|
My name is Aron Adler. I am 25 years old, was born in Brooklyn, NY and raised in Efrat Israel.
Though very busy, I don't view my life as unusual. Most of the time, I am just another Israeli citizen. During the day I work
as a paramedic in Magen David Adom, Israel 's national EMS service. A t night, I'm in my first year of law school. I got married
this October and am starting a new chapter of life together with my wonderful wife Shulamit.
Fifteen to twenty days
out of every year, I'm called up to the Israeli army to do my reserve duty. I serve as a paramedic in an IDF paratrooper unit.
My squad is made up of others like me; people living normal lives who step up to serve whenever responsibility calls. The
oldest in my squad is 58, a father of four girls and grandfather of two; there are two bankers, one engineer, a holistic healer,
and my 24 year old commander who is still trying to figure out what to do with his life. Most of the year we are just normal
people living our lives, but for 15-20 days each year we are soldiers on the front lines preparing for a war that we hope
we never have to fight.
This year, our reserve unit was stationed on the border between Israel , Egypt and the Gaza
Strip in an area called "Kerem Shalom." Above and beyond the "typical" things for which we train - war, terrorism, border
infiltration, etc., this year we were confronted by a new challenge. Several years ago, a trend started of African refugees
crossing the Egyptian border from Sinai into Israel to seek asylum from the atrocities in Darfur . What started out as a small
number of men, women and children fleeing from the machetes of the Janjaweed and violent fundamentalists to seek a better
life elsewhere, turned into an organized industry of human trafficking. In return for huge sums of money, sometimes entire
life savings paid to Bedouin "guides," these refugees are promised to be transported from Sudan , Eritrea , and other African
countries through Egypt and the Sinai desert, into the safe haven of Israel.
We increasingly hear horror stories of
the atrocities these refugees suffer on their way to freedom. They are subject to, and victims of extortion, rape, murder,
and even organ theft, their bodies left to rot in the desert. Then, if lucky, after surviving this gruesome experience whose
prize is freedom, when only a barbed wire fence separates them from Israel and their goal, they must go through the final
death run and try to evade the bullets of the Egyptian soldiers stationed along the border. Egypt 's soldiers are ordered
to shoot to kill anyone trying to cross the border OUT of Egypt and into Israel . It's an almost nightly event.
For
those who finally get across the border, the first people they encounter are Israeli soldiers, people like me and those in
my unit, who are tasked with a primary mission of defending the lives of the Israeli people. On one side of the border soldiers
shoot to kill. On the other side, they know they will be treated with more respect than in any of the countries they crossed
to get to this point.
The region where it all happens is highly sensitive and risky from a security point of view,
an area stricken with terror at every turn. It's just a few miles south of the place where Gilad Shalit was kidnapped. And
yet the Israeli soldiers who are confronted with these refugees do it not with rifles aimed at them, but with a helping hand
and an open heart. The refugees are taken to a nearby IDF base, given clean clothes, a hot drink, food and medical attention.
They are finally safe.
Even though I live Israel and am aware through media reports of the events that take place on
the Egyptian border, I never understood the intensity and complexity of the scenario until I experienced it myself.
In
the course of the past few nights, I have witnessed much. At 9:00 PM last night, the first reports came in of gunfire heard
from the Egyptian border. Minutes later, IDF scouts spotted small groups of people trying to get across the fence. In the
period of about one hour, we picked up 13 men - cold, barefoot, dehydrated - some wearing nothing except underpants. Their
bodies were covered with lacerations and other wounds. We gathered them in a room, gave them blankets, tea and treated their
wounds. I don't speak a word of their language, but the look on their faces said it all and reminded me once again why I am
so proud to be a Jew and an Israeli. Sadly, it was later determined that the gunshots we heard were deadly, killing three
others fleeing for their lives.
During the 350 days a year when I am not on active duty, when I am just another man
trying to get by, the people tasked with doing this amazing job, this amazing deed, the people witnessing these events, are
mostly young Israeli soldiers just out of high school, serving their compulsory time in the IDF, some only 18 years old.
The
refugees flooding into Israel are a heavy burden on our small country. More than 100,000 refugees have fled this way, and
hundreds more cross the border every month. The social, economic, and humanitarian issues created by this influx of refugees
are immense. There are serious security consequences for Israel as well. This influx of African refugees poses a crisis for
Israel . Israel has yet to come up with the solutions required to deal with this crisis effectively, balancing its' sensitive
social, economic, and security issues, at the same time striving to care for the refugees.
I don't have the answers
to these complex problems which desperately need to be resolved. I'm not writing these words with the intention of taking
a political position or a tactical stand on the issue.
I am writing to tell you and the entire world what's really
happening down here on the Egyptian/Israeli border. And to tell you that despite all the serious problems created by this
national crisis, these refugees have no reason to fear us. Because they know, as the entire world needs to know, that Israel
has not shut its eyes to their suffering and pain. Israel has not looked the other way. The State of Israel has put politics
aside to take the ethical and humane path as it has so often done before, in every instance of human suffering and natural
disasters around the globe. We Jews know only too well about suffering and pain. The Jewish people have been there. We have
been the refugees and the persecuted so many times, over thousands of years, all over the world.
Today, when African
refugees flood our borders in search of freedom and better lives, and some for fear of their lives, it is particularly noteworthy
how Israel deals with them, despite the enormous strain it puts on our country on so many levels.
Our young and thriving
Jewish people and country, built from the ashes of the Holocaust, do not turn their backs on humanity. Though I already knew
that, this week I once again experienced it firsthand. I am overwhelmed with emotion and immensely proud to be a member of
this nation.
With love of Israel,
Aron Adler writing from the Israel/Gaza/Egyptian border.
|
