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Friday August 22, 1997

Maccabiah probe delay angers Australian Jews

JEREMY JONES
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

SYDNEY, Australia -- Members of Australia's Jewish community are growing increasingly impatient over delays in obtaining test results on water from the scene of the bridge collapse at the opening ceremonies of last month's Maccabiah Games in Israel. Two Australian athletes died July 14 and hundreds of other participants were injured when a pedestrian bridge collapsed at the Ramat Gan stadium, plunging scores of people into the Yarkon River below.

Two more Australians died weeks later as a result of complications that medical officials linked to contaminated river water.

With an additional 10 Australian athletes still in serious condition, reportedly as a result of ingesting Yarkon water, accusations are mounting here that Israeli officials are taking too long to issue results of their tests on water samples.

The delay has prompted an angry reaction from the parents of Sasha Elterman, who remains in intensive care at Schneider Children's Hospital in Tel Aviv.

Elterman's father, Colin, said the doctors still do not know for what his daughter should be treated.

In a radio interview last week, Maccabi Australia President Tom Goldman said, "When someone dies four weeks after an accident, it is more than a drowning episode."

He said the only report he has seen so far was on a water sample taken some distance from the scene of the tragedy. The sample did not show dangerous pollution levels.

Goldman said he did not believe the Israeli government was purposely delaying the results' release, which he attributed to "everything being part of the police reporting procedure.

"What we are suggesting is that they need to be pressured to work faster," Goldman said.

Goldman returned last week from Israel with water and soil samples.

He has commissioned independent tests on the samples and is reportedly considering suing Israeli authorities if an investigation indicates that water toxins caused the death of some of the athletes.

Maccabi Australia and the international Maccabi organization are reportedly establishing a central office to deal with the bridge collapse and help victims and their families file lawsuits.

The British magazine New Scientist last week quoted Dr. Patrick Sorkin, director of intensive care at Tel Aviv's Ichilov Hospital, as claiming that some victims showed signs of hydrocarbon poisoning.

In the same article, another Israeli doctor, Amiram Lev, suggested that the symptoms of athletes still under treatment indicated exposure to an unknown toxic substance, possibly a mosquito pesticide.

The daily newspaper The Australian claimed last week that it had obtained test results indicating high levels of sewage in the river water near the bridge.

Don Bursill, director of Sydney's Cooperative Research Center for Water Quality, said the results indicated that the river water "is highly contaminated from a microbiological point of view" and is similar to sewage that has had the solids removed from it.

He said the high bacterial counts were not enough to kill a person, although "it would not make you feel very pleasant."

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