Opinion
Your solidarity is making a difference in Israel
While you may feel helpless watching the terrible events of the past week unfold, there are things you can do
October 12, 2023 12:35
2 min read
While you may feel helpless watching the terrible events of the past week unfold, there are things you can do
October 12, 2023 12:35In 2004, when I moved from London to Tel Aviv, aged 31, with no local friends, no job and no plan, so many confused Israelis asked me: “Why did you leave London and come to this crazy place?”
And to me it was simple. Israel is my home. My heart. My love.
I didn’t really have the vocabulary to explain the emotional connection I felt then, and, 19 years on, I don’t have the vocabulary to explain the sheer devastation that I feel now.
As the horror unfolded on Saturday morning, I knew that my world had changed, that my son’s world had changed, and that the Jewish people’s world had changed for ever.
Israel is a small country.
There isn’t a single one of us who isn’t connected to a mourning family or a survivor of the music festival or to someone who is missing or wounded or fighting for Israel’s survival. We feel their despair. And we weep for their loss.
Smoke billows in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon after a rocket attack (Photo: Getty Images)
We try not to ask: “How?” There is time for that later. Rather we ask: “What can we do?”
And as helpless as you may be feeling in the UK watching these terrible events unfold, there ARE things you can do.
Keep your social media accounts active. Share what you feel. Keep sending personal messages of love and support to your friends and family in Israel. We might not be able to reply to each one, but we feel your love and it helps carry us.
We also see so many monuments across the world lit up in blue and white in solidarity with Israel. And it helps.
We see the pro-Israel rallies across the world and the vigils and the world leaders speaking out in support of us. And it helps.
As the head of the UK charity Myisrael, I only know how to do what I’ve been doing for the last 15 years — provide a direct route for people in the UK and around the world who want to help.
The requests we’re receiving feel endless right now.
Units of soldiers on the northern border who need waterproof clothing, mattresses to sleep on and phone chargers so that they can keep in touch with their families.
Thousands of reservists who need underwear and hot food.
Israeli donates blood at a hospital in Tel Aviv (Photo: Getty Images)
