Last update - 00:00 28/09/2007
Dismissed volunteer Civil Guards sue Israel Police for ageism
By Ruth Sinai, Haaretz Correspondent
The recent dismissal of two older Civil Guard volunteers may be an important juncture in the fight against ageism. The two volunteers last week petitioned the High Court of Justice against their dismissal.
Meir Cohen, 83, had been serving in the Israel Police neighborhood watch program for many years. One morning last June, Nes Tziona's Civil Guard commander called him into her office. She informed Cohen, who had volunteered there for nine years, that he was too old to serve and asked him to return his civil guard badge.
Cohen's 71-year-old co-petitioner was dismissed under similar circumstances. The Civil Guard says both were discharged because of health concerns.
"We don't want police officers to have to take care of volunteers in case they have a heart attack. The officers have enough on their hands," a senior police officer told Haaretz.
Police also point out two cases in which older volunteers died while on duty. One was was 58 years old, and the other was 68. But attorneys Israel Doron and Karmit Yishai, both from the nonprofit Law in the Service of the Elderly, reject the police argument.
"Age cannot be regarded as any measurement of a person's ability to serve. This should be measured according to the person's health and his or her physical condition," says Doron.
"I was terribly hurt. It's awfully humiliating," recalls Cohen. His dismissal was hard on him because volunteerism has always been part of his life, he says.
Cohen came to Israel from Morocco aboard the refugee ship Exodus in 1947. But the British deported him to Europe along with the rest of the passengers. In Europe, Cohen volunteered for the Haganah, the prestate Jewish paramilitary organization. Cohen helped smuggle Jews from Europe to British Mandate Palestine.
Cohen arrived in Palestine 15 days before the Declaration of Independence. He fought in the wars that followed and in 1967 risked his life to rescue a friend's body from a minefield.
His three children all volunteered with Magen David Adom emergency service and elsewhere, as did some of his eight grandchildren.
In the framework of his Civil Guard service, Cohen volunteered at a school crossing and with the school's permission, he still goes to help kids across the road.
"After the holidays I'll find something else to do. I might help the army. Whatever they'll let me do," he says. "I feel like a young man."