Judah Ari Gross is The Times of Israel s military correspondent.
Illustrative: Golani Brigade soldiers stand guard near the grave of their comrade Amit Ben-Ygal, at the Be er Ya akov cemetery, on May 15, 2020. (Yossi Aloni/Flash90)
Israel’s existing mechanisms for finding and treating veterans coping with post-traumatic stress are woefully inadequate due to a notoriously invasive and byzantine Defense Ministry bureaucracy, structural issues that prevent people from requesting help they need, and generally ineffective treatment options.
Those issues came to the fore this week after 26-year-old Itzik Saidyan, a veteran of the brutal battle of Shejaiya in the 2014 Gaza war, dowsed himself in a flammable liquid and set himself on fire outside the offices of the Defense Ministry’s Rehabilitation Department in Petah Tikva, roughly 24 hours before the country brought in Memorial Day.
Defense Ministry to probe Israeli army veteran s self-immolation
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Disabled Israeli army veteran sets himself on fire ahead of Memorial Day
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