was officially founded in 2010.
In 2018, the group had nearly 2,000 volunteers. In total, they made more than 20,000 trips of patients needing everything from dialysis to organ transplants in this year alone. The organization’s founder says he views this work as an act of reconciliation in honor of his brother.
But since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, which left some 1,200 people dead, everything has changed.
Four Road to Recovery volunteers were killed in the attack; two others, Oded Lifschitz, 83, and Chaim Peri, 79, are still held hostage in Gaza.
Israel’s bombing and invasion of the Gaza Strip, which has claimed more than 20,000 lives, means that Road to Recovery can no longer help the people living there.
Yael Noy, the charity’s executive director, says that despite these restrictions, Road to Recovery can continue to work in the West Bank, but there are fewer checkpoints open today.
Volunteers currently take around 140 people a day to Israeli hospitals.
Although the number of workers has decreased – there were 17 workers at the Noy coordination center before the war and there are only “8 or 9” today – many Israelis are still eager to help those who find themselves in need. other side of the border.
“Everything changed in Israel on October 7”explains the general director to Euronews.
“But from October 8, our organization continued to do what it was doing”she adds.
Yael Noy told us she receives daily calls from Israelis wanting to contribute to the charity’s efforts.
Despite the pain and suffering, these people view Palestinians in need as human beings and understand that not all of them are affiliated with Hamas.
But that’s not what everyone thinks.
“Many Israelis believe that everyone in Gaza is affiliated with Hamas, whether it is a small child or an old lady”recalls Yael Noy, “They say it’s war, that we are enemies and we can’t help the enemy now. But on both sides there are good people and bad people.”
Although Yael Noy says she and her volunteers rarely feel in danger, she tells Euronews she fears the day will come when they will have to face attacks from people opposed to their work.
“We’re not there yet.”she corrects herself.
“After speaking to the press at the start of the war, I received phone calls from blocked numbers. They said very harsh words to me, violent things that they wanted to do to me. Some people would stay at home after such an incident, because it’s easier, but I can’t.”
Yael Noy now lives in northern Israel, near Lebanon, but grew up on a kibbutz.
His parents lived in Kibbutz Alumim, one of the communities attacked by Hamas, and are now displaced.
To make the conflict even more personal, two of Yael Noy’s nephews fought in Gaza as part of Israel’s response to the October attacks.
For many Israelis, the plight of Gaza residents is quite foreign.
“Local media”explains our interlocutor, “rarely cover the thousands of deaths and the lack of food, electricity and water suffered by millions of Palestinians.”
“They need to open their eyes and listen. The majority don’t know anything about this. Even those who know don’t want to talk about it here.”
Road to Recovery receives no government funding and the volume of donations from Israelis has fallen since the start of the conflict. Yet Yael Noy manages to keep the faith, even as his charity remains angry with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his cabinet.
“I’m not a politician. I don’t know what the government can do. But I know what my organization needs. We are holding a small candle of light in this terrible region and we need the support of the whole world.”she says.
“We need support from the whole world, because in Israel, no one will support us now.”
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