Yasmeen Mazzawi, a 25-year-old Arab Christian from Nazareth, the hometown of Jesus, is a testimony there can be unity in Israel.
Israel became a nation 76 years ago on May 14, 1948. Through all the successes and struggles, Magen David Adom (MDA), Israel’s national emergency medical services and Red Cross, has remained a strong and powerful unifying force.
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Yasmeen Mazzawi
Paramedics like Mazzawi and EMTs from every facet of Israeli society serve with MDA: Jews, Christians, Muslims, Druze, and Bahai, religious and secular. They are committed to saving the lives of all in Israel. This commitment leads them into the heart of danger, treating every patient with dedication, dignity, and professionalism.
Mazzawi was encouraged to volunteer by her parents, Fadoul and Suzanne Mazzawi. She remains a volunteer paramedic to this day, one of 30,000 volunteer paramedics and EMTs of the 33,000 who serve with MDA.
“I grew up in a loving home on values of accepting the other and loving the other,” Mazzawi said. “We do not judge anyone for their religion, race, color, or language. We have only one goal: saving lives. That means accepting people no matter who they are.”
While still in high school, Mazzawi made a remarkable and costly decision that reflected her faith and the values of MDA: she visited Auschwitz.
I worked with Jewish people, and they were talking during Holocaust Memorial Day (this year on May 6) about things I did not understand. How could I work with people, and I do not know their history?
“I worked with Jewish people, and they were talking during Holocaust Memorial Day (this year on May 6) about things I did not understand. How could I work with people, and I do not know their history? This history is important to spread to my community, and do not really know about it. To bridge the gap between us, and help people talk together, what better way than to start with myself and this journey.”
Mazzawi took a week off school to travel with the MDA youth delegation to the infamous German concentration camp and extermination center in Poland, where more than 1.1 million men, women, and children, almost exclusively Jewish, lost their lives at the hands of the Nazis during World War II.
“It was a very hard experience,” Mazzawi shared. “We felt what people went through with our five senses. I learned a lot from this experience — the stories we heard, and the things we saw.”
On her return, Mazzawi was not greeted with eager questions or listening ears, but with derision and isolation. “Childhood friends left me, and I found myself alone in school, no one talking with me, spending lunchtime by myself. Imagine how hard this would be for a teenage girl.”
In characteristic fashion, drawing on her own beliefs based in her faith and confirmed by her experience in MDA, she turned loss into opportunity. She began by talking with fellow students at her school and encouraging them to volunteer at MDA. She visited Arab and Jewish schools around the country, sharing her story, and spreading a message of love, respect, and mutual acceptance.
As a result of her courageous communication effort, two of her friends who had stepped back from her in high school decided to volunteer with MDA for their two years of national service. They apologized, agreed that MDA was amazing, and praised her for sharing the story behind Israel.
In addition to her friends volunteering with MDA, hundreds of Arab youth responded to her social media campaign and decided to volunteer as well.
“I knew there would be a price I would pay,” Mazzawi said. “For me, the barrier between Jews and Arabs felt like a glass window. Maybe they see each other and even know each other. They’ve heard things and have these stereotypes about each other. But the way to talk to one another is to break the window. Only as you understand the other can you learn their history, so history won’t repeat itself.
“Someone had to break this window, and get injured, but it will open the door for others. But I also believe, if you treat the wound properly, it will heal.”
“Yasmeen Mazzawi truly reflects the highest values of Magen David Adom,” said Catherine Reed, AFMDA chief executive officer. “This courageous and caring young woman is saving lives in Israel and creating bridges of understanding and mutual concern. Yasmeen and others like her are stamping their unique imprint on the world, and we are so proud that she is a member of the MDA family.”
To learn more about Magen David Adom, visit savinglivesinIsrael.org.
–Clem Boyd | Special to Metro Voicoe | Infinity Concepts
