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ZAKA זק"א - איתור חילוץ והצלה - חסד של אמת is an abbreviation for: "Identifying Victims of Disaster" (in Hebrew: Zihuy Korbanot Asson). It is a community emergency response team in the State of Israel, officially recognized by the government. The organization was founded in 1989 by Yehuda Meshi Zahav and Rabbi Moshe Aizenbach.
Functions
ZAKA members, most of whom are Orthodox Jews, assist ambulance crews, identify the victims of terrorism, road accidents and other disasters, and when necessary gather body parts and spilled blood for burial. They also voluntarily provide first aid and rescue services and help in search for missing people.
Main roles:
- Identify victims of disasters, accidents and terrorist attacks (with forensic experts).
- Gather body parts and spilled blood and bring them to proper Jewish burial.
- Supply first aid in a scene of disaster.
Secondary roles:
- Assist in searches for missing persons.
- Rescue services.
- Education.
- Preventing road accidents.
- Voluntary activities such as helping elderly people.
- Help the medical staff in hospitals.
History
ZAKA started when a group of volunteers got together to assist in recovery of human remains from a terrorist attack on a Line 405 bus in 1989. In 1995 they were officially recognized by the Israeli government and work closely with the Israeli police, identifying disaster victims.
ZAKA activity extanded rapidly during the al-Aqsa Intifada (October 2000 and henceforth) and the daily suicide bombings which created many scenes of mass-disaster with body parts spread all around. The devotion of ZAKA and the professional manner in which they handled the hard and targic scenes was awarded by highly positive public reputation and love, which enabled ZAKA to recruit more volunteers and purchase advance equipment (such as first aid kits, ambulances, MIRS and motorcycles for fast-response) from donations who grew rapidly.
The increasement in reputation, donations and menpower enabled ZAKA to participate in more voluntary activity beside of identifying victims of disaster and supply first aid. Such other activities include help to senior citizens and activities to prevent road accidents.
Hessed shel Emet
The founders and members, however, prefer to call the organization and their work Hessed shel Emet ("true kindness") because of their dedicated work to bring bodies of slain Jews to be buried according to Halakha (Jewish Torah law). The phrase Hessed shel Emet applies to doing "kindness" for the benefit of the deceased, which is considered to be "true kindness", since a reward is not expected.
Public reputation
ZAKA has gained positive public opinion because of its devoted conduct in treating the bodies of the victims killed by terrorist suicide bombings, and their great contributation to Israeli society.
ZAKA's founder, Yehuda Meshi Zahav, was given the honor of lighting an honorary beacon on Israel's 55th Independence Day official ceremonies on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem, the revered burial spot of modern Zionism's founder Theodor Herzl.
ZAKA also gained positive reputation worldwide when they sent a delegation of forensic experts to assist in the Tsunami disaster of 2004 in Thailand, Sri Lanka, India and Indonesia.
Demonstrating
Recently, a group of ZAKA volunteers flew to The Hague, Holland, with a skeleton of the burnt bus destroyed on January 29th, 2004 in a Jerusalem suicide bombing. The skeleton of the burnt bus, along with picture of 950 victims of Palestinian terrorism., were flawn to Washington DC to urge the US to act against Palestinian terrorism [1] (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/040506/ids_photos_ts/r2007434042.jpg).
See also
External links
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![[1]](http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/040506/ids_photos_ts/r2007434042.jpg){kind=link}