The social media network has played a sometimes controversial role in Operation Protective Edge. It has helped keep friends and family in touch following rocket attacks, but it has also been the source of false and hurtful rumors about the status of IDF soldiers. Now, groups of concerned citizens are using WhatsApp and other social-media applications to connect in benefit drives for soldiers on the front.
Many official organizations help civilians in Gaza-area communities and the men and women in uniform. But the real community feeling of Israel is shining through via social media, where hundreds of regular citizens have decided to organize clothing, toys, food and just-about-anything drives for their fellow compatriots.
It started with a call by some IDF soldiers for more underwear and socks via WhatsApp that went viral and even across borders. Now, almost every neighborhood has a point person collecting something for the men, women and children on the frontlines. Social media channels are used to connect them with those who want to contribute.
Gedaliah and Elisheva Blum, parents of four children from the town of Eli, set up a website to raise money to buy pizza for IDF soldiers on the front. Their goal was to raise enough money for 1,000 pizzas.
“The response that we received from Jews and Christians all over the world was truly remarkable,” Gedaliah told Breaking Israel News. “Here we have a wide range of people whose only connection is that they all want to help Israel; they all feel connected in some way and therefore help out.”
The couple raised some $16,000 in four days from donors around the world. Now they have a “re-extended goal” of donating 3,000 pizzas to soldiers. They’ve also initiated an underwear campaign.
Actually, there’s a whole slew of pizza campaigns. Marc Rosenbluth runs a pizza joint in Ginot Shomron and uploads photos of the happy soldiers who get fed through charity donations.
PizzaIDF is another Israeli organization set up by three people who know that battle rations are not especially delicious. They started the project in 2002 during Israel’s Operation Defensive Shield and have sent soldiers hundreds of pizza pies and care packages over the years.
(via Israel21c)
[Photo: Israel Defense Forces / Flickr]