Magen David Adom Director Eli Bin announced on Sunday that at 3:00PM Israel time, MDA would be cancelling services to a number of locations inside Judea and Samaria and closing ambulance stations throughout the region. In an official statement, Bin said: “From 3:00 p.m. on Sunday, all of the MDA support stations throughout Judea and Samaria will scale back services or be closed completely. This comes after the intervention of Deputy Health Minister Yaakov Litzman at the beginning of the month who promised that he would succeed at obtaining the missing budget and asked us to postpone the closure for three weeks. As stated, the deadline has passed and the stations will close.”
Bin, who has been threatening to close the stations since January, continued to state, during an interview with IDF radio that: “I am saddened to say that no solution has been yet found to the financial crisis. At 3:00 p.m. we will announce the closure of the stations.”
Regional council heads for Gush Etzion and Samaria chastised both Magen David Adom and the Health Ministry for not finding the budgetary solution to keep the services open.
Gush Etzion Regional Council Head Shlomo Ne’eman said: “I call upon the men and women of Magen David Adom and their head Eli Bin to retract this ridiculous decision. What happens if there is an emergency and the services of MDA are needed in the future? When the security situation is so tense, it is irresponsible to play with the lives of our people. It is inconceivable that residents of Gush Etzion or other areas in Judea and Samaria be classified as second class citizens when it comes to receiving services, especially when these are lifesaving services.”
According to Regional Council Head for Samaria Yossi Dagan, the move places thousands of lives in Judea and Samaria council at risk. “The government of Israel and MDA should be ashamed. While there’s a right-wing government, the Prime Minister’s Office, the Health Ministry, Finance Ministry, and the National Organization of MDA cut budgets a week after a terrible attack. I’m ashamed of how my government is behaving. Magen David Adom National Organization of the State of Israel – this is a disgrace.”
The Judea and Samaria Sub-committee Chairman for the Knesset MK Moti Yogev (Jewish Home) attacked the decision by Eli Bin and Magen David Adom to close stations in Judea and Samaria.
“The decision of the MDA Director to close from today some of the emergency stations of MDA services in Judea, Samaria, and the Jordan Valley, is an irresponsible decision that borders on risking life.”
Yogev suggested an alternate plan to break this game of chicken that Magen David Adom has been playing with the Treasury. While speaking with the Director of the Prime Minister’s Office Yogev said: “The Prime Minister’s Office is supposed to sum up today with Deputy Health Minister Litzman the budgetary arrangement with MDA for 2019 and thereafter, or alternatively, deciding to transfer responsibility and budgets to United Hatzalah to operate throughout Judea, Samaria, and the Jordan Valley.”
Yogev added: “To abandon these areas, including where there are many road accidents and an increasing security threat, is an irresponsible decision that, if life will be lost because of it, will be on the heads of those who have to bear this responsibility.”
In a statement made later in the day following the public outcry, MDA said that they would push off the closure by 24 hours and close the stations beginning on Monday at 3:00 p.m.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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One Response
IMO i think this has something to do with the religious nature of Yehuda & Shomron
also the #1 birthing center in israel is Betar in Yehuda (even more so then Bnei Brak
but what do i know in the world is israeli politics