From the Treatment of the Nova Survivors to Food Prices: Discussions of the State Control Committee (July 2024)

The distress of the survivors of the massacre and those suffering from PTSD, the defense of the home front, the erupting violence in Arab society, and the cost of living: Knesset members discussed the findings of the State Comptroller's reports.

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During July 2024 the Knesset State Control Committee continued to discuss matters concerning the state of emergency, alongside routine matters from a long-term perspective. Reports published during the past year were given extensive coverage, alongside matters that the audit is dealing with at this very moment. 

The Treatment of the Nature Parties' Survivors: "Help us to rehabilitate"

It has been more than ten months since the October 7th massacre, and the scenes of the atrocities they saw, heard and experienced still haunt the survivors of the nature parties that were held near the border with Gaza – Nova, Psyduck and Midburn. 

Their representatives attended a discussion convened by the State Control Committee (15.7.2024), with the aim of asking the State Comptroller for an opinion on the state's treatment of the survivors of the parties. The Office was represented at the discussion by the Legal Advisor Yoel Hadar, and the Director of the Social and Welfare Audit Division Liora Shimoni.

The discussion exposed significant gaps in the treatment of the survivors and their families and claims against the government ministries that the treatment offered to the survivors, and includes 36 therapeutic meetings, is insufficient.

In a trembling voice, the young people who survived described the reality of their lives: The nightmares that haunt them day and night, the inability to return to a work routine and to fully function, the torturous coping with the bureaucracy that makes it difficult for them to receive the emotional treatments they require. 

"My fear that the treatments will end causes me to choose and delay the treatment", said Ron Segev. "Once 36 treatments have been completed, we need to attend a committee – and then they will certify us as disabled. Encourage us to return to the workplace and not to be disabled".


Raz Perry, who survived the massacre in a mobile shelter in Mefalsim and is fighting cancer, painfully described: "I survived out of 51 people who were murdered in the mobile shelter in Mefalsim. I wrestled with a terrorist with my own hands. After October 7th, I was admitted to hospitals. My mother fed me with a teaspoon for six months, while the doctors said that there was no remedy for my disease. I went to Nova to dance and free my soul due to my cancer. I was supposed to be undergoing chemotherapy. Instead, I found myself applying a tourniquet, attempting to save others – and failing. Nobody supported me apart from my immediate family. Today I am fighting shrapnel, scars, and also the cancer. I lost my business. I am seeking a way to rehabilitate myself".

Michal Ohana, a Nova survivor: "I was shot and for 7 hours I lay under a tank. During these nine months I went from psychologist to psychologist, rehabilitation village and more. I am a veterinary nurse by profession and today I cannot practice my profession and see blood. I saw things that I do not want to remember. We went through a cruel, inhuman massacre, the pain will accompany us for many generations and what we are asking for is to return to the workforce".

It should be noted that within the framework of the audit currently being conducted on the Swords of Iron War, the Office of the State Comptroller is examining dozens of subjects, including the national preparedness for the treatment of anxiety and post-trauma victims during times of emergency, and the licensing of the party at Re'im.

Food Prices: "We are currently working on an additional report"

The Committee dedicated two discussions to a report published this year by the Comptroller on the supervision of prices in the food industry (1.7.2024 and 9.7.2024). Health experts invited to the Committee warned against rising nutritional insecurity following the cost of living and an increase in the prices of supervised and unsupervised foods. "Many cannot afford to purchase healthy food products. It is much more expensive for the state, and its citizens, to treat the problems caused by unhealthy nutrition", said the Chairman of the Committee, MK Mickey Levy. He added that the companies controlling the market had exaggerated profits, and the state had lost control over the cost of living: "Israel is in price chaos. We are in second place in the world in the cost of living, after Switzerland".

Tzachi Saad, Director of the Economic and National Infrastructure Audit Division, gave an update on the audit activities that are still continuing at the present time, and noted that "We are currently working on an additional report on the subject of the supervision of prices in the food industry".

The Director of Department G in the Division, David Bar, added that "The matter of coeliac patients is on our table, and I regard this matter as something that is part of the Supervision Law. The price of wholegrain bread is double the price of white bread, and this requires thought. We have placed great emphasis on this matter in the report, and I hope that it will be brought up again in the Prices Committee". The subsequent words of the representatives of the government ministries and the health organizations described a worrying state of affairs about the food market in Israel. 



The Handling of the Climate Crisis: "The majority of the defects have not been rectified at all"

About three months after the publication of the extended follow-up audit on the government's actions and its preparation for the climate crisis, the Committee held a discussion on its findings – to which the Minister of Environmental Protection, Idit Silman, was also invited (2.7.2024).

Yuval Hayo, the Director of the Government Ministries and Institutions Division, and Aharon Hellinger, the Director of Department L in the Division, presented the serious findings that arose in the follow-up audit to the Comptroller's report on the matter of the climate crisis from 2021.

"The comprehensive follow-up audit raised a worrying picture, the majority of the defects have not been rectified at all", Hellinger noted at the start of his speech. According to him, "In the absence of a leading government official who will take inclusive responsibility for the matter, a significant delay has been created in the promotion of essential legislation for laying a legal basis for effective action. The risk management at the national level is lacking, and it appears that the government's attention to the matter is insufficient".

The report calls for comprehensive and significant government action, which includes a combination of mitigation and adaptation methods, with the aim of achieving zero carbon emissions by 2050. If drastic measures are not taken, warns the Comptroller in the follow-up audit, not only will Israel endanger its environmental future, but also its international status and its ability to cope with the enormous challenges that the climate crisis places before us.


The Chairman of the Committee, MK Mickey Levy: "The new follow-up report on Israel's preparedness for the climate crisis raises a worrying picture of minimal progress, if any, since the previous discussion in Ja​nuary 2023. Despite the repeated warnings, Israel is continuing to lag behind after the developed world in copying with the climate challenge. Israel must wake up and take action".

The Minister of Environmental Protection, Idit Silman, said in the discussion: "It was important for us to define the goals by means of the law and not a government decision. We are investing as much as we can despite the cuts in bringing to the forefront mitigation and adaptation. So that the ministries will be obliged to report on these matters. We stand with the Ministry of Finance in order to advance the Carbon Tax".

Violence in Arab Society: "This is a strategic threat"

The rising crime rate in the Arab and mixed localities continues to claim victims. The Committee dedicated a discussion in the matter to the Comptroller's report that examined how the Israel Police is coping with the crime rate in Arab Society (10.7.24). The discussion quoted figures indicating the continuation of an upward trend in violent events in Arab society, and Chairman Levy noted that "Violence in Arab society is breaking records that have not yet been seen". 

Moshe Semo, Deputy Director of Department F in the Government Ministries and Institutions Division, said in the discussion: "We have dealt with the subject of firearms and weapons offenses in Arab society in two reports in 2018 and 2021, in light of its effect on Arab society as a whole. We regard the Committee's follow-up discussions in a positive light. The threat embedded in the matter has been defined as a strategic threat. Without a comprehensive, systemic, detailed and budgeted plan, it will not be possible to generate a change. We shall continue to follow-up the implementation of the government decisions in the matter". 


The Treatment of PTSD victims: "We are in a living hell"

The Committee held an additional discussion (16.7.2024) on the report published this year by the Comptroller on the implementation of the "Nefesh Achat" (one soul) reform for the treatment of IDF disabled.

In a previous discussion, the Committee highlighted the need to raise the salary of doctors and psychologists, as the conditions of their employment create difficulties in allocating proper treatment to those serving in the defense forces. The war poses a great challenge to the Rehabilitation Department, and there is great urgency in the implementation of the relevant recommendations of the Comptroller's report. 

Ro'ee Barda, who suffers from PTSD, described his distress: "We are in a living hell, and when the doctor in the Rehabilitation Department told me 'So what if you don't sleep at night, I don't sleep either', I understood that this was the approach to post-trauma. We are sick of discussions, when every sound becomes an alert, every loved one becomes an enemy, and you are primed for battle – these are not just words, but our lives".

Protection of the Home Front: "Decisions that have been passed are not being implemented"

The Director of the Defense Establishment Audit Division, Eitan Dahan, appeared at a joint discussion of the State Control Committee and the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee (29.7.2024), and presented the findings from the audit on the preparedness to defend the home front against the threat of missiles and rockets: "The audit examined the physical protection, shelters, protected spaces, the detection and warning system, and a lot of work has been put into this matter". 

"The main subjects that arose in the report itself are first and foremost the significant gaps in protection between the residents of Israel, gaps in the shared and private shelters, even in the residential protected room (MAMAD) – only 38% of the population has a MAMAD. About 8% of the population has no standard protection. In the issue of the long-stay public shelters, there were gaps, from the aspect of electricity, sanitation, the ability to provide food, ventilation and other matters. In the south, within a range of 0 to 40 kilometers from the border, there is a gap of 230 thousand residents who do not have standard protection. In the north, 614 thousand residents have protection gaps. It was spoken here of a program called 'Magen Tzafon' (protection of the north), whose precise cost is 5 billion, and although it did not only concern protection but also preparedness for an earthquake, but if it had come into force in full, we would be in another place".

Dahan added that "An additional matter that we conducted an audit on recently is the approval of protected spaces by the Home Front Command and the inspection institutes. We looked mainly at the bureaucratic process that takes a long time. There is a temporary order since October for a permit for a MAMAD without the planning authorities. I welcome this. We have regarded as supremely important the transfer of powers to the engineers and the architects for self-approval of the protection additions. There are several audits that are being conducted now, and which deal with the matters that arose here. For example, the issue of the protection of educational institutions and the building of temporary educational institutions and hospitals".