Syrian tells of road to Damascus momentthanks to Israel aid group

ShadiMartiniwithDrGeorgetteBennett:“Peoplecanriseabovepolitics,”shesays

SHADI MARTINI was taught to hate Israelis. Born in Syria, he believed they were sub-human.

So when civil war tore his country apart and he was forced to flee in 2012, he was utterly shocked when an Israeli NGO offered to help him.

He explained: “I had committed a crime that was punishable by death — and not just any death, torture. My offence was helping wounded Syrian civilians deprived of their right to medical treatment because of their political views. The Syrian government found out what I was doing and I had to leave my country.”

Mr Martini was still determined to help his fellow Syrians by delivering medical equipment across the Turkish border.

And that is when the Israeli voluntary relief organisation, Israeli Flying Aid approached him offering support.

He said: “It was not the kind of journey that you talk about. You just did it, but apparently even then Syrians and Israelis were speaking and this charity found out about me.”

Deciding to accept IFA’s help was, he said, “more than interfaith; it was like crossing enemy lines. I could not even think of saying ‘hi’ to someone from Israel. It was unthinkable.

“In Syria we didn’t even look at Israelis as human, they were evil, the devil, they were sub-human.”

Mr Martini, who eventually sought safety in the United States and now lives in Michigan, said the approach from IFA changed his life.

“It was very weird. We thought we were abandoned; the Syrian government could do whatever they want, kill as much as they want, and it doesn’t matter. And these people from Israel came to us to say we want to give you aid. We were shocked.

“Of course we had the conspiracy theories everyone believed, and we thought are they Mossad? But the irony was we were taught it was the Israelis who were going to bomb us and drive us out of our land but it was our government doing that to us.”

Mr Martini was visiting the UK this month in his role as a policy advisor to the Multifaith Alliance for Syrian Refugees (MFA).

Made up of nearly 70 faith groups, MFA helps forge partnerships between aid organisations doing similar work.

It was founded by Dr Georgette Bennett, a daughter of Holocaust survivors who has spent over two decades advancing interfaith relations.

She said: “It might sound counter intuitive that I should think about this Syrian Sunni Muslim guy and his compatriots as my brothers and sisters, given that a country that I care very deeply about, namely Israel, and a county which he cares ver y deeply about, namely Syria, are technically in a state of war.

“But I think one of the extraordinary things about this partnership is that people can rise above politics, rise above mutual suspicion and rise above hatred, to build trust and alleviate suffering.”

Mr Martini echoed her call for cooperationamongseeminglyirreconcilable groups. He said: “I don’t represent all Syrians or Muslims but what happened to me, and what we have seen from people working hand in hand to help people, is amazing. “Before our countries had zero co-operation, if now we have five per cent, then that is huge.”

Mr Martini said he was so grateful for help from Israel that on Shimon Peres’ 90th birthday he sent him a video message along with a Syrian flag.

Three years later he was able to meet the former Israeli president. The encounter was eye-opening.

He said: “I was surprised by how similar we are. I realised that we can’t deal with the problems we have if we don’t talk to each other.”

In Syria, we looked at Israelis as the devil, sub-human’