Israel is only the size of New Jersey, yet it provided asylum for tens of thousands of refugees from war-torn Sudan, Eritrea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, the Ivory Coast, and the Congo.
Many want to make Israel their permanent home because Israel provides freedom and refuge in a region rife with despotism and intolerance. For these refugees, Israel means life.
Since the fledgling state was born, the basic tenet “if you save one life, it is as if you have saved the world” (Talmud) has informed both Israel’s principles and practices. With 60 years of expertise in emergency response, Israel is always among the first on the scene at international disaster sites.
For instance, in 2010 when Haiti experienced a devastating 7.0 earthquake, Israel immediately sent a team of 250 Israeli doctors, nurses, and rescue workers to Haiti to save lives.
TIME magazine reported that “the Israeli hospital…is the paramount medical center operating in Haiti…It receives the cases that other hospitals find difficult and cannot manage.” In fact, CBS News said, “The Israeli army hospital in Haiti is the ‘Rolls-Royce’ of medicine in Haiti.” And CNN commented, “This is like another world compared to the other [makeshift] hospital” while asking how it could be that the United States had not yet set up a hospital in Haiti while, “the Israelis came from the other side of the world.”
Timeline of Israel International Crisis Relief:
1979–Israel aids refugees from Cambodia
1985–Israel aids earthquake victims in Mexico
1988–Israel aids earthquake victims in Armenia
1992–Israel aids victims of civil war in Bosnia
1994–Israel provides medical aid for refugees from Rwanda
1997–Israel helps extinguish a major fire in Turkey
1998–Israel sends search and rescue team to U.S. Embassy bombing site in Kenya
1998–Israel aids flood victims in Central America
1999–Israel aids refugees from Kosovo
1999–Israel aids earthquake victims in Turkey
2000–Israel provides emergency aid to Ethiopia
2001–Israel aids earthquake victims in El Salvador
2001–Israel aids earthquake victims in India
2001–Israel aids earthquake victims in Peru
2003–Israel aids flood victims in Sri Lanka
2004–Israel aids tsunami victims in Sri Lanka
2005–Israel aids Hurricane Katrina victims in the U.S.
2006–Israel aids earthquake victims in Indonesia
2006–Israel aids flood victims in Romania
2007–Israel aids firefighting in Macedonia
2007–Israel aids tropical storm victims in Mexico and the Dominican Republic
2010–Israel aids earthquake victims in Haiti
2011–Israel aids earthquake/tsunami victims in Japan
