History
The organization preceding ZAKA started when a group of volunteers under the leadership of Rabbi Elazar Gelbstein gathered to assist in the recovery of human remains from a terrorist attack on bus line 405 in Israel in 1989.
The ZAKA network was set up in the early 1990s. The Jerusalem ZAKA organization was founded in the 1990s by Yehuda Meshi Zahav and Rabbi Moshe Aizenbach and Rabbi Zvika Rosental, the Director of ZAKA Tel Aviv, as a non-profit organization in addition to its police status. This arrangement succeeded the ZAKA organization founded by Rabbi Gelbstein in 1989.
In 1995 the newly organized ZAKA were officially recognized by the Israeli government and now work closely with the Israel Police in the identification of disaster victims.
ZAKA activity expanded rapidly during the al-Aqsa Intifada (from September 2000), when frequent terrorist suicide bombings created many scenes of disaster, with the remains and body parts of many victims strewn around bombing sites.
In 2004, a group of ZAKA volunteers flew to The Hague, Netherlands, with the wreckage of the bus destroyed in the Jerusalem bus suicide bombing on January 29, 2004. The wreckage, along with pictures of 950 victims of Palestinian terrorism, was taken to Washington DC to urge the United States government to act against Palestinian terrorism. The bus was later displayed at various US universities.
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