This holiday season, an Arab Christian from Nazareth is risking her own life to help save the lives of countless Israelis.
Yasmeen Mazzawi is a 20-something Israeli who works full-time as a business analyst but volunteers as a paramedic during her off-hours with Magen David Adom (MDA), Israel’s national emergency services organization that provides lifesaving care in emergencies. MDA volunteers rushed into the devastation on Oct. 7, 2023, to rescue and treat those in need. Mazzawi was among those working that day -- and among those who tirelessly served throughout the years during other missile attacks from Israel’s enemies.
She’s a volunteer this holiday season, too, and has volunteered with MDA since she was a teenager.
“I grew up in a house that was open to people, to cultures, to religions. Our very close friends were Jewish,” Mazzawi told Crosswalk Headlines. “And for my parents, it was very important that their kids be an integrated part of the Israeli society and to volunteer and give back to the community -- even without any return.”
MDA’s values, she said, are her values: “loving others, no matter who is the person, no matter their religion, color, race or gender.”
MDA has the government-mandated role of responding to emergencies within Israel. It is the nation’s official representative to the International Red Cross and relies on donations and volunteers. MDA has some 30,000 volunteers.
When others are running away from terrorist attacks, MDA volunteers race toward them. Often, she and her colleagues are forced to dodge missiles.
She has nearly been hit, she said, “many times.”
“We had some times that we were on our way to the patients, and we had to stop on the side of the road and get out of the ambulance and lay on the ground and then go back and make our way to the patients,” she said, referencing terrorist attacks within Israel. “That was very challenging.”
The day of the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks, she said, she was scheduled to fly to Germany for an academic event. But when the country was attacked, she canceled her flight.
“The first thing I did is call the MDA calling center and check where I had to go,” she said. “That’s the only thing I did that day.”
Photo Credit: ©MDA
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
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