MDA paramedic, an East Jerusalem Arab, describes terror scene; TV host hails him as ‘amazing man’ who encapsulates ‘our crazy paradox’

Fadi Dekidek, the first Magen David Adom paramedic on the scene of Friday night’s deadly terror attack in Neve Ya’akov, describes the “very difficult” scene he encountered, as he checked the pulses of victims and realized that many of them were dead, and worked to treat the casualties.

He tells Channel 12 news in an interview that the police had given his team the okay to enter the scene, even though gunfire was still audible nearby — possibly from the exchange in which the terrorist, Alqam Khayri, 21, a resident of East Jerusalem, was shot dead by police officers nearby.

Dekidek says he has been with Magen David Adom for many years, and encountered many terrible scenes, but this was of a different order.

As the senior medic at the scene, “I had to check all the people, to my sorrow including all the fatalities, and to oversee the scene… and to enter the [Ateret Avraham] synagogue, in order to check that there was nobody inside. We had received a [first, inaccurate] report that the incident took place in the synagogue, but fortunately, there was nobody injured inside.”

Ben Caspit, the Channel 12 host, says to him: “Fadi, you realize that you are a man who encapsulates our whole story here. One amazing man. An Arab from East Jerusalem. Someone from your people carried out [this terror attack]. You save the Jews. You treat them. That’s the whole crazy paradox we live in — you encompass it.”

Dekidek responds: “I’m sure you and the public all know that Magen David Adom is a state all of its own for co-existence. Jews save Arabs. Arabs save Jews. I think it’s an example for the whole world.”