Disabled veterans' protest
Photo: Daniel Edelson
Disabled IDF veterans protest budget cuts
Demonstrating outside of Kirya army base in Tel Aviv, several disabled war veterans demand plans to cut their allowances be changed, ask passersby to sign petition in support
Some 20 disabled Israel Defense Forces veterans protested outside the Kirya army base in Tel Aviv on Tuesday against the Defense Ministry's plans to cut their allowances.
The protesters had passersby sign a petition that was also published on the internet and said they hoped to reach 300,000 signatures.
"This is the war after the war. It can't be that we are fighting the branch that is meant to care for us. The Defense Ministry's administration is knowingly and intentionally harming the disabled public. They view us as a bag of money that they can use to close the financial gaps," Attorney Omer Yavetz, who is leading the struggle, told Ynet.
Protest outside of Kirya army base (Photo: Daniel Edelson)
Yavetz, who was injured in the first Lebanon War and grounded to a wheelchair, said he represents hundreds of disabled IDF veterans.
"This week I mark 25 years since my injury, but my struggle is not over yet. In the last decade our rights have been fading in an intolerable way. They cut our compensations, medical treatment and physical therapy and no one cares.
"Nine hundred disabled people joined us after the Second Lebanon War, and a few hundred more joined following Operation Cast Lead. They are about to undergo the torture that we are going through," Yavetz added.
Shimon Dabush, one of the leaders in the struggle and a disabled IDF veteran himself, directed the protest at Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu: "We urge Netanyahu to stop the actions against disabled IDF veterans. There are already serious hurdles in our ability to recover, and there are clear plans to damage it more and more."
"It’s so painful, I don't understand where they money we pay in taxes goes. If it doesn't go to them then who does it go to?" passerby Amal Sefardi told Ynet. "Disabled IDF veterans should be supported. They risked their lives for the State and were injured on the way, the least they deserve is to recover."
Many soldiers in uniform could be found among the petition's signatories. "I have friends that were injured during their military service and I could very well be in a similar position," said a fighter in the Oketz K-9 special forces unit.
"They can't just abandon people who gave their lives to the State. It's simply infuriating. Why should I give of myself when I know that the moment I'm really in need, the state won't give me a thing?" he added.
