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Created to aid in crises abroad, these Israeli nonprofits are applying their expertise at home for the first time
(JTA) — As community manager of his kibbutz in Israel’s south, Asaf Artel, 52, oversees all social aspects of Kissufim’s 120 member families. On Oct. 7, Artel was able to guide Israeli troops while they rescued people from the kibbutz via walkie talkie from inside his safe room, where he spent several hours with his wife and three children.
Fifteen people from the kibbutz were murdered that day; others remain missing. But within 24 hours, Artel and other kibbutz leaders were able to evacuate everyone else to safety, finding refuge at the Leonardo Plaza hotel in the Dead Sea, where they remain.
Their arrival and the ensuing day were “utter chaos,” he said. “Everyone was in trauma, everyone was in pajamas and barefoot. There was lots and lots of crying.”
Then, three days after the attack, the lobby of the hotel was suddenly filled with blue shirts of IsraAID workers. “That was the moment I knew we were in good hands,” Artel recalled.
Artel’s confidence came from personal experience. He had volunteered with IsraAID in 2016, flying to Louisiana following catastrophic flooding there, and had since been recruited for five dispatches to the United States.
Now, he has found himself on the receiving aid of IsraAID’s relief — a reflection of how intensively the Oct. 7 massacre by Hamas of Israel’s southern communities has overturned norms in Israel.
After having worked in 62 countries around the world, for the first time in its 22-year history, the organization has mobilized its resources to address a humanitarian crisis on its home soil. It is drawing from its expertise in managing complex emergencies, particularly those involving terror and displacement, to navigate the current situation in Israel.
IsraAID’s CEO, Yotam Polizer, draws parallels between the necessary relief needed in the wake of the Oct. 7 attack and other terrorism-related events, including a 2021 mission he led to evacuate 205 girls from Afghanistan following the Taliban takeover as well as a 2014 mission to assist Yazidi victims of ISIS.
“I’m not comparing exactly what they went through to what people in Israel went through, but there are definite similarities,” he told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
IsraAID CEO Yoram Polizer speaks about his organization’s shift to domestic aid after focusing exclusively on international crises since its founding. (Deborah Danan)
Polizer also highlights IsraAID’s proficiency in managing protracted conflict zones, such as Ukraine — one of the 16 countries where the organization is currently operating — and the emerging need for sustained humanitarian engagement.
“Without even talking about the security-political side of things, just purely from a humanitarian perspective, we’ve never had anything like it,” Polizer said, noting that his group is working to aid the families of the murdered, the thousands more who were injured, those with abducted family members, and the estimated 300,000 displaced persons.
The reason, he said, was that IsraAID understands urgent relief efforts are only the start of the process, and that the journey towards recovery and resilience is a “marathon, not a sprint.”
IsraAid is not the only Israeli nonprofit to redirect its activities home. Innovation: Africa usually applies Israeli technology to support solar energy and clean water in Africa; now, it’s deployed to help soldiers power their mobile devices and lights in the field. And NATAN Worldwide Disaster Relief, unable to send its volunteers abroad because of the war, has set up medical and dental clinics to serve Israelis evacuated from their homes in the north and south, near the front lines of conflict.
All three groups are members of OLAM, a network of 77 Jewish and Israeli organizations working in the fields of global service, international development and humanitarian aid. OLAM decided to work as one with a different network of Israeli development groups, SID-Israel, because of the unprecedented nature of the current crisis, according to OLAM’s CEO, Dyonna Ginsburg. Neither network had ever played a role during a crisis in Israel before, she said.
“Over the past month, Israeli organizations whose raison d’etre is to respond to crises abroad have rightfully understood the unprecedented and immense needs in Israel, and deployed staff and volunteers at home,” Ginsburg said. “Remarkably, many have done so while continuing their efforts to support those abroad.”
Ginsburg said the moment had provided her with an answer to questions that she had long encountered in her work.
“Before the war, I often encountered people who questioned why Jews or Israelis should invest resources in supporting vulnerable non-Jews who live far away,” Ginsburg said. “Underlying this question is an assumption of a zero sum game: you either give to internal Jewish needs or you support universal concerns. I believe this is a false binary.”
Groups with experience in disasters abroad can bring insights that Israel can benefit from, according to Polizer, who wryly refers to the initial surge of support following humanitarian disasters as “aid festivals.” He coined the term to encapsulate the chaotic influx of well-intentioned individuals who want to help but don’t necessarily know the best ways.
“It’s such a train station of people coming and going. We knew that this would happen,” he said. “Everyone wants to send their grandmother’s socks, you know, as a donation, which is very nice, but not very helpful.”
Moreover, even volunteers with relevant expertise tend to offer short-term assistance, often leading to more harm than good, a scenario that Polizer has witnessed in disaster zones all over the world and one that is currently unfolding in Israel. He cites post-trauma mental health support as the most prominent example of this.
“There are a lot of people — even professionals — with great intentions who are coming in and talking to these people who are deeply, deeply traumatized. If that’s done very short term, or if it’s a one time intervention or debriefing process, you could actually do a lot of harm. You could create triggers for people.”
Polizer also highlights missteps made by the aid community, noting a tendency to rush into making assessments and mapping out short and long term needs.
“I’ve seen a lot of organizations all over the world who come in and write it all down and then send a full report of what is needed. But by the time they get the support, the funding, and the procurement, things have changed already, the reality has changed.”
In a perverse stroke of luck, some of those mistakes have been avoided simply because there wasn’t a heavy influx of aid groups in Israel following the attack. In the wake of humanitarian disasters, the typical protocol usually involves U.N. agencies such as OCHA, along with various international aid entities, establishing a cluster system to streamline and coordinate the response to various needs.
But that can only happen when neither the government nor the civil society has the ability to meet the basic needs of the population. In such cases, the government itself would need to request the aid, which in this case it didn’t. (JTA confirmed with Mashav, the Foreign Ministry’s development arm, that Israel had not put out such a call.)
Still, in many cases, Polizer notes, such organizations would decide to help nonetheless. Chef Jose Andres’ World Central Kitchen is bolstering IsraAID’s efforts with direct aid — in the form of providing meals — for Israel’s asylum-seeking community and the local Bedouin population that have been affected by the war. But apart from that, most of IsraAID’s partnership organizations, such as UNICEF and the WHO, are sending money in lieu of on-the-ground aid.
“A lot of them are actually sending us funding, so they’re supporting us,” he said. “They said, ‘OK, we can’t respond, they don’t need our help but we will strengthen the capacity of an organization like IsraAID.’ So we of course appreciate that.”
Around 20 NGOs are currently operating in Gaza, where the humanitarian needs are acute as Israel prosecutes its war on Hamas. The majority of Palestinians living in Gaza have been displaced from their homes in the last month, according to the United Nations.
“The other side of course is that a lot of them are focusing on the Gaza side of things,” Polizer said. “I can’t comment on whether it’s also a political decision to decide not to respond.”
He added, “I think for a lot of them it actually makes sense that we are responding and that we are the leading humanitarian organization in Israel in that space.”
The key to mitigating the common issues associated with overzealous civil or aid response, he said, is building a collaborative and trust-based recovery approach that works hand in hand with the community, and that keeps on reevaluating the needs of the hour and “filling in the gaps.”
He cites establishing an ad hoc school for the residents of Nir Yitzhak who are currently in a hotel in Eilat as the most recent example of addressing an unexpected need. The community’s leaders asked IsraAID to help open a school because the kids are “losing it,” he said.
“There was no structure for the school. So we put a tent out that is near enough to the bomb shelter. But it’s freaking hot. So you need an air conditioner. So we procured two mobile air conditioners,” he said.
“Another gap is that we don’t have teachers, because either they were drafted to reserves, or worse, they were kidnapped or murdered. Unfortunately we’re hearing these stories all the time.”
In such cases, IsraAID takes responsibility for sourcing both the teachers and the necessary funds to cover their salaries as an interim solution until Israel’s education ministry can pay their wages. “Sometimes it’s about finding really quick solutions and minimizing the bureaucracy,” Polizer said.
Immediate relief efforts prioritize children, recognizing their particular susceptibility to trauma. Yet this focus is twofold, he said: by supporting children, it also grants parents the space to “breathe and start taking stock of their lives and look at the next steps.”
Artel agrees. “Before you can make a routine, you need an education system. Because when that doesn’t work, it takes all of us out of routine. That’s what we’re doing now and it automatically releases so much of the pressure.”
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The post Created to aid in crises abroad, these Israeli nonprofits are applying their expertise at home for the first time appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Blinken Says Russia Received Missiles From Iran, Warns of Threat to European Security
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaks during a strategic dialogue meeting with Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Lammy at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) in London, Britain, Sept. 10, 2024. Photo: Alberto Pezzali/Pool via REUTERS
Russia has received ballistic missiles from Iran and will likely use them in Ukraine within weeks, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Tuesday, warning that cooperation between Moscow and Tehran threatens wider European security.
Blinken, speaking at a news conference in London ahead of a visit to Kyiv alongside Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Lammy, said Washington had privately warned Iran that providing ballistic missiles to Russia would “constitute a dramatic escalation” and said new sanctions would be imposed later on Tuesday.
“Russia has now received shipments with these ballistic missiles, and will likely use them within weeks in Ukraine, against Ukraine,” Blinken said, citing intelligence that he said has been shared with US allies and partners around the world.
The supply of Iranian missiles enables Russia to use more of its arsenal for targets that are further from the front line in Ukraine, Blinken said.
“This development and the growing cooperation between Russia and Iran threatens European security and demonstrates how Iran‘s destabilizing influence reaches far beyond the Middle East.”
Russia was also sharing technology with Iran, including on nuclear issues, he added.
Additional US sanctions on Iran will include the airline Iran Air, and other countries are also expected to announce new sanctions, Blinken said.
The post Blinken Says Russia Received Missiles From Iran, Warns of Threat to European Security first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Prominent Brown University Trustee Resigns, Condemns Upcoming BDS Vote
More than 200 Brown University students gathered outside University Hall where roughly 40 students sat inside demanding the school divest from weapons manufacturers amid the Israel-Hamas war. Photo: Amy Russo / USA TODAY NETWORK via Reuters Connect
A trustee of the Brown University Corporation has resigned from his position, citing the body’s upcoming vote on a proposal to divest the school’s investments linked to Israel or companies that do business with it.
“I disagree with the upcoming divestment vote on Israel,” hedge fund manager Joseph Edelman wrote in an op-ed, published in the Wall Street Journal on Sunday, explaining his decision. “I am concerned about what Brown’s willingness to hold such a vote suggests about the university’s attitude toward rising antisemitism on campus and a growing political movement that seeks the destruction of the state of Israel.”
As previously reported, Brown University agreed in May to hold a vote on divestment from Israel, a demand put forth by the anti-Zionist student Brown Divest Coalition (BDC). In exchange, BDC dismantled a “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” they had lived in illegally for three weeks to protest the Israel-Hamas war and the university’s academic and economic ties to Israel. According to The Brown Daily Herald, Brown president Christina Paxson initially only promised the protesters a meeting with members of the Brown Corporation, but the students pushed for more concessions and ultimately coaxed her into making divestment a real possibility.
In May, representatives of BDC met with the Brown Corporation for preliminary talks, the Herald has reported. Since then, they have submitted a report outlining their recommendations for divestment to the university’s Advisory Committee on University Resources Management (ACRUM). ACRUM will, by Sept. 30, review it and issue its own report of recommendations, which Paxson will forward to the Brown Corporation. So far, the president has described their discussions positively, saying in a letter to the campus community that “the members of the Corporation expressed appreciation to the students for sharing their views and perspectives.”
Edelman castigated the university for acceding to demands he says are rooted in antisemitism and murderous intent.
“It’s no coincidence that leading pro-boycott groups have ties to terrorist organizations that seek the annihilation of the Jewish people,” he wrote. “In the end, that is the goal of the BDS movement, and I can’t accept the treatment of a hate movement as legitimate and deserving of a hearing. Brown’s policy of appeasement won’t work. It’s a capitulation to the very hatred that led to the Holocaust and the unspeakable horrors of Oct. 7.”
He added, “It’s as if the Brown board has agreed to vote on whether Israel has a right to exist, and even whether Jews have a right to exist. I consider the willingness to hold this vote a stunning failure of moral leadership at Brown University. I am unwilling to lend my name or give my time to a body that lacks basic moral judgement. I hereby resign from the board of trustees.”
Despite being reputed as one of the most progressive colleges in America, Brown University has until recently fiercely guarded its campus against the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement, which aims to isolate Israel from the world community as the first step towards its destruction. Just months ago, Paxson ordered arrests of dozens of students for unlawful activity and rejected BDS even after BDC amassed inside an administrative building and vowed not to eat until she capitulated.
“We consistently reject calls to use the endowment as a tool for political advocacy on contested issues,” Paxson said in a letter to the students participating in the hunger strike. “Our campus is a place where difficult issues should be freely discussed and debated. It is not appropriate for the university to use its financial assets — which are there to support our entire community — to ‘take a side’ on issues on which thoughtful people vehemently disagree.”
Paxson’s sudden concession to a group that has cheered terrorism and anti-Jewish hatred could lead to “immediate and profound legal consequences,” two dozen attorneys general warned in a letter late last month.
“It may trigger the application of laws in nearly three-fourths of states prohibiting states and their instrumentalities from contracting with, investing in, or otherwise doing business with entities that discriminate against Israel, Israelis, or those who do business with either,” the missive, written principally by Arkansas state attorney Tim Griffin, explained. “Adopting that proposal may require our states — and others — to terminate any existing relationships with Brown and those associated with it, divest from any university debt held by state pension plans and other investment vehicles, and otherwise refrain from engaging with Brown and those associated with. We therefore urge you to reject this antisemitic and unlawful proposal.”
Thirty-five states in the US have anti-BDS laws on their books, including New York, Texas, Nevada, Illinois, and California. Tennessee passed one in April 2023, and in the same year, New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R) issued an executive order banning agencies from awarding contracts with companies participating in the BDS movement. The justice system has repeatedly upheld the legality of such measures. In February 2023, the US Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge to Arkansas’ anti-BDS law, which argued that requiring contractors to confirm that they are not boycotting Israel before doing business with the University of Arkansas is unconstitutional. Several months later, a federal appeals court dismissed a challenge to Texas’ anti-BDS law, ruling that the plaintiff who brought it lacked standing.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post Prominent Brown University Trustee Resigns, Condemns Upcoming BDS Vote first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Russia Calls Iran ‘Our Important Partner’ Amid Reports of Missile Transfer
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian meets with Russian Security Council’s Secretary Sergei Shoigu in Tehran, Iran, Aug. 5, 2024. Photo: Iran’s Presidency/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS
Russia on Monday called Iran “our important partner” while failing to explicitly deny reports that it received short-range ballistic missiles from Tehran to use in its war against Ukraine.
The comments were the latest indication of increased coordination between Moscow and Tehran, a burgeoning partnership that has alarmed Western countries including the US.
CNN and the Wall Street Journal reported last week that Iran had transferred the missiles to Russia, as Moscow continues to wage war in Ukraine after its 2022 invasion.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Monday said of the reports that “this kind of information is not true every time.” However, he quickly touted Russia’s relationship with Iran and said the relationship would continue to grow.
“Iran is our important partner,” he told reporters. “We are developing our trade and economic relations. We are developing our cooperation and dialogue in all possible areas, including the most sensitive ones, and will continue to do so in the interests of the peoples of our two countries.”
Meanwhile, Iranian officials adamantly denied reports of supplying Russia with missiles.
“We strongly reject allegations about Iran’s role in sending weapons to one side of the war and we assess these allegations as politically motivated by some parties,” Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said at a press conference.
Separately, a senior commander in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, an internationally designated terrorist organization, refuted the reports.
“No missile was sent to Russia and this claim is a kind of psychological warfare,” Fazlollah Nozari was quoted by the Iranian Labour News Agency as saying. “Iran does not support any of the parties to the Ukraine-Russia conflict.”
Despite the denials, Ukraine’s foreign ministry said on Monday it had summoned a senior Iranian diplomat to warn of “devastating and irreparable consequences” for bilateral relations if the missile reports were correct.
“Iran must completely and definitively stop providing weapons to Russia in order to prove with actions, not words, the sincerity of its political leadership’s statements about non-involvement in fueling the Russian war machine of death,” the ministry said in a statement on Saturday.
US officials expressed alarm over the idea of Iran supplying Russia with missiles.
“Any transfer of Iranian ballistic missiles to Russia would represent a dramatic escalation in Iran’s support for Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine,” the White House said.
CIA Director William Burns warned of the growing and “troubling” defense relationship between Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea while speaking at a public event in London over the weekend. He said their increased coordination and cooperation threatened not only Ukraine but also Western allies in the Middle East.
The European Union (EU) described as “credible” information provided by allies indicating Iran has supplied short-range ballistic missiles to Russia to help Moscow wage war in Ukraine.
“We are aware of the credible information provided by allies on the delivery of Iranian ballistic missiles to Russia,” EU spokesman Peter Stano said. “We are looking further into it with our member states and, if confirmed, this delivery would represent a substantive material escalation in Iran’s support for Russia’s illegal war of aggression against Ukraine.”
Stano added that the EU “will respond swiftly and in coordination with international partners, including with new and significant restrictive measures against Iran.”
Western and Ukrainian officials have dismissed denials of Iranian weapons transfers in the past. Russia has been receiving Iranian-made Shahed drones since 2022 and using them against Ukraine, according to analysts and government officials.
Reuters and other media outlets also reported earlier this year that Iran sent ballistic missiles to Russia for use against Ukraine, indicating the latest reported missile transfer wasn’t the first.
Warming ties between Moscow and Tehran have extended beyond military matters. For the past two years, Iran and Russia have been working on a major comprehensive bilateral agreement to strengthen cooperation in a wide array of areas. Officials from both countries have said in recent months that the deal will be signed in the near future without elaborating.
The post Russia Calls Iran ‘Our Important Partner’ Amid Reports of Missile Transfer first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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