Eviction notice pushed boy, 15, to suicide

By MARION FISCHEL
Fifteen-year-old Niv Avraham took his own life last week after worrying himself about losing his home. He had been depressed since a bailiff knocked on the door of the family's apartment in Yavne a few days earlier. Home alone, it was Avraham who took delivery of an eviction notice - because of a bank overdraft of NIS 40,000. Avraham discussed suicide - by instant messenger - with a friend, who warned him of the devastation it would cause his family. Avraham's mother, Rikki, who is unemployed and suffers from diabetes, said her son was always cheerful and never showed his parents that he was worried. "Whenever I asked him how he was, he replied 'everything is OK,'" she said on Channel 10's Every Morning on Thursday, eight days after his death. Nevertheless, a transcript of the instant messages shows that Avraham was very concerned at the thought of his family becoming homeless and he told his friend there was "no way" they would be able to pay their debts and avoid being evicted. The Avrahams have decried the insensitivity of the bailiff's office in handing the eviction notice to a minor. The bailiff's office responded to a query from Channel 10 by saying that all it did was deliver a document, and that it does not consider itself responsible for the consequences. Rikki and her husband, Danny - a policeman - donated their son's organs, which were used to save the lives of five people.