The National Insurance Institute is forcing many victims of October 7 to appear repeatedly before medical committees, by repeatedly determining temporary disabilities for them - even though nearly three years have passed since that terrible day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to many of them, this conduct could further deepen their psychological damage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This outrageous conduct is exposed by attorney Gil Kraus, who represents G., a resident of Sderot, who was severely psychologically damaged by the terrorist attack on his city. According to attorney Kraus, G.'s case illustrates how destructive the National Insurance Institute's conduct is in its policy for re-establishing temporary disabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
G., in his 60s, woke up to the sound of alarms on the morning of October 7, and saw from his balcony how terrorists riding Toyotas were driving around the city of Sderot, shooting at passersby. This situation was documented in videos that were burned into the Israeli and global consciousness, after being broadcast repeatedly in the media in Israel and around the world. G. initially thought it was a movie production, but after the alarms continued and the shooting did not stop, he left his house on his motorcycle to understand what was happening in the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\""I saw bodies on the floor"\"<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n During his trip, G. was exposed to extremely difficult sights. "I saw bodies on the floor of women waiting for transportation on the way to the Dead Sea and the police station wouldn't open for them," he said. He decided to go to the police station because he thought it was the logical place to turn to in such a situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Near the station, he saw a terrorist standing over two lying police officers, one of whom was dead and the other still flailing. The terrorist noticed him and their eyes met. "He turned and fired a burst at me. I literally ran to the left with the motorcycle, luckily for me. One bullet hit the mirror and the whole burst passed me," he said. "A thousandth of a second and I was covered in bullets.".<\/p>\n\n\n\n From that point on, G's memory was interrupted and he was immersed in what he calls a "blackout," so that he does not remember how he returned home. Later, he learned from neighbors that he was watched on the building's cameras when he returned, and fell down the stairs. In that fall, G apparently injured his shoulder, but that day he did not attach any importance to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Later that day, G. was at home, when gunshots and explosions could be heard outside. At one point, he went into the room to charge his phone and immediately after that, his son called him. "As I was answering him in the bedroom, we heard a crazy explosion," he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n His son told him that a mortar shell had probably fallen near the house. When G. went out onto the balcony, he saw that a mortar shell had fallen right next to where he had been standing a short time earlier. "If my son hadn't called, I would have been killed. I escaped death three times that day.".<\/p>\n\n\n\n Post-traumatic stress disorder<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Since that day, G.'s life has changed fundamentally. As someone who ran a successful business, lived in a relationship, flew abroad and used to travel on a motorcycle on weekends, G. began to isolate himself. As someone who had defined himself as a sociable person before the incident, G. began to avoid social and family ties, left his partner, almost completely stopped going out and having fun, and his performance in business and in daily life deteriorated significantly. He later also left his home and moved to Tel Aviv.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In medical and psychological examinations he underwent after the incident, G. was diagnosed as suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, and was also recognized as suffering from tinnitus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since the incident, G. has been treated with medication and is under psychiatric monitoring, but his condition remains serious and stable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Two previous committees of the National Insurance Institute determined that G. had a temporary mental disability for a period of approximately two and a half years. Recently, G. appeared before another medical committee, where he claimed that despite the many treatments he had undergone, his condition remained unchanged and he was unable to return to his previous life. For this reason, G. requested that he be determined to have a permanent disability, so that he would not have to appear before additional medical committees again. The psychiatrist treating him also stated in a letter submitted to the committee that this was a permanent condition, which was not expected to change in the future, and therefore he supports determining G.'s disability as permanent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Signs of anxiety, restlessness, depressive effect <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The committee documented in G. signs of anxiety, restlessness, depressive effects, and severe functional decline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After reviewing the medical documents, Committee C finally determined that he had a permanent mental disability of 40%, along with an additional disability of 10% due to tinnitus, and considering his disability, it was set at 46%, a determination that could have granted him a fixed monthly benefit of approximately 2,600 shekels, and various other benefits reserved for victims of hostilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But in a surprising and outrageous move, the National Security Council decided to appeal its own committee's decision - a right granted to it by law. The appeal claimed that G.'s disability should remain temporary, and not be made permanent, because his mental condition had not yet been clarified. This decision was made against the recommendation of the psychiatrist treating him, and despite the fact that, as mentioned, almost three years had passed since the events, years in which no improvement in G.'s condition had been noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To G's regret, the appeal was accepted, and the National Insurance Institute extended his temporary disability until the end of 2027 - that is, more than four years after October 7. The committee even went so far as to reduce the temporary disability to 30%, without any justification and contrary to the recommendations of the psychiatrists submitted to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Resurfacing the trauma<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n According to Attorney Kraus, determining long-term temporary disabilities for victims of October 7 by the National Insurance Medical Committees has become very common, and in many cases only causes additional damage to the victim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to him, leaving a post-traumatic stress disorder victim on a temporary track - and in G's case, returning him to such a track - will certainly worsen his condition, because it will force him to repeatedly appear before medical committees, present documents, and recreate the nightmarish events he experienced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to Attorney Kraus, for a post-traumatic victim, the very act of re-stabilizing is not a purely technical act, but an event that resurfaces the trauma, undermining mental stability for periods of weeks, months, and sometimes even years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Attorney Kraus is currently working on filing an appeal with the Regional Labor Court, which serves as the appeals court for the National Security Council's decisions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This, he said, is due to the extreme improbability of continuing to determine temporary disability for G., while ignoring the recommendations of the psychiatrist treating him, even after the medical committee, on behalf of the National Security Council itself, determined that his disability was permanent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n No response was provided from the National Insurance Institute.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u05d4\u05de\u05d5\u05e1\u05d3 \u05dc\u05d1\u05d9\u05d8\u05d5\u05d7 \u05dc\u05d0\u05d5\u05de\u05d9 \u05db\u05d5\u05e4\u05d4 \u05e2\u05dc \u05e0\u05e4\u05d2\u05e2\u05d9\u05dd \u05e8\u05d1\u05d9\u05dd \u05de\u05d4-7 \u05d1\u05d0\u05d5\u05e7\u05d8\u05d5\u05d1\u05e8 \u05dc\u05d4\u05d5\u05e4\u05d9\u05e2 \u05e9\u05d5\u05d1 \u05d5\u05e9\u05d5\u05d1 \u05d1\u05e4\u05e0\u05d9 \u05d5\u05e2\u05d3\u05d5\u05ea \u05e8\u05e4\u05d5\u05d0\u05d9\u05d5\u05ea, \u05d1\u05db\u05da \u05e9\u05d4\u05d5\u05d0 \u05e7\u05d5\u05d1\u05e2 \u05dc\u05d4\u05dd \u05e9\u05d5\u05d1 \u05d5\u05e9\u05d5\u05d1 \u05e0\u05db\u05d5\u05d9\u05d5\u05ea \u05d6\u05de\u05e0\u05d9\u05d5\u05ea - \u05d0\u05e3 \u05e9\u05d7\u05dc\u05e4\u05d5 \u05db\u05d1\u05e8 \u05e7\u05e8\u05d5\u05d1 \u05dc\u05e9\u05dc\u05d5\u05e9 \u05e9\u05e0\u05d9\u05dd \u05de\u05d0\u05d6 \u05d0\u05d5\u05ea\u05d5 \u05d9\u05d5\u05dd \u05e0\u05d5\u05e8\u05d0. \u05dc\u05d3\u05d1\u05e8\u05d9 \u05e8\u05d1\u05d9\u05dd \u05de\u05d4\u05dd, \u05d4\u05ea\u05e0\u05d4\u05dc\u05d5\u05ea \u05d6\u05d5 \u05e2\u05dc\u05d5\u05dc\u05d4 \u05dc\u05d4\u05e2\u05de\u05d9\u05e7 \u05e2\u05d5\u05d3 \u05d9\u05d5\u05ea\u05e8 \u05d0\u05ea \u05e4\u05d2\u05d9\u05e2\u05ea\u05dd \u05d4\u05e0\u05e4\u05e9\u05d9\u05ea. \u05d0\u05ea \u05d4\u05d4\u05ea\u05e0\u05d4\u05dc\u05d5\u05ea \u05d4\u05de\u05e7\u05d5\u05de\u05de\u05ea \u05d4\u05d6\u05d5 \u05d7\u05d5\u05e9\u05e3 \u05e2\u05d5\u05e8\u05da \u05d4\u05d3\u05d9\u05df \u05d2\u05d9\u05dc \u05e7\u05e8\u05d0\u05d5\u05e1, […]","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":1060347,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[66133,66134,66135],"class_list":["post-1060346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-24","tag-66133","tag-66134","tag--7-"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n