On December 25th, Deputy Health Minister Yaakov Litzman, who was recently questioned by police for allegedly protecting a woman suspected of serious crimes from extradition to Australia, sent a letter asking Communications Minister Ayoob Kara to close the emergency number “1221” for United Hatzalah’s Dispatch and Command Center.
According to reports in Kan News, the letter issued by Litzman (seen below), states that it was sent to Minister Kara at the behest of Magen David Adom’s lawyers and that the Ministry sides with MDA and believes that United Hatzalah should not have an emergency number.
Litzman said that the country should only have one emergency number, that of Magen David Adom’s 101, and that United Hatzalah should get the information from them.
According to sources in the Israeli Charedi media, earlier in the same week, Litzman held a meeting with the leadership of United Hatzalah just before he wrote that letter and assured them that he would make sure that the organization and its volunteers receive all of the information needed to enable them to continue responding to medical emergencies in Israel.
Litzman had asked the leadership of United Hatzalah to cancel a planned protest that was scheduled to take place outside the Health Ministry protesting the lack of information being transferred by MDA to United Hatzalah and the seeming powerlessness of the Ministry to force MDA to comply with the agreement signed in May 2017.
Litzman assured United Hatzalah leadership that he would make sure that the information was sent over. Days later he sent this letter to Kara, unbeknownst to United Hatzalah.
The letter was leaked to United Hatzalah recently. It was also used by American Friends of Magen David Adom in the United States as part of a campaign to convince donors that they should not donate to United Hatzalah as their dispatch center was likely to close at some point in the future, thus harming the funding to the organization.
It is important to note that while Magen David Adom is partially funded by the government and also relies on donations, United Hatzalah receives no money from the government and relies solely on donations. An attack of this nature, therefore, strikes at the very core of the existence of United Hatzalah.
President and Founder of United Hatzalah Eli Beer spoke about the letter sent by Litzman and the email passed around by American Friends of MDA and said: “I feel very positive about United Hatzalah right now. We continue to grow from day to day and our dispatch is still assisting our volunteers in providing emergency response to more than 1,000 emergency incidents per day. Magen David Adom is still not sharing all of the information that they receive to our volunteers in spite of the Health Ministry mandating them to do so and in spite of the new Health Ministry phone application that our volunteers now carry.”
Beer continued, “After United Hatzalah began to offer free emergency service to anyone in Israel and broke the monopoly of Magen David Adom who charges for their service of transporting patients and saving lives, MDA began trying every avenue they could to protect their interest and have people only call them and not call other organizations or ambulance services that may arrive faster.”
When asked if Litzman’s letter will bear fruit, Beer responded: “Legally they can’t take away our number. And while Ministers come and go, United Hatzalah is here to stay.”
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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20 Responses
And he calks himself RAV?
This snake in the grass should be fired, but he won’t be because political alliances & holding on to power are more important than the safety & welfare of Israel’s citizens. Litzman is beneath contempt.
But you’re not chareidi if you don’t vote for this crook.
Assuming there are no discrepancies with this story and all the facts are corroborated, this is shameful and Litzman should resign (this time fully, not to make a lousy pathetic political statement) IMMEDIATELY!
I thought as a charedi MK he would at least have some human decency, I was wrong.
I have said this before and I will say it again, I strongly feel that Israeli Politics (mainly having to do with the religious – the entire spectrum) is one of the main barriers to the bias goel tzedek……
Its these kind of shenanigans that keep me from voting for the Haredi parties. I would rather vote Likud and know what I am getting.
The American experience of Hatzalah has proven a volunteer organization provides more timely and dedicated service that the government sponsored service. Why not let the charedi and volunteer service do its best without interference? MDA has proven to be a selfish and stubborn organization with questionable moral guidelines. Where is the freedom to provide our own brand of health service?
I have regularly been impressed with Litzman’s work, and healthcare has dramatically improved during his time as minister. הוו מתונים בדין – sure it’s possible that here’s a bad guy trying to squash what he sees as competition. But it’s also possible that he believes that having a secondary system — not accountable to anyone — will undermine the effectiveness of the primary system and will cause long-lasting harm, even if in the near-future and in many individual cases it’s better than what’s already there. Are all of you equally angry that NYC doesn’t let hatzolah have a 912 number?
Personally I give him the benefit of the doubt and would wait to hear his explanation for this. I’m sure that no one here will draw rash conclusions, and call him a crook or a snake, without hearing his side. As a health minister for the entire country, Litzman is responsible not only for individual cities and individual people, but he’s responsible to develop policies that benefit the country at large.
WHY MORE MACHLOKES IN AM YISRAEL???
I’m not sure if anyone is aware of this but it is a known fact that litzman does not make a single move without consulting his rebbe, the gerrer rebbe first, so litzman may not entirely be at fault.
for allegedly protecting a woman suspected of serious crimes from extradition to Australia,
SADLY VERY SADLY THIS IS WAY TO COMMON IN FRUM COMMUNITIES
STAND UP AND PROTECT Y-O-U-R CHILDREN
So u mean to say that thr gerer rebbe , besides litzman is also responsible for allowing rebitzin leifer and rabbi mondrowitz to walk away scott free?
Given that Litzman acts only after consulting the rebbe, I am curious if commentators will still use the inappropriate terms of snake and crook to describe him. Would they use those adjectives about the rebbe himself, chalilah?
“I have regularly been impressed with Litzman’s work, and healthcare has dramatically improved during his time as minister.”
So explain to me about the measles epidemic that broke out under his watch . . .
tgsm
February 25, 2019 7:12 am at 7:12 am
I’m not sure if anyone is aware of this but it is a known fact that litzman does not make a single move without consulting his rebbe, the gerrer rebbe first, so litzman may not entirely be at fault.
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Thats like saying that i pray to god before any move i make, so if i mess up, dont blame me.
Since when is being backed by a rebbe or political figure going to get you brownie points?
So Rabbi Hoffman, forget about the distraught father writing about his pain over his daughter not getting accepted into a seminary and questioning if it was lashon hora to write it. What do you say about this article which is clearly either lashon hora or motzei
So Rabbi Hoffman, forget about the distraught father writing about his pain over his daughter not getting accepted into a seminary and questioning if it was lashon hora to publish it. What do you say about this article which is clearly either lashon hora or motzei shem ra? Should this article have been posted?
TGSM: I would be very careful about suggesting that this absolutely stupid and corrupt decision was in fact made by Rav Alter.
Also, does anyone here know for certain if MDA goes over the “Green Line”?
I understand Litzman very well that 2 emergency numbers cause confusion at a time when minutes or seconds are of essence. A victim or their bystanders my spend precious minutes deliberating which number to call.
On the other hand it would be outrageous for MDA to hinder the work of United Hatzolo in any way if true.
Is MDA a life-saving organisation than they must support and cooperate with any other body in the field. Or are they an enterprise than they have no right to do any fundraising!
@dkbmd This whole medinah is miakev bies hagoel…