There’s a moment in every rehabilitation story that doesn’t make it into the inspirational quotes. It’s not the first day sober, or the first job interview, or even the first night of safe sleep. It’s the moment a person realizes the past hasn’t just hurt them, it’s still billing them.
For one woman, a survivor of the sex trade, that bill came in the form of 77 fines totaling about 100,000 shekels. Not a “mistake,” not a single misstep—an accumulated record of survival under conditions most of us are lucky never to face. A teenager subjected to severe sexual assault. A descent into prostitution, drug dependence, and life on the street. And then, against the odds, a decision to climb out.
She did what we demand people do when we speak about “responsibility.” She sought help. With the support of a mobile clinic operated through the Haifa Health Bureau, she got clean. She started looking for work. She began the slow, grinding work of rebuilding a life.
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Guy Akuka, nearly blind since birth, does not see the world like most people. With a visual range of only three meters, he has spent his life sharpening a different kind of vision: a profound sense of social justice. Today, as a senior attorney for the Jerusalem Institute of Justice (JIJ), Akuka has become a lifeline for IDF veterans, providing expert legal representation to those navigating the grueling bureaucracy of the Ministry of Defense.
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Gasps echoed through the aisles as the plane touched down in Tel Aviv, and passengers opened their phones for the first time in 12 hours. A man in front of me prayed. The first of the last twenty hostages had been freed! As we stood to exit the plane, all words were of the good news. You didn’t need to know Hebrew, French, or English to hear the exuberant joy and disbelieving relief in the voices.
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When applying to the Rehabilitation Department of Israel’s Ministry of Defense, the first steps are critical. Even a small mistake at the outset can jeopardize recognition of your injury — and with it, access to treatment, rehabilitation, and compensation. At JIJ, our legal team has extensive experience guiding veterans, reservists, and their families through this complex process. In this article we outline the key principles every applicant should know.
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One of Israel’s most urgent social crises: the struggles facing families of children with severe disabilities. JIJ attorneys recently took part in a special Knesset committee addressing this issue. The discussion, chaired by MK Hava Eti Atia, revealed the depth of the problem—parents left without essential state support, battling every day to provide around-the-clock care.
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In a powerful testament to resilience and healing through art, Yuval Raphael, one of the survivors featured in the upcoming documentary SATURDAY October 7, has been selected to represent Israel at Eurovision 2025.
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Turkish-Israeli relations have always been in flux. Turkey was the first Muslim-majority country to recognise Israel, and the 1990s were characterised by strengthening relations[. However, relations began to deteriorate at the beginning of the 21st century, coinciding with the election of Erdogan and Turkey’s shift towards Islam and championing of the Palestinian issue.
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My most rewarding experience at JIJ was producing and recording a series of 15-minute lectures on the central challenges facing Israel (Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, and lawfare). Before coming to JIJ, I considered myself an informed consumer of media about Israel. Creating content, however, is much harder than consuming it. As I went about producing material of my own, I realized how little I had previously known about the threats facing Israel and the realities of the Middle East. How did I go about overcoming this knowledge deficit to produce original content for viewers in Israel and the Diaspora? By reading, by debating, and by writing. Read More