Religious medical volunteer group Ichud Hatzalah (iVolunteers) rejected the accusations that its use of Arab volunteers in eastern Jerusalem harms Jewish sovereignty there. It also denied that it has removed the Star of David from its emblem.

Eli Bir, the chairman of Ichud Hatzalah, said that the reason it has begun taking Arab volunteers is that whenever an emergency medical situation arises in eastern Jerusalem, the Israeli Red Magen David refers the matter to the Palestinian Authority's Red Crescent. In order to solve this problem, Bir said, a Christian American donor agreed to fund a volunteer array of Arabs from eastern Jerusalem.