An emergency vehicle in honor of three members of the Dee family who were murdered in a terrorist attack in April was donated to United Hatzalah on Thursday.
An unveiling ceremony for the state-of-the-art car took place at the Jerusalem headquarters of the volunteer emergency response organization with the participation of one of the surviving family members: Rabbi Leo Dee.
His wife, Lucy Dee, 48, and daughters Maia, 20, and Rina, 15, were shot and killed by Hamas terrorists on April 7 while driving on Route 57 near Hamra Junction in the Jordan Valley.
The vehicle was donated by Avi Tobias.
After Rabbi Dee cut the ribbon, the vehicle was unveiled with the dedication text: “In loving memory of Lucy, Maia and Rina Dee, H"YD. May their life and memory endure as a blessing to their family and all of Am Yisrael. Am Yisrael Chai—Ilana and Avi Tobias.”
A photo of Lucy, Maia and Rina appears beneath the text.
The other side of the vehicle features three questions Lucy Dee used to say that everyone should ask themselves: “What have I done for someone else? What has someone else done for me? What has G-d done for me?”
The vehicle will be used by Dr. Yishai Ben Uri, a pediatrician and United Hatzalah volunteer who lost his previous vehicle, and the advanced medical equipment inside it, to an arson attack in the Silwan neighborhood of Jerusalem in October 2022.
“Tisha B’Av is the saddest day of the year, but also the day when Mashiach [the Messiah] will be born, which teaches us that from our greatest suffering also comes our greatest salvation. Avi and United Hatzalah have created an amazing path to geulah [‘redemption’], and I thank them from the bottom of my heart,” Rabbi Dee said at the ceremony.
Last month, he called for Israel to terminate funding to the Palestinian Authority and grant Palestinians the possibility to work in Israel.
The British-born resident of Efrat directed the impassioned plea to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a meeting of the Knesset’s Israel Victory Caucus.
“The Palestinian Authority is a terrorist state, which finances murderers and terrorists,” said Dee, referring to the “pay for slay” program in which the P.A. pays monthly stipends to terrorists and the families of terrorists.
“There is no two-state solution or future possible with an authority that bankrolls terror,” he said.
