The Love Is Best Fund invites donations toward medical and humanitarian aid for Palestinian and Israeli victims of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. Two aid organizations, one Israeli and one Palestinian (full details below), will each receive 50% of your donation. These aid organizations were chosen because they are working on the ground in Israel and Gaza right now: your donation will go directly to the terrain of the conflict, where it is most needed. This is a humanitarian, apolitical project for innocents.
Los Angeles wall art. (Wall artist: not known. Photographer: Zoe Marie Bel.)
"Love is best," writes Robert Browning in the knockout final line of his war poem 'Love Among The Ruins'.
In the spirit of those words, the Love Is Best Fund is a donations drive responding to the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict that does not require you to pick a side. Your donation is split equally between humanitarian aid for the Israeli and the Palestinian people.
This is an innocents project, wholly apolitical. It was created to unite people of all creeds in taking action for the innocent, regardless of politics and identity.
It is a space to honor the value of human life, per the Jewish principle of pikuach nefesh (פקוח נפש), and to refuse to let human distinctions and divisions blunt us to suffering. When war is unavoidable, the urgency of the need of care for all is never greater.
This fund is not itself a charity. It uses GiveWheel.com to funnel your money to two existing charities: Medical Aid For Palestinians, and Magen David Adom. That means 50% of whatever you give will fund medical aid for Palestinians, and 50% will fund the same for those in Israel presently reeling from the atrocity of the Hamas incursion on October 7th 2023.
50% to Palestinian aid
50% to Israeli aid
Medical Aid for Palestinians has worked with Palestinian communities for 37 years and delivers locally-led health and medical care to those worst affected by conflict, occupation and displacement. The charity writes, "Today we have offices in the West Bank, Gaza, Jerusalem, Lebanon and London. With our extensive local knowledge and experience, we work closely with communities, hospitals, clinics and healthcare providers to coordinate care and medical aid even where there are severe restrictions on access." (Source.) Transparency statement: For every donation to Medical Aid for Palestinians, 89% is spent directly on helping people through charity activities, and 11% goes toward the charity's operational costs. (Source.)
Magen David Adom is Israel’s national medical emergency, disaster, ambulance and blood service, and is recognized by the International Committee of the Red Cross as the national aid society of Israel. Its fleet of 1,716 Ambulances, Mobile Intensive Care Units and Medicycles are stationed at 168 stations all over Israel. The charity writes, "Magen David Adom is intrinsically woven into the fabric of Israeli society, but it actually pre-dates the establishment of the State of Israel, having been founded by volunteers in 1930. It has been a foundation stone of Israeli society, ever since its legal status was set out in the ‘Magen David Adom Law’, passed by Israel’s Parliament (the Knesset) on July 12th 1950." (Source.) Transparency statement: For every donation to Magen David Adom, 100% is spent directly on helping people through the charity's activities. The charity writes, "We are not keeping any operating costs back from the emergency campaign." (Source: Michelle Smith, MDA UK, October 19th 2023.)
Note that this is a change in charity for the Jewish aid side of the fund, effected October 17th 2023 at the suggestion of World Jewish Relief, the original charity recipient. Formed in 1933 to support German Jews under Nazi rule, World Jewish Relief was a leading organiser of the Kindertransport that rescued 10,000 German and Austrian children from Nazi Europe. (Source.) Because their present operations are not inside Israel, World Jewish Relief encourage support for Magen David Adom, who work directly on the ground in that country, delivering real-time medical and humanitarian aid to all Israelis.
In the spirit of not having to pick a side, you cannot adjust the split: it is fixed at 50% to each charity.
No money is handled by me personally; funds are automatically channeled to the designated charities. GiveWheel.com will ask for a small contribution toward its operating costs on top of your donation; you may decline by clicking the 'set this amount to 0%' link below the contribution options.
As a Jew, I vibrate at the core of my soul with grief and horror at the murder and brutalization of innocent Israelis by Hamas. Equally, I am appalled by the ongoing loss of life and suffering of innocent Palestinians in Gaza, of whom Hamas is not representative.
The common aspect to both those peoples is innocence. It is innocence for which I stand and for which I mourn throughout this conflict - and I do so without concern for nationality, religion, political position, or anything else. (By that definition, Hamas and other criminal parties to this conflict are excluded emphatically from my sympathies. They are not innocent.)
Help spread the word about the Love Is Best humanitarian donations drive. A tear-off flyer is now available for supporters of this project to print at home and post in public space. The file is a print-ready PDF. It's designed in color but may be printed attractively in black-and-white too. (Download the color file below and print as black and white.)
Please choose display location with care: for example, ask permission from the noticeboard owner, if applicable, and be sure you're not trespassing or defacing private or state property when posting the flyer. Thank you!
*File is PDF (17 MB); opens in new window.
This is a project seeking to extend care to all people. In keeping with that founding ethos, I have zero tolerance for any and all expression of hate toward entire peoples on either side in this conflict. If you carry any kind of anti-Semitic or anti-Palestinian animus, kindly go shout in a bucket - your voice is not wanted here. Thank you.
