Anyone seeing images of the national treasure of Israel’s beaches - enjoyed and cherished by so many people throughout the year - in such a state of devastation was undoubtedly struck with a heavy heart and a sense of gloom. This was compounded by images of helpless wildlife washed ashore covered in oily residue.
But amid that despair were images to provide a glimmer of hope. Thousands of volunteers – from environmental groups to youth movements to IDF units to individual concerned citizens – have spent their time over the last two weeks busy in the arduous task of collecting and removing the tar from beaches and rescuing injured wildlife.
“The volunteerism in Israel has been amazing. Over 11,000 people came within a week,” Maya Jacobs, CEO of Zalul, an environmental organization devoted to protecting Israel’s seas and streams, told Israeli website ISRAEL21c.
Iris Hann, CEO of the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel, added, “It was so heartwarming to see people coming with gloves and nylon bags to gather tar from the sand. It gave me so much hope, because even if the government doesn’t do enough, the public is very committed.”
The beach cleanup efforts were organized by the Nature and Parks Authority, which supplied gloves, buckets, plastic bags, bags for shoes, sifters and shovels, and large bags to collect the tar.
The EcoOcean NGO which, with the cooperation of the Environmental Protection Ministry, also provided equipment and dispatched some 250 trained volunteers to 22 coastal municipalities.
One volunteer who helped to clean up Betzet, near Rosh Hanikra, told The Jerusalem Post that efforts were organized and focused.
“The volunteers came as individuals or small groups from the area and were given sections of the beach to clean,” he said. “It was hardly a festive atmosphere, but it was a friendly setting where strangers met and felt a common bond of anger and sorrow over the ecological blow, but also one of satisfaction to be able to do something about it.”
The tradition of volunteerism is nothing new in Israel, but over the last year it has grown even more prominent. The COVID-19 pandemic left significant segments of society isolated and others in severe financial straits.
Volunteer programs emerged to do everything from distributing food to the needy, to buying groceries for the housebound elderly, to making socially distanced house visits to those locked in. One grassroots example is the “Keeping in Touch” program launched by University of Haifa students to aid the city’s elderly during the pandemic.
“They just needed someone to talk to, even over the phone. This is true not only during lockdown, but the whole year,” said Liat Epstein, one of the initiators of the project.
When it comes to the volunteerism spirit in Israel, one of the first names that comes to mind is Yehuda Meshi-Zahav, the founder and chairman of the lifesaving organization ZAKA Search and Rescue.
On Independence Day next month, the colorful personality is scheduled to be awarded the Israel Prize for Lifetime Achievement and Special Contribution to Society and State.
“It’s a proof that this is the right way, that things can be different, and that every single person has an ability to help, contribute and volunteer,” Meshi-Zahav said in reaction to the announcement that he would receive the prize, adding that one of his main goals is to unite the nation and country through volunteer work and helping those in need.
That sentiment has certainly spread far and wide in Israeli society, and has only been magnified by the tragedy on Israel’s coast. Although humans have the power to do unmitigated damage, they also have the ability to harness an even stronger power to help each other and the world around them. That spirit is being demonstrated in Israel on a daily basis. We salute the country’s volunteers.