The leaders of the struggle for the return of the terms "father" and "mother" to Magen David Adom's blood donation forms addressed a letter to Prime Minister Naftali Bennett today and called on him to work with Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz to restore the forms to their previous state.
Many blood donors have refused to donate blood today following the omission of the terms "father" and "mother" from MDA's blood donating forms and the substitution of "parent 1" and "parent 2."
For weeks, following the boycott, it was decided to change the forms and omit any reference to the donors' parents, so that the terms "parent 1" or "father" and "mother" are no longer used at all. Despite this, the boycott of blood donations continues, with the boycotters demanding the return of MDA blood forms to the original wording indicating the line "Country of birth of 'father' and 'mother.'"
Rabbi Udi Harel of Yeshivat Mitzpe Ramon and Dvir Salzman, head of blood donations at the yeshiva, wrote in their letter to Bennett: "Four months ago, it was populistly decided in the Ministry of Health to change MDA's blood donation forms and remove from them the section that includes the birth countries of the mother and father, The change was made contrary to medical logic - which is that this information is needed in order to characterize rare blood types that are typical of the countries of origin."
"Furthermore, despite our strong desire to donate blood again, and despite the fact that we kept the commandments with them, the Ministry of Health and MDA refuse to come down from the tree on which they climbed," they said. "They refuse to return the previous form or issue special forms showing the names of the father and mother, and try to force on us a progressive agenda of erasing the identity of father and mother."
"In light of the fact that the Minister is acting as an independent Prime Minister within your government, we demand that you, the Prime Minister, put the Minister in his place, restore the original blood donation forms and allow thousands of blood donors to return without having to submit to dictates and the LGBT worldview. The blood shortage is the fault of the Health Minister and your government, which is preventing us from donating blood and saving lives."
Salzman told Israel National News: "We are shocked by MDA's repeated refusal - in the face of thousands of yeshiva students who are willing to come and donate blood happily - just to put 'father' and 'mother' back on form, after which we will return to donate immediately. The irresponsibility of the Health Minister arouses great sorrow that a person who heads the health system of the State of Israel instead of dealing with health deals with advancing agendas. We call on the Prime Minister's people and the people of the health system to take responsibility and allow us to donate blood without sacrificing our values."