Settler family finally meets Palestinian who saved them from smashed car

A year after a near-fatal road accident sent their car tumbling along a West Bank road, the Israeli passengers hailing from a settlement adjacent to the site of the accident finally got the chance to thank the Palestinian man who pulled them from the wreckage.

The Bir family, residents of Efrat, met with Abed, from a village near Hebron, at an event to celebrate their survival, Channel 10 television news reported Monday.

It took them months to track down Abed, who was the first to reach their car following a head-on collision as they were driving to Jerusalem in July 2017.

The emotional meeting happened last Thursday at an event hosted by the Birs to celebrate their survival.

“You gave real meaning to my life,” Ariel Bar told Abed as the two men embraced in the family home. “I am forever indebted to you.”

Abed responded that “we are all brothers.”

The Birs were able to locate Abed via a jeep touring group they are involved in, Ariel Bir told the Times of Israel. Members of the group, who knew they were trying to find their Palestinian rescuer, put out the word among Bedouin and Arab friends of theirs, which eventually led to contact with Abed.

The first person Abed saved from the car was the Bir’s baby daughter, Arbel.

Recalling the crash scene as he found it, Abed said at the meeting, “The first thing that I thought of was how to get the child out. Because if she would fall, her head would hit the [smashed] windshield. So I brought her out.”

Lifting the infant into his arms, Abed explained how he smashed everything inside the car that stood in his way to get to the trapped child.

Video of the rescue efforts was circulated on social media at the time.

Although Ariel Bir suffered moderate to serious injuries in the accident, his wife Shira was able to get out of their overturned car by herself. Abed, along with other Palestinians who arrived after him, immediately set to work extracting the three children and Ariel, as well as calling emergency services.

“There is no blood and there are no nations, no politics, there are only people,” said Shlumit Bir, Ariel’s mother. “And that, we sometimes forget.”