Veterans protest in Jerusalem
צילום: גיל יוחנן
Disabled IDF veterans protest outside Knesset
Knesset's Labor, Welfare and Health Committee convenes to discuss struggle against Defense Ministry's rehabilitation department. 'There's no money for a catheter, while the defense minister spends millions on trips abroad,' says Kadima MK
The Knesset's Labor, Welfare and Health Committee on Wednesday discussed the battle of disabled Israel Defense Forces veterans, as dozens of them protested outside the Israeli parliament building against the Defense Ministry's rehabilitation department.
The Knesset members joined the veterans in criticizing the Defense Ministry for "spending millions on trips abroad, but having no money for the disabled."
The meeting was attended by representatives of the Disabled IDF Veterans Association and the Defense Ministry's rehabilitation department. The veterans claimed that the department failed in its bureaucratic treatment of them, forcing many of them to undergo a long and cumbersome procedure depriving them of their basic rights.
MKs who attended the meeting expressed their support for the disabled veterans, but also pleaded with them to launch negotiations with the Defense Ministry.
Yekutiel Mor, head of the rehabilitation department, said during the meeting that the Defense Ministry was working to solve the problem and that ministry's director-general had already promised to find a quick solution on Tuesday.
He pointed a finger at the organization members, however, for refusing to negotiate with him. "I approached the chairman of the Disabled IDF Veterans Association and asked to sit with him for a few days of negotiations, but he refused. I believe 90% of the problems could be solved."
MK Ruhama Avraham (Kadima) criticized the Defense Ministry for taking care of budgets but failing to transfer them to its people. "I feel a great sense of shame as a citizen facing soldiers who have taken part in battles. When they ask for a security budget they receive it. It's a disgrace that these people are fighting over a catheter, while the defense minister goes abroad with a budget of millions."
MK Moshe Matalon (Yisrael Beiteinu), who has served as chairman of the Disabled IDF Veterans Association, spoke about the difficulties in working with the rehabilitation departments. "There is no choice. You have to talk with the rehabilitation department, and the rehabilitation department is a monopoly. At the end of the day, we have to sit down and talk."
Committee Chairman Haim Katz (Likud) said that an additional discussion would be held in about two weeks. He asked the veterans to suspend their struggle for a week for the sake of urgent negotiations.
"I call on the disabled veterans not to dismantle the protest tent, but to hold it for a week and enter intensive negotiations," he said.
Meanwhile, dozens of disabled army veterans protested outside the Knesset building, including 30-year-old Lior Bavli, who was injured in the head and legs in a training accident in 1998.
"I came to protest because I want my rights," he told Ynet. "I was a football player, and since the injury my life has changed unrecognizably. I lost all my friends, I can't study, read or write and my memory is nearly gone. All the people my age have made progress while I stayed behind."
One of the protestors criticized the organization itself and its "hired PR services," admitting that "there are also impersonators who want to take money from the State."
