Navy divers sickened from training in polluted river to receive disabled designation

The Defense Ministry will recognize as IDF disabled veterans any Israeli Navy veteran who was forced to swim in the heavily polluted Kishon River in northern Israel during their service and has since contracted any disease, giving them access to additional benefits and services after years of refusing to do so, it says.

Until now, these soldiers have not received this designation as a group, as investigations were unable to definitively prove a connection between their illnesses and their time in the polluted river. Some had been recognized as IDF disabled veterans, particularly those who developed their sicknesses while they were still in the military.

Defense Minister Benny Gantz calls the decision to recognize all of the so-called “Kishon divers” as IDF disabled veterans “historic justice.”

“The goal was to send a clear message to IDF soldiers: We are responsible for sending you to battle. We want to bring you home safely, and we will accompany those who are injured. This is our responsibility and it doesn’t have an expiration date,” Gantz tells reporters.

The Kishon River in northern Israel was for years used as a dumping ground for hazardous waste by petrochemical companies operating out of the port city of Haifa, turning the stream into one of the most polluted bodies of water in the country. The river was found to contain high levels of particularly toxic chemicals, like mercury and arsenic, killing off many of the fish and other wildlife that previously lived in it.

Despite this, however, the river was used as a training ground for the Israeli Navy’s elite Shayetet 13 and its scuba unit until the early 1990s, with upwards of 10,000 soldiers swimming and diving in it over the years, some of them regularly and for extended periods of time.

These “Kishon Divers” will all be recognized as IDF disabled veterans and receive the benefits that go along with that, regardless of what type of illness they have contracted. Cadets from the Israeli Naval Academy during those years who spent particularly long periods of time in the river will be fast-tracked for recognition, the Defense Ministry says.