The yeshiva protest against the change of blood donation forms in MDA continues: Forty yeshivas and institutions, including thousands of students, have informed MDA that their students will return to donate blood only when the original forms are returned.
At this stage, the MDA organization refuses to return the “country of origin of father” and “country of origin of mother” to the blood donation forms.
As reported in Haredim 10, after yeshivas of religious Zionism and Haredi yeshivas stopped donating blood following the introduction of the definitions “parent 1” and “parent 2” in the medical questionnaire instead of “father” and “mother” – in support of LGBT people, it was announced that the organization would return The original forms, and will allow those who wish to do so to manually change the division.
But later, apparently to avoid confrontation, the possibility of naming a father or mother was completely removed – which led to protests in yeshivas and localities.
Among the institutions that joined the protest are meetings in religious Zionism, some with hundreds of students. The list of yeshivas includes Yeshivat Ma’ale Adumim, Yeshivat Shavei Hebron, Yeshivat Hesder in Eilat, Yeshivat Hesder in Beit She’an, Yeshivat Itamar, Yeshivat Sderot, Yeshivat Olga, Yeshivat Shadmot Mehola, Yeshivat Alon Moreh, Yeshivat HaKotel, Yeshivat Ateret Cohanim, Mechinat Ali, Yeshivat Har Hamor, Yeshivat Nir in Kiryat Arba, Yeshivat Or VeYeshua, Yeshivat Ma’ale Eliyahu, and more.
These are thousands of students, teaching staff and other people associated with these meetings – who have been refraining from donating blood for about two months, following the change in forms made due to pressure from radical organizations.
Until now, MDA has enjoyed the possibility of reaching an institution or yeshiva and thus recruiting a large number of people in a short time, which is not possible now.
The meetings emphasize that they will be happy to return and donate blood as before, but only when the forms are returned to their previous state, and that it all depends on a simple decision by the MDA organization.
One of the leaders of the protest explained: “We stand for our right to continue to donate blood, as we were educated to give and donate, without being re-educated. Take advantage of our contribution to the introduction of radical and progressive agendas. It is impossible for them to use our giving to advance foreign agendas. With God’s help, we will soon donate again in the original forms in which we donated for years. “
Last week, the “Desert as Eden” yeshiva in Mitzpe Ramon sent a letter to the director general of MDA, in which they protest that “Eretz Motza Av” and “Eretz Motza Am” were not returned to the blood donation forms.
The letter stated that there was an attempt to have a dialogue with senior members of the organization about returning the forms, during which the meeting was promised that the previous forms would be returned. But so far MDA has refused to return the “father” and “mother” to the forms.
“We have expressed our sincere and deep desire to continue to contribute, but we believe and educate that family is father and mother and that this fundamental value, for us and for all the people of Israel, we can not give up. Therefore, we asked you to return the previous form in which a very large part of the donors are interested, “reads a letter sent to MDA’s CEO.
Later in the letter, the yeshiva staff noted: “We are very interested in returning and donating blood as we have donated for many years, but we will not pay the price of re-education. Therefore, we inform you with great pain (!) – we will not be able to donate in the meantime and fight for our right to donate blood in a way that is not contrary to our faith and values, and we are sure that in these things we are used here by many. “
Simultaneously with the publication of the list of meetings, blood donations in the settlement of Ali were canceled last week.
A statement sent by the group of the settlement states that on the recommendation of one of the local rabbis, the blood donation that was supposed to take place in the settlement was canceled.
Sources in the settlement say that this move is also part of the fight against MDA, following the change in the forms.