Proclaiming Justice with Laurie Cardoza Moore

Marnix Van Ede: It was a frozen exodus of cars on roads that were ambushed by Hamas terrorists where cars were lit on fire, but also people were massacred. The road, which normally you can drive in an hour, took two hours to even get there because of the scale and the amount of people that they found along the way that were killed.

Laurie Cardoza Moore: Welcome to Proclaiming Justice, a podcast from PJTN that focuses the light of truth on vital issues in today's headlines that impact every American. I'm your host, Laurie Cardoza Moore, founder and president of Proclaiming Justice to the Nations.

I'm here to educate, motivate, and activate you to action. I want to arm you with the truth and the facts you'll need to fight and preserve our constitutional republic and uphold the Judeo-Christian values our nation was founded upon. Marnix, thank you for joining us again. You've been very busy over the last year.

Marnix Van Ede: Thank you for having me.

Guest (Male): Let's talk a little bit about the organization Zaka. Who is Zaka, what is your mission, and what do you do? Then, let's talk about some of the rescues that you all have been involved in.

Marnix Van Ede: Zaka is an Israeli-based volunteer organization focused on search and rescue. We have in Israel about 4,000 volunteers and around the world another 2,500. First of all, to save lives, but also taking care of the victims and making sure that they have a proper burial.

Zaka exists over 30 years now. It started off when the big waves of intifadas were happening in Israel. There were always life-saving organizations coming to the scenes, but no one was taking care of the remains, whatever was left. Zaka stepped in there and really turning horrific terror scenes into sacred places.

With care and love, taking care of all the remains so that people had at least something to mourn for and some form of closure and everything, everybody could have a proper burial. That's the uniqueness of what Zaka does in Israel and around the world.

Laurie Cardoza Moore: Absolutely. Tell us because the last time we spoke, we were still reeling from October 7th. You were heavily involved in the rescue in that situation. That was a dangerous situation for all of your team to put themselves in because of the terrorist attacks and the nature of the attack.

Guest (Male): Tell our audience a little bit about what you were involved in on October 7th in helping rescue.

Marnix Van Ede: On October 7th, which was Simchat Torah and Shabbat, everybody was woken up by the heavy alarms that were going off. Soon we saw the scale that was unfolding and sent teams to the south to help out. Our teams went down to the south and it was such a scale. I've never seen such horrific scenes.

It was a frozen exodus of cars on roads that were ambushed by Hamas terrorists where cars were lit on fire, but also people massacred. They couldn't even reach the music festival we heard about, the Nova Music Festival. It took ages even to reach it. A road which normally you can drive in an hour took two hours to even get there because of the scale and the amount of people that they found along the way that were killed.

And not just killed, but really the most horrific scenes that our volunteers encountered. At that time, it was a war zone for several days. Our teams went to the Nova Festival site, but also the kibbutzim, the villages around the Gaza Strip where people were butchered in their homes and also the most horrific scenes our volunteers encountered.

Laurie Cardoza Moore: It's horrifying to even remember the images. We were there a couple of times over the last couple of years. We went down to where the music festival was and went to one of the kibbutzim. It was horrifying to see the carnage that was left.

Guest (Male): But you all have, since that time, there's been other activity that you've been involved in with natural disasters and accidents. I think our audience may not know that you're not just confined to Israel. As you said, you have people all over the world that perform these rescues. Tell us about some of the other rescues you've been involved in more recently.

Marnix Van Ede: We have been at 9/11, in Haiti, the Tsunamis, and Turkey, which is not Israel's biggest friend. Even there, we sent teams. Up until recently, there was the terror attack in Bondi on the first day of Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of lights.

Fifteen people were gunned down at this feast, so we sent a team there as well. The community there was in shock, so we were there for multiple days even just to help out. They said when we arrived there, "Normally we stand with Israel, but that Israel is now coming to us to stand with us." They were in tears about our presence that we were there.

That was in Bondi, Sydney, but also recently in Switzerland in Crans-Montana, a ski resort where in a bar there was a fire and 41 young people got killed. Among them were also three Jewish people, so Zaka helped anyone they could help, but specifically also taking care of these people.

Guest (Male): When you go to Australia, Switzerland, or Haiti, are you invited by the government? Does the government reach out to you to ask for your assistance, or do you contact the government providing your assistance?

Marnix Van Ede: Both, actually. Sometimes we are invited, but also, for example, recently in July, last summer, there were the flash floods in Texas. There it was our own initiative to offer our help. In this case, we didn't do a specific search and rescue, but we helped with technology from Israel that helped to locate where victims may have drifted off. It was an Israeli technology where teams from us knew how to work with it, and we just offered our assistance.

Laurie Cardoza Moore: It's amazing to see what care you take to help other people in the world. It makes me think, Marnix, that we hear all these horrible accusations lobbed at Israel against Jews, and this is the same Israel that is coming to rescue and help the world in a very difficult time.

Marnix Van Ede: That's what Zaka really shows: the true heart of Israel. We call it "Chesed Shel Emet." It's true loving kindness, a kindness where you can't expect anything back from someone. That's what Israel in general stands for. We just want to help, and it's all based also on the Bible.

The first person was named Adam, and Adam stands for humankind and it's for everybody. Everybody is created in God's image. That's how Zaka is treating everybody because everybody is an image of God. Even on the 7th of October, Zaka was also taking care of the bodies of the Hamas terrorists or any terrorist.

It's not up to us to judge this person; it's up to God. The principle is the word "Adam." In the root is also "Adama," which means earth. A person comes forth from the earth and also needs to return to the earth.

Also in the word "Adam" is the word "Dam," which is blood, and in blood, there is life. It's holy, so you need to take care of it. That's why on terror scenes, Zaka is taking care of every tissue, every blood that they find. They take everything and make sure that it's also buried with the person together because there is life in the blood.

The same thing is also in the word "Adam," there's also the word "Domeh," which means likeness, and we are created in the likeness of God. So there is a very deeper meaning behind the whole calling of Zaka. But it's what we all should do to take care of each other and be there for each other without expecting anything back.

Laurie Cardoza Moore: Amen. Marnix, thank you so much for taking the time to update us. How can our audience learn more about what you're doing, and how can they help?

Marnix Van Ede: We have Friends of Zaka, we call it. If you go to www.fozaka.org, you can become a Friend of Zaka. We provide you with newsletters so you're up to date from what's happening.

You can also support us. We are a non-governmental organization, and we need all the help that is available. Most of all, prayer. Our volunteers sometimes see the most horrific scenes, and they need strength and resilience.

Recently, we even added a new unit amongst our units. We have a K-9 unit, we have a divers unit, but now we have also a resilience unit which is training our volunteers to become more resilient and to deal with the things that they're seeing and the images that they're carrying with them. They need help and training on how to deal with that. It's all mentioned on this website.

Laurie Cardoza Moore: Fantastic. Marnix, thank you so much for being with us today.

Marnix Van Ede: Thank you for having me.

Laurie Cardoza Moore: Absolutely. It's an honor. Well done. God bless.

Thanks again for joining me on this edition of Proclaiming Justice. Please share this podcast with your family and friends. For more information about how you can get involved, please visit our website at pjtn.org. As a PJTN watchman, you can help us keep up the fight to preserve our freedom for our children and their children for such a time as this.