Ofra, Israel - After shrapnel from friendly fire smashed into his skull during a fierce battle during Israel’s war in Gaza in 2014, Yehuda Hayisraeli, an Israeli soldier, lay for months in a coma. Yet when he was finally able to leave the hospital, the Defense Ministry refused to pay for the expensive home care and handicap-accessible facilities because his parents live in Ofra, a Jewish community in the Binyamin region that is partially built on privately-owned Palestinian land.
Faced with the bureaucratic red tape, the Hayisraeli family turned to the Israeli public via the popular crowdfunding site Headstart 
. Amazingly, donations poured in and in just a few hours they had met their goal of 600,000 Israeli shekels (approximately US$156,000) to build home care facilities for Yehuda. By Sunday that amount had more than doubled, raising close to 1.5 million shekels (approximately US$375,000) – a whopping sum – from close to 8,000 individual donors.
“We are still in shock from what happened in the last few days. Religious, secular, Left and Right are coming together and overcoming bureaucracy to help this soldier go home,” Yoni Hayisraeli, Yehuda’s uncle, told Tazpit Press Service (TPS). “We are a family of fighters and we won’t give up even for a moment. We feel the huge embrace of the Israeli people saying, ‘our soldier needs to go home.’”
“We never thought the funds would come so quick. It’s literally beyond our wildest dreams,” said Sara Haetzni, head of the Zionist activist group My Israel who initiated the crowdfunding project, in an interview with TPS. “It really is amazing. It’s Israel at its finest.”
Haetzni noted that the money came from thousands of small donors from across Israeli society and the political spectrum. Kids donated pocket change and parents with children serving in the IDF wrote checks. “I generally don’t like when people say ‘it’s not an issue of right-wing or left-wing,’ but in this case it really is like that,” she explained.
Hayisraeli was hit by friendly fire during the “Black Friday” battle of August 1, 2014 in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Just an hour after a ceasefire was declared, an Israeli force was ambushed by Hamas fighters who emerged from a tunnel. Lt. Hadar Goldin was kidnapped – apparently still alive – and dragged through the tunnel, at which point Israeli forces initiated the controversial emergency Hannibal Protocol calling for massive firepower designed to prevent a hostage situation, even at the risk of harming Israeli soldiers.
Goldin was later declared killed in action, but Hayisraeli was critically wounded by shrapnel that entered his skull. After nearly two years of intense recovery, he is finally ready to continue his healing at home – thanks to thousands of ordinary Israelis who contributed.
“It’s not about money,” Haetzni told TPS. “Well, it’s not only about money – it’s about a lot of love and helping a soldier get home.”
Update: Newly appointed Minister of Defense Avigdor Liberman said in a press conference Monday that the government will supply all necessary infrastructure materials for Hayisraeli’s continued recovery at his home in Ofra, describing the issue as one of “humanitarian concern” that extends beyond the realm of politics.
