#92 Feel proud when we help other countries

Israeli foreign aid is the development assistance and humanitarian aid provided by Israel to foreign countries. Israel provides assistance to developing countries to alleviate and solve economic and social problems through its international cooperation program of technical assistance, based on its own recent and ongoing experience in developing human and material resources. Israel’s Agency for International Development Cooperation, established as an agency of the Israeli Foreign Ministry in 1958 and known by its Hebrew acronym, MASHAV, is the primary vehicle for providing this aid.

In the 1970s, Israel broadened its aid agenda by granting safe haven to refugees and foreign nationals in distress from around the world. Since the 1980s, Israel has also provided humanitarian aid to places affected by natural disasters and terrorist attacks. In 1995, the Israeli Foreign Ministry and Israel Defense Forces established a permanent humanitarian and emergency aid unit, which has carried out humanitarian operations worldwide. In addition to providing humanitarian supplies, Israel has also sent rescue teams and medical personnel and set up mobile field hospitals in disaster-stricken areas worldwide.

Non-government Israeli humanitarian aid organizations, such as IsraAid (The Israel Forum for International Humanitarian Aid), Fast Israeli Rescue and Search Team (FIRST), Israeli Flying Aid (IFA), ZAKA, Save a Child’s Heart (SACH) and Latet (Hebrew for “to give”) provide various types of aid in foreign countries, complementing or in coordination with the official government aid. They provide humanitarian aid such as search and rescue teams to disaster zones, life saving aid to people affected by natural or man-made disasters, medical aid, disease prevention, urgent pediatric heart surgery and follow-up care for children from developing countries, and food aid.

Since the inception of its foreign aid programs, the Israel Foreign Ministry reports that as of 2020, Israel has provided international humanitarian aid to over 140 countries or territories, including states with no diplomatic relations with Israel.