Global Initiative out of Israel

How many people would dive into swirling waters to save a drowning child who is not their own? Run into a burning apartment to save a neighbour? When we see the phenomenon of hit-and-run drivers, we know that people tend to save themselves over the stranger. Those familiar with the bystander effect know that a common reaction to observing violence or a crime in progress is to pretend not to see anything and walk on past, not wanting to get involved. In an attempt to override these tendencies, Israel passed a law in 1998 that constitutes a duty-to-rescue law. In Hebrew it is named חוק לא תעמוד על דם רעך (Lo Ta'amod al Dam Raecha - Do not stand idly by the blood of your neighbour), from the passage in Leviticus. The law states that a witness to a situation in which another person is in serious danger and that witness does nothing to help, not even to call the police or an ambulance, that person is liable to be fined. In order to combat the fear of being sued should the help offered by the nonprofessional cause some harm to the rescued individual, the law makes it clear that this will not happen. In fact, the rescuer can be compensated for losses accrued, such as lost time at work when staying to help means arriving late. There should be no excuses, then, for standing idly by or moving on without offering help to an individual in danger, at least by calling the police, fire department or ambulance. The law is also clear about the fact that the rescuer is not compelled to risk his or her own life in attempting to rescue another. There are heroes, however, who do risk their own lives. Perhaps you remember Michael Ben Zikri (45), who drowned after saving a woman and three children who were apparently pulled into a sink-hole at Nahal Shikma, a manmade lake south of Ashkelon. And Moti Ben Shabbat who died in the flood waters in Nahariya while helping a family trapped in their car.  I wonder if you heard about Alexander Omelchenko (44). He rushed into a burning apartment when he heard two children screaming for help and ended up in the hospital with serious burns and smoke inhalation. Liat Ron of Radio Tsafon and Globes told the stories of four such heroes and I translated into English and summarized three of them (Ben Zikri, Ben Shabbat and Tarkmaan) here. Ron's piece is the only news article in the entire country that tells the heroic story of Servat Maruf Tarkmaan (25) of Jizr a-Zarqa. Ron discovered that after the celebrations die down, families of the deceased heroes and the surviving heroes and their families are left to deal with the trauma and financial repercussions on their own. The citations for heroism do not buy food at the grocery store nor pay the rent. Photos with the president do not cover the costs of psychotherapy for the impact of the traumatic experiences they suffered nor the grief therapy for the family members they left behind. Instead, injured survivors and the deceased heroes are categorized as work accident victims and then they must submit to Bituach Leumi (National Security Agency) bureaucrats and prove to them that they merit financial support to make up for lost income and added expenses incurred by their acts of heroism. They save souls and then they and/or their families are left on their own to pick up the pieces of their own shattered lives. In her article, Ron compared what heroes and their families can expect to get in the best case scenario in contrast with injured or deceased IDF soldiers and victims of terrorist attacks. There is no comparison. See the table below from Ron's article (my translation):

	Terrorist Attacks	Civilian Heroism (classified as work accidents)
Burial, mourning and memorial expenses	Receive	Do not receive
Psychotherapy costs	Receive	Do not receive
Compensation for widows	8500-18000 NIS/month	30%-60% of deceased’s monthly income in three months prior to death
Compensation for parents	6000-12000 NIS/month	Receive allowance only if the deceased supported them financially
Other benefits	Bar Mitzvah grant, living expenses for orphans, discount for municipal taxes and appreciation tax, mental health grant, tuition for higher education, old age home expenses, rental assistance, and more	Bar Mitzvah grant, living expenses for orphans

This huge discrepancy did not sit well with Ron.