The Shin Bet security guard, who accompanied the rescue teams to the tsunami disaster in Thailand, and suffered mental illness as a result of the difficult scenes, has been recognized as a work-related injury.
The security guard was represented by Attorney Ariel Glazer of the David Pyle Law Firm.
The young man had been working as an embassy security guard for the General Security Service since 2003. On December 27, 2004, he went to secure a rescue mission in Thailand, after the tsunami disaster.
His testimony and the opinions of psychiatrists who examined him indicate that he arrived in the coastal city of Krabi, and was exposed to harsh sights, including mass piles of corpses of adults and children, and the smell of decay and burning bodies.
He said that despite his severe shock, and having no choice, he continued to secure the rescue mission until his return to Israel on January 14, 2005.
Upon his return to Israel, the young man's mental condition deteriorated, he retired from service, was hospitalized several times in psychiatric hospitals, and became unemployed and socially isolated.
At the height of the crisis, the young man tried to set himself on fire at a gas station – but without success.
A request submitted on his behalf to the National Insurance Institute to recognize him as a victim of a work accident was only partially accepted.
The conclusions of the National Security Council's medical committee claimed that the young man had already been hospitalized in a psychiatric institution before the tsunami, and that he was a heavy marijuana smoker.
An appeal against the decision, filed by the law firm of David Pyle, was only recently decided.
Judge Ornit Agassi, a judge of the Tel Aviv Regional Labor Court, ruled in her decision that there is a fundamental difference between a medical causal relationship and a legal causal relationship - and although there were background events that affected the plaintiff's mental background from a medical perspective, there is no doubt that the tsunami event was the trigger for the outbreak of his illness - and therefore the event should be recognized as a work accident for all intents and purposes.
Judge Agassi ordered the National Insurance Institute to grant the young man a fixed monthly benefit according to his disability, and also ordered the National Insurance Institute to bear the plaintiff's legal costs, in the amount of 6,000 shekels.
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