One would expect the dedication of an ambulance to take place in the parking lot of a hospital, health clinic, or the organization to which the ambulance was donated - but not in a museum.
However, there are always exceptions to the rule, and the bulletproof ambulance donated to Magen David Adom by Samaritan's Purse and Harvest Christian Fellowship was dedicated at the Tower of David Museum in Jerusalem just a few hours prior to the onset of Shavuot.
The date and the venue were not coincidental. King David, who made Jerusalem the capital of the Jewish people, was born on Shavuot, and the museum bears his name.
The ambulance which was the 42nd donated by Samaritan's Purse since October 2023 massacre by Hamas, was dedicated in the presence of scores of MDA personnel, including MDA global president and former Israel ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan past and present MKs and local authority officials, numerous Evangelicals including US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, US embassy staff, three generations of the family of Reverend Franklin Graham, the President of Samaritan’s Purse, Senior Pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship Greg Laurie, and some dozen stills and video photographers.
Also present were returned hostages and members of hostage families including Karina Engel, who, with her two daughters, were abducted by Hamas and returned in November 2023 with the first of the released hostages. Her husband Ronen, an MDA volunteer, was murdered by Hamas and taken to Gaza, where his body is still in captivity. An ambulance in his memory was dedicated in January 2024.
Engel told her story with tears streaming down her face and her voice choked with emotion. She has developed a special relationship with Graham and his wife, who both hugged her when she finished speaking.
Awareness to bring the hostages home
Huckabee said that when he came to Israel, he was asked what he wanted to do during his tenure. Pointing to the yellow ribbon pin on his jacket, he said that he wanted to take it off and never have to wear it again, because that would mean that all the hostages had come home.
Huckabee is familiar with the Samaritan’s Purse, where his wife Janet has been a volunteer for years. He had high praise for the Evangelical aid organization, which he said, shows up wherever there is a calamity in the world and continues to help people who are in harm’s way.
Referencing the saying in Jewish tradition, that he who saves a single life is as one who saves a whole world, Erdan said that through Samaritan’s Purse and Harvest Christian Fellowship, many lives and many worlds had been saved. What they have done, he added, is a powerful proclamation that Israel is not alone. “You answered hatred with hope,” he told the Evangelical leaders.
There was no better place than Jerusalem for the dedication of the ambulance, he said, because Jerusalem is the city holy to Jews, Christians, and Muslims, and MDA staff and volunteers are made up of people of all faiths.
Erdan also pledged that Israel will never waver in its determination to defeat terror, and will never rest until all the hostages have been brought home. He declared that “Israel’s fight is civilization’s fight against terrorism and radical extremism.”
Graham had been curious as to when the first ever hostages were taken prisoner and abducted, and found the answer in the Scriptures in Genesis 14, where Lot is taken hostage and Abraham goes to rescue him. Graham described Abraham as “the first responder of his generation.”
Listing some of the things that Samaritan’s Purse has done, Graham gave credit to many of those present. When President Isaac Herzog had asked him to provide an ambulance for the north of the country, he had turned to Laurie and had impressed on him that the ambulance had to be delivered immediately. In addition, 14 severely damaged ambulances were replaced.
Samaritan’s Purse also concerned itself with people evacuated from their homes and placed in hotels. Instead of giving them food parcels, Samaritan’s Purse gave them gift cards so that they could buy what they wanted and needed. The organization also thought of other ways to help. To determine the needs, Graham has been a frequent visitor to Israel.
Laurie considered it a privilege and an honor to be able to help Israel. “We want to say to the People of Israel and to the Jewish People generally, that we stand with you, and that we want to do something tangible.”
Quoting the biblical blessing given by God to the Children of Israel, Laurie said: “We are an extension of the blessing of the Lord.” He was also proud of the fact that (in 1948) the US had been the first country to recognize Israel’s legitimacy.
In the face of antisemitism, Laurie has spoken aggressively on university campuses across America.
MDA Director General Eli Bin recalled that when watching President Donald Trump's inauguration on television, he had caught sight of Graham, and had sent a WhatsApp message to Erdan asking whether this was indeed their Reverend Graham. When Eldan confirmed that it was Graham, Bin's reaction was, “Now we have two Israel ambassadors in the US.”