Humiliation in National Insurance Institute committees: "Find a job and just deal with it"

Three years have passed since the terrible massacre on October 7, and the chaos is still raging. Those who survived the hell of the Nova party, saw their friends murdered, and fled for their lives, are now discovering that their war did not end on the battlefield. It simply moved to the air-conditioned offices of the National Insurance Institute, and there, before medical committees, the survivors are forced to undergo a series of bureaucratic abuse and humiliation. To receive the most basic rights as victims of hostile actions, the survivors are required to go through a prolonged "path of suffering." Instead of receiving support and a rehabilitation package, they are invited to committees that doubt their trauma, disregard their pain, and try in every way to reduce their disability percentages.

The conduct of the medical committees has long crossed the line of decency, and the testimonies of the survivors on social media prove how disconnected the system is from the human spirit. One survivor testified about an inconceivable situation:

"I am sitting in a committee in front of six men, and all they have to ask me is what my sexual desire is like."

Another survivor, Shira, shared how a smile of embarrassment in front of the judges cost her disability percentages, after they claimed that her trauma was not from the massacre itself and dismissed her with outrageous statements like: "Do you have a partner? You don't even need a psychologist. Get up, go out the door, find a job, and just deal with it, sister."

Beyond belittling the trauma, the system sets bureaucratic demands that force the survivors to relive the horror. Survivors were required to prove that their friends, who were murdered before their eyes, even existed. This inhumane situation leads survivors to contact bereaved families and ask for the ID card of their murdered loved one, just because the National Insurance Institute committee does not believe that he was really there and was murdered. This attitude shows a frightening scale of callousness and leaves the survivors exhausted and wounded to the depths of their souls.

The overwhelming feeling among the survivors is that someone is trying to sweep October 7 under the rug. Such conduct is unprofessional, unreasonable, and insulting, showing contempt for those who went through the most difficult event our minds can grasp. It is impossible to demand that people who went through the massacre continue with their lives, while they are subjected to humiliating treatment and examined through the lens of penny-pinching. It is time for the National Insurance Institute to come to its senses, stop dragging the survivors around, and start treating them with compassion, respect, and the national responsibility they deserve by right, not by favor.