Actually, he was being followed. In a petition filed last week with Israel’s High Court of Justice, a veterans group accuses Israel’s Defense Ministry of hiring private investigators to tail and secretly record PTSD victims to see whether they’re faking symptoms. Dan Dolfin, an official in the Defense Ministry’s rehabilitation unit, says that about half a dozen vets are put under surveillance each year, but only “very, very carefully,” and if “we see the story is outrageous.” The practice, he says, goes back at least a decade.
Veterans are livid. Rights lawyer Shlomo Rehavi, who wrote the vets’ petition, argues that since PTSD is a mental disorder, observing everyday behavior is useless. Haim Knobler, a former Army chief of mental health, blames the practice on bureaucrats’ trying to slash benefits budgets; Rehavi and Dolfin say they know of several cases in which benefits have been reduced after surveillance. The Yom Kippur vet says Defense Ministry staffers confronted him with a videotape of himself driving a car and shopping with his daughter. His case remains open. He’s anxious—and apparently isn’t the only one. “I think the system is a little paranoid,” says Knobler.
