Nissan Miram, 42, a foreign worker from Thailand who was killed in the Upper Galilee on Oct. 11, will not be recognized as a victim of hostilities, Israel’s Defense Ministry said on Tuesday.
Miram was working as a tractor driver near Kibbutz Yir’on when unexploded ammunition detonated.
The ministry decided not to recognize him as a victim of hostilities because the ammunition that killed him was apparently dropped by an IDF unit on the way to military operations in Lebanon.
It had been initially reported that Miram had been killed by a Hezbollah missile that failed to explode upon impact.
The ministry’s decision sparked criticism from civil society groups.
The Hotline for Refugees and Migrants, an Israeli NGO offering free advice and legal representation to those groups, said:
“Nissan Miram was invited by the State of Israel to work in the fields and orchards and bring food to the tables of all of us. Israel is the one who sent him to work in a war zone, in a settlement that has been evacuated of its residents, and to risk his life.
“It is impossible that after he was killed, in a war that did not concern him, the state will disavow responsibility and push his family into a bureaucratic struggle. Miram was not killed in a work accident—he is a direct victim of the war, and the state must recognize him as such,” the group added.
Kav LaOved—Worker’s Hotline, an NGO focusing on disadvantaged workers in Israel, also leveled criticism at the Defense Ministry:
“Nisan Miram was an agricultural worker who was killed during his work in an industry that the state defined as essential, and which allowed his work during wartime in a fire zone near the border.
“Therefore, the state is expected to take responsibility, and it is not relevant to the deceased worker or his family if he was killed by IDF or Hezbollah fire,” it said.
The head of the Upper Galilee Regional Council, Giora Zaltz, agreed that the decision was “outrageous and infuriating.
“Nissan was killed on the border of the country during a war, and it doesn’t matter if it was fired by Hezbollah or by the IDF. I call on the minister of defense to intervene and change the decision,” she said.
The Ministry of Defense said in response: “We express deep sorrow for the tragic death of Nissan Miram during his work and send our condolences to his family. The law on compensation for war victims defines the criteria for recognition as a victim of hostilities. This unfortunate case does not meet the criteria defined in the law.”
(JNS)