A series of articles published in the main edition of Channel 2 news and on the Mako website regarding the High Court of Justice's petition regarding an internal procedure of the Ministry of Defense's Rehabilitation Division that denies the rights of IDF disabled veterans.
[Hebrew Only]
Did you shout on the phone? You will be denied a disability pension
Employees of the Department of Rehabilitation at the Ministry of Defense have experienced incidents of violence during their work in the past, but an attempt to prevent further incidents may have gone too far. An internal procedure of the division stipulates that an IDF disabled person who keeps a voice on an employee will not be allowed to come to the place for several months and in extreme cases his pension will even be denied.
Haim Rivlin The News Posted 30/04/14 22:07
In recent years, there has been an increase in cases of violence against public employees. Against the background of this increase, the Ministry of Defense issued a document entitled "Procedure for the Treatment of Violence against Workers in the Rehabilitation Division." This procedure imposes severe sanctions - even in cases where an IDF disabled person uses "blunt speech". Even "raising a voice to shout on the phone" will be considered a case of violence that will allow the disabled person to be removed from the wing's facilities for between one and three months.
"There is an official, not a judge, but an official - who makes a decision to remove a person," says Adv. Doron Afik, the lawyer for an IDF disabled person who received a removal order. "It has a very, very big financial significance and sometimes even a meaning of life. A person needs an urgent medical committee and he will not get it."
"Benefits provided at the clinic or require summons to various committees - will not be given during this period," the document states. A person who is in the process of being placed at work will be considered to have been terminated. The financial significance is clear: the cessation of benefits from lack of livelihoods, benefits similar to unemployment benefits - and all this, as stated, even in the event that an IDF invalid raised his voice or spoke blatantly.
"We all condemn acts of violence, both verbal and physical," says Adv. Idan Kliman, director of the legal department at the IDF Disabled People's Organization. "The problem is that I have been working for the organization for over a decade and I have come across quite a few IDF disabled people, in my opinion. For no injustice on their part. "There are many other things that can be done before removing IDF disabled people, especially people who are post-traumatic and especially disabled people who come to receive treatment due to distress."
"A tool to take revenge on IDF invalids"
This is exactly what happened to R. - a soldier who was seriously injured during training and suffers from battle shock, among other things. According to him, during a meeting with a doctor, abusive remarks were directed at him. "At one point, after I bumped into a wall and was pushed into a corner, I told him he was acting like a son of a bitch."
Following the curse, R. received the following letter: "In view of the severity of your remarks, it was decided to keep you away from the wing facilities for 5 months" - more than the procedure allows, and without hearing his version at all. "It has become a tool to take revenge on IDF invalids," says R. "In fact, they came without allowing me to speak my mind, and decided a fate."
This procedure was hidden from IDF disabled people until R. petitioned the court to accept it. Tomorrow R. will file a petition with the High Court demanding that the procedure be revoked, claiming that the authority to remove and deny benefits is in the hands of a judge, not a clerk.
The Ministry of Defense responded: The Rehabilitation Division does not in any case deny medical treatment and compensation payments to IDF disabled people. Of the employees and allow them to continue to provide service without fear for their safety. "