The Zaka Identification, Extraction, and Rescue organization has inflated data regarding the number of its volunteers, receiving millions of shekels on the basis of these figures from the state for years – this is the conclusion from documents and testimonies .
According to an official Interior Ministry document, in recent years the organization has reported having over 3,000 volunteers in its ranks, yet documents and testimonies by senior figures in the organization show that it has 1,000 volunteers at most. In addition, one of the threshold requirements for state funding is the training of volunteers, but over 10 individuals have told that they have not received the required training in recent years.
The organization denies the allegations.
There are several nongovernmental organizations in Israel operating under the acronym Zaka that devote themselves to identification and treatment of casualties of disasters and road accidents, but only two meet the threshold requirements for funding from the Interior Ministry Zaka Identification, Extraction, and Rescue, founded by Yehuda Meshi-Zahav, who died this year, and A Moment of Truth Zaka, founded by Zvi Hassid. While the latter operates only in the Tel Aviv area, the former is Jerusalem-focused, but claims to operate all over the country.
The rest of the Zaka organizations operate on too limited a basis to qualify for support and don’t meet requirements that include over 200 active volunteers, periodic training and refresher courses, and more.
To receive funding, the two large organizations respond to open calls by the Interior Ministry seeking “to support non-profit organizations aiding in the field of treatment of casualties as a result of mundane or unnatural events.” The Interior Ministry concentrates the budget received for this purpose from several government ministries – interior, defense, public security, health, religious services and social equality – and transfers it to the organizations.
Zaka Identification, Extraction, and Rescue, colloquially known as Zaka Jerusalem, whose director is Dubi Weissenstern, receives most of its budget from government ministries. In 2015, the organization received 1.3 million shekels ($334,000), and it has been receiving financial aid every year since then. In 2018 the budget reached 3.4 million shekels, and in 2019 and 2020 the organization received 2.6 million shekels each year.
The budget allocated to each organization is determined by a scale set by the Interior Ministry, where points are given for each active volunteer in the organization, each specifically trained volunteer, and each case handled by the organization. This is in addition to the number of municipalities where the organization is active and the scope of the population it serves.
Documents obtained by Haaretz show that in 2018, the organization reported 2,650 active volunteers and 520 volunteers with specific training, and in 2019 the organization reported some 2,000 active volunteers and another 950 volunteers with specific training. In 2021 the organization reported 3,846 volunteers.
However, Haaretz has obtained an internal organization document from 2021 showing that the volunteer list in major areas of operation – the Jerusalem region and the Judean Hills – has only around 250 names. Furthermore, a major organization operative admitted in a private conversation that the organization has fewer than 1,000 volunteers.
“If you count everyone, including logistics people, then there’s around 1,000 volunteers,” the operative said. “Jerusalem and Beit Shemesh have no more than 150 volunteers. The organization makes stuff up in the official documents to get budgets.”
In an interview with Channel 14 last month, Weissenstern said that the organization has around 1,000 volunteers who work with the police. “Close to a thousand,” Weissenstern clarified, saying that “those thousand volunteers undergo all the levels of qualification by the police – who can enter an incident scene, how to treat a scene, how to conduct yourself at a scene.” He added that there are over 2,000 volunteers awaiting police clearance since a change in the regulation last year that requires volunteers to be trained by the police before the can enter the scene of the incident.
According to the Interior Ministry’s support procedure, it gives funding to organizations that act to aid with the treatment of casualties in case of terror attacks, road accidents, fires, collapsed structures, and more, at which police are always present. It is unclear what the other thousands of volunteers reported by Zaka are doing, insofar as they exist, if only 1,000 volunteers are cleared to enter incident scenes.
Weissenstern’s comments match a police document from May 2021 stating that the number of Zaka Jerusalem volunteers known to the police throughout the country stands at only 850 – and this includes the Tel Aviv area, which is covered by the other Zaka organization.
One of the major stipulations for Interior Ministry support is to conduct basic training of the volunteers upon commencement of their activities and periodic training once every six months thereafter. However, over 10 Zaka Jerusalem volunteers told that they have received no training in the past two years. “We were at trainings a few times, but the last training was many years ago, over 10,” said one volunteer. Another added: “We receive training from time to time. Maybe once every two years.” Another volunteer says he has never been trained by the organization. “I didn’t do any courses. The organization is crumbling. Everybody inside knows it.”
The Interior Ministry said in response: “The budget allocation among those requesting support is set forth in regulations, where according to the criteria, it was determined that information regarding the number of volunteers, number of incidents, and more.
There is no requirement for names, ID numbers and/or addresses, and random sample tests of the data are conducted regularly. About a year ago a complaint was received that one of the organizations is submitting false data, following which an in-depth examination was launched, to be continued this year as well. The Interior Ministry reserves the right to deduct sums and also collect them, should material faults in the reporting be uncovered.”
Despite the Interior Ministry’s claim that it has no lists with the details of the volunteers, in response to a freedom of information request filed in 2021, it admitted to possessing such a list “which includes much personal information,” and objected to its publication on grounds of privacy.
Zaka Identification, Extraction, and Rescue said in response: “The article is replete with lies, inaccuracies, and half-truths. As Israel’s rescue organization, Zaka operates some 4,000 volunteers, and operates throughout the country from north to south. Its volunteers are divided into seven districts, and each district has a commander and borders. All the volunteers operate under the Zaka organization or Zaka Tel Aviv, which belongs to Tel Aviv District, and all Zaka volunteers which report to the authorities undergo periodic training throughout the year. We regret that rather than have organizations that committed deliberate fraud being outlawed, their false allegations are given a platform by the newspaper.”
