TEL AVIV,
Israel (AP) _ After each dive into the polluted Kishon River,
Israeli navy seal Yuval Tamir spent nearly an hour scrubbing putrid
grime from his skin.Commanders
brushed aside his health concerns and Tamir logged 1,100 hours
in the dark waters during a 23-year career _ until he was diagnosed
with skin and colon cancer 18 months ago.
Forty divers
in the 750-man elite unit have contracted cancer _ and 16 have
died _ but the army so far has refused to acknowledge a link between
the diving and the disease. Now, an independent commission is
trying to determine whether the military knowingly put the men
at risk _ and has raised troubling questions about the military"s
priorities. "They (commanders) left us wounded in the battle
field," Tamir, a burly 43-year-old father of two, told the
three-judge panel Thursday. While the army maintains it is cooperating
with the inquiry, it has not addressed the question of exactly
when it became aware of dangerous pollution levels.
The army spokesman
says training sessions stopped in 1990, and that since then, only
crucial underwater missions have been carried out, the last one
two months ago. The elite units, including the seals, have always
been considered one of Israel"s key weapon against terrorism.
Members are imbued by a sense of mission, even invincibility,
and their training is given top billing.
Veterans of
commando units often make a smooth transition into high-ranking
government jobs. Prime Minister Ehud Barak and his predecessor,
Benjamin Netanyahu, are both graduates of Sayeret Matkal, a crack
infantry unit. The Kishon River and the adjacent Haifa Bay are
lined by chemical companies that have been pouring toxic waste
into the water for decades.
While the
Ministry of Environmental Protection pollution levels have dropped
in recent years, the river is still considered a health hazard,
with signs along its banks prohibiting swimming. Yoram Aviram,
a lawyer who represents the navy divers, said it has been widely
known since 1956 that the Kishon was polluted. Nonetheless, it
was the navy"s preferred training area for many years.
Former diver
Zvi Stern, 48, who served in the unit from 1970 to 1990, said
he and his colleagues sometimes spoke of their fears. "Every
time I went into the water, my skin would burn, my eyes would
be red and bulging," said Stern, who has undergone 20 skin
cancer operations since 1998 and has had to give up his job as
a caterer. Stern said that when at one point he refused to dive,
he was locked up at the base for two weeks.
In another
routine disciplinary measure, commanders would force divers to
drink Kishon water from their flippers. Tamir said that in 18
months of basic seals training, divers would have to swallow the
brew about 10 times. Tamir, who toward the end of his career headed
an underwater unit that searches for explosives, said his suspicions
grew with every new report that a comrade had contracted cancer
or died of the disease.
Eventually,
the sick men got together and demanded to be recognized as wounded
veterans, meaning they could draw a monthly stipend. In response,
the army launched an internal probe. Tamir feared a whitewash
and appealed to the Supreme Court. Before the judges could rule,
the state created the independent commission of inquiry, which
began hearing the case this week. It is headed by retired Chief
Justice Meir Shamgar, who in 1996 led the inquiry into the assassination
of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
In Thursday"s
session, the second so far, the judges heard testimony from Haifa
Mayor Amram Mitzna and Robert Reuveni, director of the Haifa district
office of the Ministry of Environmental Protection. Reuveni said
the Health Ministry ignored his warnings and did little to stop
the deadly flow of toxic waste into the navy"s prime training
location. Aviram, the divers" lawyer, said each government
agency was trying to find someone else to blame.
The navy veterans
said they were deeply pained by the cat-and-mouse game. "All
our lives, we were in the military," said Stern. "It
really hurt me when our commander said: `I dove and I"m not
sick." He should be thankful that he isn"t.""
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