By a Correspondent | August, 2002

The Israeli government is granting a full military funeral for a navy commando who contracted cancer and died after diving into the polluted Kishon River near Haifa.

	Kishon: The deadly river?

Arik Rosenthal, 31, died last month. His last rites did not include elements of a funeral granted to soldiers who die in the course of their duties.

A committee of enquiry has severely criticized senior naval officers who let their men dive into the Kishon. However, the committee so far has been unable to determine whether carcinogens in the river caused fatal diseases contracted by frogmen.

The government has thus decided to conduct medical examinations for regular officers and reservists to prove there is a linkage.