'I’m serving you because you’re human' – Israeli nonprofit NATAN operates in Gaza

Inspirational Israeli pioneer Alice Miller recently spoke about her humanitarian work in Gaza through an Israeli non-profit NATAN.

Miller is famous for breaking the glass ceiling for Israeli women back in 1994, when she sued the IDF in Israel’s High Court for not allowing her to be a fighter pilot. She won. Ironically, she had only chosen that path because her dream was to be an astronaut, but she was told she needed experience as a test pilot.

The landmark decision opened the way for women to serve as fighter pilots and combat soldiers. 

“Women have to be a meaningful part of this society. And in Israel, going through the military and going up the ranks is a very, very strong way for women to become a serious part of what's going on in Israel,” she told Amanda Borschel-Dan, deputy editor for the Times of Israel.

Given Miller’s determination to "reach for the stars," it might be less astonishing to hear about her work in Gaza, serving children in the enemy camp. After extensive travel and mastering a variety of occupations, Miller and her Indian husband returned to Israel, where she is now CEO of NATAN, a worldwide disaster relief organization established about 23 years ago

NATAN was originally named after Avraham "Abie" Natan, a notorious humanitarian and peace activist who founded the Voice of Peace radio station and was imprisoned for his determined efforts to communicate with enemy leaders.

Like Miller, Natan also spent time in India and served as a pilot, volunteering in the Machal (volunteers in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War) and later working for El Al Airlines. He named his plane “Shalom 1,” writing “peace” in Hebrew, Arabic, and English.

When Natan landed in Port Said in 1966, asking to meet then-Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser and to call for peace between Israel and Egypt, he was promptly deported back to Israel and arrested. Later in the 1970s, he bought a ship to meet then-PLO head Yasser Arafat in international waters, while also being involved in disaster relief in Cambodia, Bangladesh, Biafra, Colombia and Ethiopia. 

“He really believed that we have to talk, that we cannot only speak through our sword,” Miller explained. 
”He wanted to talk peace. He spoke with Yasser Arafat before you were allowed to speak with Yasser Arafat.”

“He couldn't do it in Israel, so he bought a ship and he put it outside the territorial borders of Israel, in the Mediterranean, called the Voice of Peace, and the Voice of Peace broadcast cool music and beautiful speeches about why it's so important for us to live together as neighbors.” 

“When Israel was just recovering from the Independence War, nobody really understood why we had to help anybody else,” Miller continued, explaining some of the challenges that Natan faced from Israel. “We've got it bad ourselves anyway. You know, what are you doing, helping people in Africa?” 

But negativity did not stop Iranian-born Abie Natan in his lifetime, and has also not stopped Alice Miller either.

“NATAN is an extremely unique organization in that it is a pure volunteer organization,” she explained. “We have hundreds of professionals, doctors, nurses, psychologists, social workers, dentists – all volunteers.“


“Whenever there's a disaster, anywhere on earth, it can be main manmade disaster like war, or natural disaster – we get an airplane and we go and we open up a clinic. We serve people medically but we know that in disaster situations, if a person has a cut in their arm, they have the same size cut in their heart, so we bring along social workers as well, and while the child is getting tended to by a doctor, there's a social worker that takes care of the parents,” Miller said.

“We stay for as long as needed, rotating our teams every two weeks, because they're all working doctors, we pull them out of their job and take them to wherever we go… We're on our way to Mozambique in two days or so to help the survivors of the floods and the cyclone that's happening there as we speak. And we've been doing this for many, many years,” she added.

NATAN also has programs working with Syrians in countries where they fled during the civil war. “We don't take the Israeli flag and flap it around, but everybody knows we’re Israelis. And it's important to us, you know, for people to know that. We want to show that Israel is not only destruction and force. We want to show another sign of Judaism, of Israelis.”

“I think there's a very large part that exists within all of us, and Israelis have that as well. And I feel very proud to be able to show the world this heart in a very subtle way… we're serving you, and you know who we are. 
We don't even have to talk about it.” 

Miller recognizes that the work NATAN has accumulated over the years positioned the organization to respond swiftly after the war with Hamas erupted on Oct. 7, 2023.

“Thank God we could use that experience in order to help our brothers and sisters here in Israel,” she said, sharing about the doctors and dentists who signed up to serve. “There's something so beautiful about volunteers,” she said, adding that passion comes from a different place when people are not being paid for their work.

The IDF does not permit Israeli civilians to enter Syria or Gaza, Miller explained. However, she noted that the organization has recently been able to operate in Gaza through a partner group working on the ground.

“When you're under attack, when you're running away from missiles, it is a little bit hard to work with people who are shooting at you. We had many months of this in Israel. On one hand, we don't ask who you are. We ask what you need. This is what we do around the world. But over here, it was a very complicated situation for many people inside of NATAN.” 

"For me, it was easy. I'm serving you because you're a human being, period. You have a mother? I have a mother. That is why I'm serving you, for no other reason,” she added.

“I looked for a partner for a long time and I found the perfect partner for us, an organization called Gaza Children Village, led by a neurosurgeon from Duke University called David Hasan,” Miller said.

Hasan’s organization has established academies for tens of thousands of children in Gaza.

“At the beginning, it was for orphans, but it grew so much that now he's just serving children because they're children,” Miller explained. “
It's all tented areas, where children come in, they get a hate-free education, they get a hot meal from World Central Kitchen, and they will get medical services.” 

NATAN now provides medical clinics in these educational cities. “If you need a pediatric neurologist, it's not easy to find in Gaza. So we can help them. We have many volunteers, Arabic-speaking volunteers, who can support the doctors inside Gaza. We're sending in medicine, we're sending in equipment, we're putting up a dental clinic, where we're going to employ volunteer dentists, without an Israeli passport.” 

“We have asked COGAT about the Gaza Children's Village and have received their approval, and we are doing everything in the clear, you know, nothing under the table in any way. This is the way we work. And I think when you work in the clear, things happen. Doors open up...”

“So many people say to me about the court case, 30 years ago, how did you do it? And I feel like I just walked through the main door,” exclaimed Miller. “And the same way I feel here with Gaza. As long as you're clear with what you want, we want to support children because they're children.”

“I don't want to live as a human being with a closed heart. I want my heart to remain open always,” she said.

Click here to watch the full interview.