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An Aussie on the frontline

October 15, 2015, 10:02 am Edit
Australian Dovi Meyer, who is on the scene of terrorist attacks as a volunteer for Hatzolah, is pictured in an eerily quiet Yaffo Street in Jerusalem.
Australian Dovi Meyer, who is on the scene of terrorist attacks as a volunteer for Hatzolah, is pictured in an eerily quiet Yaffo Street in Jerusalem.

WHEN terrorist attacks strike in Israel Sydney’s Dovi Meyer is often one of the first on the scene, as a volunteer for Hatzolah.

“If there is a mass casualty incident or a terrorist attack in Jerusalem and surrounding areas I am at the scene as soon as possible,” Meyer, who moved to Israel last year, told The AJN from Jerusalem on Tuesday night.

“Since the end of Succot it has been non-stop.

“I went to Tel Aviv to try and escape for a day, but while I was there in a mall there was a terror attack outside the mall and I attended the scene.”

He said that the unpredictably of the constant wave of attacks is ­something he has never seen before.

The latest round of attacks, which has seen random stabbings using knives and other objects has added an extra level of fear for Israelis.

“You don’t know where, how or when an attack will come, and [it] quickly goes from nothing to something major because it is lone wolves terrorising everyone.”

Meyer said that when you walk past an Arab opening a milk box you think about the box cutter, when you see an Arab fixing something you wonder how dangerous the screwdriver is and when people are walking near the beach in Tel Aviv and hear the sound of a bike they are worried and nervous.

But he said the toughest part is the size of Jerusalem because the attacks are everywhere.

“You walk past places where parents lost their lives, where young children saw horrific things and you have to try and not think about it.

“The only way to cope is not to think about it.”

Meyer said the effect is being felt across Jerusalem.

On Tuesday night when Meyer went for dinner to Jackos, a popular meat restaurant near the shuk in Jerusalem, there was only one waiter.

“I asked her what was going on and she said that ‘no-one came in today, no-one is here.’

“It’s just crazy and a ghost town. No-one is out, no-one is going to work, it’s eerie.”

JOSHUA LEVI

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