AT THE same time that Israeli police and Palestinian youths were battling each other at the Temple Mount holy site in Jerusalem last week, a life was being saved nearby by a new emergency rescue project that brings together ultra-Orthodox Jews and Arabs.
As the clashes were going on at the site, known to Moslems as al-Haram al-Sharif, two Arab medics from the new east Jerusalem branch of the ultra- orthodox Jewish Ihud Hatzolah rescue service were arriving at the scene of a heart attack of a 45-year-
old Arab woman in the Ras al-Amud neighborhood.
The medics were able to carry out a successful resuscitation, recalled Murad Alayan, head of the new branch. One of them then drove the woman to an ambulance of Israel's national rescue service, Magen David Adom (MDA), that was waiting on the edge of the neighbourhood and continued her treatment.
Arrival time of MDA ambulances at Arab addresses in Jerusalem is a contentious issue, with Palestinians complaining of frequent delays that cost lives. MDA officials say that after its ambulances – which are adorned with its Red Star of David – came under attack in recent years upon entering Arab areas, it was decided that they should wait at the edge of neighbourhoods until police escorts arrived.
That is why medics who live inside Arab neighbourhoods and know their way around them who can get to the scene early can make the difference between life and death. Indeed it was the death from a heart attack last year of an Arab man after an ambulance arrived too late that prompted Eli Beer, the director of Ihud Hatzolah, and Mr Aliyan, from the Arab Beit Safafa neighborhood, to launch the effort.
"Murad said let's save some lives in east Jerusalem and I said why not," recalls Beer.
"Why not help them so they won't have to wait until the security escort comes or until they find the address? If a three-year-old is choking, for him to have to wait for an ambulance is a death sentence.
"I went to different rabbis and leaders and everyone from right to left said it's a great deed, it's saving lives, the most important thing in the Torah (Old Testament]," Mr Beer said.
MDA says it already has well-equipped Arab medics inside east Jerusalem who can get to the scene before its ambulances do. But Palestinians and Ihud Hatzolah say they are not meeting the need.
"Jerusalem has supposedly been united for 42 years," said Bernard Sabella, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council from east Jerusalem. "The Israelis keep telling the world it's united but when it comes to ambulances and deaths it's not united."
Last month, 30 volunteer and paid paramedics and nurses from east Jerusalem began their work for Ihud Hatzolah. They were issued state-of-the-art equipment and several were given motorcycles.
"The population is embracing us because they know that we are doing it for their sake," said Mr Aliyan.
The vests and motorcycles do not have Hebrew lettering, only the name of the organisation in English and Arabic.
Mr Aliyan and 11 other Arabs also help by working in ultra- orthodox areas, including the Modiin Ilit settlement in the occupied West Bank, on the Jewish Sabbath. This means ultra- orthodox medics need not worry about having violated the Sabbath if a call turns out to be not life-threatening. Under Jewish law, working on Sabbath is permissible only if done to save lives. One of the Palestinian medics last week saved the life of a woman in the ultra-orthodox Mea Shearim area who had a heart attack.
"Our GPS located him. The GPS doesn't know if he's Jewish or non-Jewish, religious or non-religious," Mr Beer said. Mr Aliyan puts it this way: "We keep politics to a minimum. Our ideology is to save lives, nothing more."
