Queens helps Israeli Red Cross

As Israel began its assault on the Gaza Strip two weeks ago in retaliation for heavy rocket fire from the area, a fleet of 400 ambulances was mobilized in Israel’s south. With four or five Palestinian-launched rockets and mortars reportedly crashing into cities and towns like Sderot, Ashdod and Ashkelon each day, 40 emergency vehicles - the norm for that region - was just not enough.
Nearly 6,000 miles away, Fresh Meadows resident Gary Perl was busy mobilizing his own troops - fundraisers from Washington, D.C. to New England - whose donations to Magen David Adom (MDA), the International Red Cross’ Israeli affiliate, would provide Israeli medics with $500,000 worth of flak jackets, helmets and portable shelters.
Since Israel launched its attack - which has since turned into a ground war against the militant group Hamas - Perl, the Northeast Regional Director of American Friends of MDA, the organization’s fundraising arm and sole representative in the U.S., has seen a surge in financial support. This, in spite of the economic downtown, which hindered Perl’s overall fundraising efforts in 2008.
With one million Israelis within range of rockets fired from Gaza, Perl explained, death, serious injury and shock are inevitable. And New Yorkers, including thousands in neighborhoods like Forest Hills, Bay Terrace and Fresh Meadows, have stepped forward to help MDA take action.
“We’re the first responders to car accidents, to any type of accident or major or minor catastrophe,” Perl said of MDA’s 12,000 Israeli volunteers, many of whom are Arab-Israelis. “With what’s going on now, we’re the first responders for all emergencies.”
MDA provides Israel with its entire blood supply and the organization’s National Blood Services Center was on high alert as a six-month Israeli-Palestinian cease-fire came to an end on December 19.
While MDA is government-mandated to respond to emergencies, the organization is “not political in any way and we don’t take any political stance over here either,” Perl cautioned.
Donors are mostly families - Jewish and Christian - according to Perl. And because MDA volunteers must speak Hebrew and have extensive medical services training, munificent individuals cannot just hop a plane and lend a hand.
Nonetheless, Perl has been fielding calls from donors inquiring where their loved ones in Israel can donate blood. The town of Sderot alone has been pounded over the past six years by 5,000 Qassam rockets and 5,000 mortars by Perl’s count - and “When there’s an emergency like that,” Perl said, “obviously either people get killed or they get injured…”