Israel’s Hatzalah Emergency First Response Organization Wins US Peace Prize

Israel’s emergency first-response organization, United Hatzalah, is being honored by the Institute of International Education with the 2013 Victor J. Goldberg IIE Prize for Peace in the Middle East. The prize is being presented to Hatzalah founder Eli Beer and Murad Alyan, a Palestinian first responder, “In recognition of their work in bringing Jewish and Arab volunteers together to provide immediate emergency services to all people, without regard to race, religion or national origin.” The organization has been in the forefront of developing a remarkable response time of less than 3 minutes to emergency calls for medical assistance. United Hatzalah crews are typically first on the scene, treating and stabilizing patients before ambulances arrive to transport the patient. The Hatzalah paradigm is being used by other life saving organizations in Israel.