On 30 April 2021, a crowd disaster at a religious gathering on Mount Meron killed 45 people. In its immediate aftermath, long queues formed outside Magen David Adom blood-donation stations across Israel as people sought to give blood for the victims. Donors in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square were also documented in a municipal photograph.
The distinctive feature was not only the scale of need but the way concentrated goodwill exceeded the system’s capacity to collect it. MDA eventually asked people in line to go home and return another day. Arab and Druze communities near Mount Meron also offered accommodation, food and other assistance to people stranded after the disaster.
Those in this queue were waiting not to receive a scarce resource but to give one. Their turn could end with an unusual message: enough had arrived for the day, so their donation would have to wait.