By Yasmeen Abu Fraiha, M.D.
BE’ER SHEVA, Israel — Growing up my mother would always tell me: “When you are eating and there is someone hungry next to you, your duty is to give them your food.”
After the horrors of October 7, when the New Israel Fund took the unusual step of helping to provide humanitarian aid to Israelis—the displaced, the families of hostages, and the most marginalized members of our society, I knew how important that was. I served as a doctor in a Be’er Sheva emergency room on October 7, and I saw first-hand just how much need there was, and how NIF could help. Now, we can no longer stand by in the face of the humanitarian disaster taking place in Gaza. As hundreds of thousands are facing famine, we must show support and compassion to families in need in Gaza.
This Ramadan, as I was fasting, I couldn’t help but think every day about the terrible hunger and suffering in Gaza—those who do not know where their next meal is coming from, the thousands of children who have been left without a family and no one to feed them, the parents who can’t find food for their babies, the wounded and the elderly who depend on others to survive, and for all those who went out to look for food and did not return. As a human, my heart breaks.
The right to life, water, and food is the most basic human right, and we—supporters of the New Israel Fund—can hold two truths at once:
Last weekend, there was a harrowing attack on Israel from Iran which comes on the heels of the horrific attack Israeli society experienced six months ago, which left in its wake, immense pain and grief, which we still feel. There is so much uncertainty.
And also, right now, people in Gaza are facing a daily nightmare of destruction, loss, and hunger. These things are both true, and neither comes at the expense of the other. Our hearts and thoughts are with everyone facing the strain of war, and our hearts are big and wide enough to feel pain for any innocent person. Give now.
Help get humanitarian aid to Gaza.
The day we become indifferent to the hunger of others, we will know that we have lost our humanity. But if we are able to have compassion, recognize the suffering of the other, see them as human beings and reach out to help, then we will know that the repair—the tikun—that we seek, has begun.
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Yasmeeen Abu Fraiha, a member of the Bedouin Arab community, is a board member of the New Israel Fund.
The NIF is definitely Not Israel’s Friend.