At some point, the young Meshi-Zahav developed an affinity for the police who apprehended him time and again. "I began to see them as regular people who wanted to go home to their families after a day's work," he relates. "I started to see that a lot of things could be settled more easily by just sitting and talking to one another."
With this revelation as a backdrop, on July 6, 1989 Meshi-Zahav heard the explosion and subsequent screams emanating from a bus driven into a ravine by a terrorist. He and some friends rushed to the scene, determined to help tend the wounded and collect scattered body parts and blood for burial.
Though his mother had set a volunteering example with her regular visits to terminally ill patients, Meshi-Zahav knew neither first aid nor forensics. But he knew Jewish laws regarding human remains, and he discovered that no organization in Israel was authorized to do this gruesome but sacred work.
Free Access to Palestinian hospitals
His life took on a new purpose: "Even though we Israelis have different opinions about how the state should be, the time had come to live together." Over the next six years, he lay the groundwork for ZAKA--the only group of its kind worldwide, it is recognized by the United Nations as an international volunteer humanitarian organization. Donations make up most of its funding; about 10 percent of the budget comes from the government.
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| ZAKA in Haiti |
During the Arab uprising or intifada from 2000 to 2006, Meshi-Zahav and about 600 volunteers rarely slept, constantly on alert for the next call. Working knee-deep in blood, Meshi-Zahav was fortified by his faith. "At the time, I thought we were dealing with kavod hamet--honoring the dead. By the end, I realized that we were actually honoring the living, because a family whose loved one cannot receive a full Jewish burial has no rest."
ZAKA developed an avenue for transferring the remains of terrorists to the Palestinian Authority. "Our humanitarian message is the key that allows us to open doors to all communities," Meshi-Zahav says. "Even during [those years], we were going into Palestinian hospitals when we needed to."
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| ZAKA in Haiti |
Today, some 1,500 Jewish, Muslim and Druze ZAKA volunteers carry out lifesaving, rescue and recovery operations in Israel and around the world, garnering numerous awards including a citation from New York City for assistance following 9/11. The organization was one of those from Israel that was
active in Haiti after the earthquake. Awareness of ZAKA's mission has grown in Israel and abroad.
"Before ZAKA, if there was a traffic accident in Israel, paramedics would take care of the injured and a private ambulance would come to take the dead...but if there were body parts, nobody collected them," says Meshi-Zahav. "The firemen would wash down all the blood and that was the end of it. Now it is in the Israeli consciousness to call us instead."
ZAKA has also changed attitudes in the haredi community, now one of its largest pools of volunteers. In the early years, Meshi-Zahav's children were derided at school for their father's close cooperation with official Israeli agencies. But even when the social pressure eased, the time pressure did not. Calls come day and night from ZAKA's hotline or from the army, emergency services, police, firefighters, Homefront Command or foreign governments.
"My typical day's schedule is not fixed by me, but by the angel of death," Meshi-Zahav says. "I have no strikes or vacations."
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| ZAKA at Burned Bus in Carmel Fire |
The Carmel Forest fire earlier at the beginning of December was a case in point.
ZAKA volunteers rappelled down a hill to reach the site of the burned bus carrying prison guards and sift through the charred wreckage to uncover all human remains before the victims were buried. Another team worked to identify the charred bodies.
"The people of Israel owe you much gratitude for the holy work that you have been doing," Interior Minister Eli Yishai told them. While awaiting better times with perfect faith, Meshi-Zahav remains dedicated to his twin missions of disaster response and bettering society.
"In the same way that enemies don't distinguish between different types of Jews, we too must be for everyone," he says.
"Our guiding principle is our belief that all men were made in the image of God."
