Five years after she defeated death after being stabbed 13 times in a forest near Jerusalem, tour guide Kay Wilson has emerged victorious in another battle – the fight for meaningful compensation from the National Insurance Institute.
"For 5 years and 4 months I have endured emotional abuse, humiliation, obtuseness, red tape and arguably intentional stalling by the hands of my own government, the Israeli National Insurance (Bituach Leumi)," Wilson wrote Wednesday. "They have consistently refused to admit that seeing a person hacked to death before my eyes, while being stabbed 13 times myself, in the course of my work, has left me severely psychologically and physically disabled. To admit as such would have entitled me to compensation that would have covered my rent rather than what I was awarded – 'an exemption of paying the annual TV license' and an initial, pitiful pension of 700 NIS per month".
The bureaucratic nightmare was not without its macabre elements: "For 2 years while I was mostly on my back, they refused to acknowledge that I was at work when the terror attack happened," Wilson explained. "When asked for a copy of the receipt issued to Kristine (proof that I was guiding), I even had to explain that Kristine Luken did not really need a receipt because she was murdered".
"For 3 years I have been telling my harrowing story at the hands of Palestinian terrorists all over the world and always at my own mental detriment," the indefatigable Wilson added. "I do it to testify to evil, to be a witness to the goodness of Israel, to commemorate my friend, to raise awareness of anti-Semitism, to alert people to the evils of the Palestinian Authority and to remind people that Israel is a democracy of thriving co-existence, in which an Arab Muslim surgeon saved my life.
"Due to a compassionate and experienced lawyer who has tirelessly fought for me, the Israel National Insurance finally conceded that I was guiding when the attack happened," she told her Facebook followers. "Further, after numerous medical committees and tens of thousands of shekels spent, my disability percentage, awarded as a result of a 'work accident' has now been raised from 0% to 59%.
"To my fellow dear survivors of terrorism," she concluded. "This institution is a corrupt and national outrage. But never, never, never give up. Truth always wins."