Do we want a psy-cho-log-ist leading us?

Mrs Netanyahu [File Photo]

The audio recording of Sara Netanayahu that rocked the country this week [reported and recorded here] is relevant to our outrage over our daughter's murderer, Ahlam Tamimi.

"How?", you ask.

In 2012, Mr. Netanyahu confessed that in deciding to release 1,027 convicted terrorists in the Shalit Deal,  he was succumbing to Sara's pressure.

In 2012, columnist Barak Ravid wrote:

"Only recently, several long months late, he [Mr. Netanyahu] agreed to admit – in an interview with the German newspaper Bild – that his wife Sara put pressure on him to approve the Shalit deal." ["New Info on Shalit Deal Shows, Yet Again, That in the Mideast, Nothing Is as It Appears", Haaretz, July 24, 2012

Even in the best of circumstances, any input from the wife of the prime minister in such a momentous move is egregiously unacceptable. Now, in light of the recording, we know what that "pressure" probably sounded like.

We should be shivering in our pants with the knowledge that this woman had, and still has, our lives in her hands. Thanks in part to her, several more Israelis were murdered by those Shalit Deal releasees [see "29-Jan-18: Freeing unrepentant terrorists and the horrors it has brought"]

Others, like our Malki's murderer, are still tirelessly engaged in incitement to murder with utter impunity.

Can we continue to allow the most powerful elected official in the country to lead us under the direct influence of this patently-unhinged woman?

On voluntourism

Once again, those indefatigable Aleh PR partisans have disseminated over-the-top praise for their enterprise in the name of a foreign volunteer. And once again, that praise exhibits their gross ignorance of disabilities rights. 

This time, the team channeled its message via an American social worker and mother of a 29-year-old girl with intellectual and developmental disabilities. She is currently spending a year at Aleh Negev having left her daughter in the U.S. in an "appropriate arrangement." 

The effusive PR team dubbed her Volunteer of the Year. She allegedly said: 

“Despite being familiar with my daughter’s world, I have never encountered anything like ALEH Negev-Nahalat Eran. I wish that something similar could be built in the United States.” [Aleh website]

There is no need to wish or wonder about the lack of such an enterprise in the United States. There are perfectly sound reasons for it. But like so many other volunteers at orphanages and institutions, she seems unaware of the progress that has been made on behalf of people with disabilities in just about every other developed country, excluding Israel. I have personally spoken to such well-intentioned, idealistic individuals and am always struck anew by their obliviousness of deinstitutionalization.

Here is a brief survey of that process in the United States:

For the past 50 years, the main goal of disability rights activists has been to help people with disabilities transition out of institutional settings and into their own homes and communities. To accomplish this, advocates and policymakers have worked to establish an extensive system of support services for seniors, non-elderly adults, and children with disabilities; rather than pushing people into segregated settings, the support now comes to them, in their homes.
Between 1960 and 2013, as a result of this effort, states closed 219 state institutions for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Whereas in 1977 the average person with a developmental disability lived in a place that housed 22.5 people, by 2011 that number had dropped to 2.3, reflecting a vast shift toward integration and personalization of services... [From "The GOP health care plan could force Americans with disabilities back into institutions", Ari Ne'eman via VOX.com, March 23, 2017]

Once again, to all volunteers and donors to institutions that warehouse babies, children and adults in large, closed and isolated facilities, a reminder of Lumos founder, J.K. Rowling's admonition:

"Voluntourism is one of drivers of family break-up in very poor countries. It incentivizes ‘orphanages’ that are run as businesses."

Sadly, Israel, a developed and enlightened state in other respects, conducts itself in this realm like those poor countries. It ignores legislation and scientific studies. 

And for those questioning whether Aleh is in fact a business, please note the statement [here] by Israel's State Attorney regarding the financial boon that it has been to Israel's largest periphery, the Negev. 

And this:

It is not only rights that suffer in institutions — life skills deteriorate, too. Evidence suggests that exit into the community can actually improve the functional skills of many people with disabilities. The research shows that in domains like self-care, “community living skills,” communications, and social interaction, people have better outcomes after leaving institutions. In part due to these findings, the Supreme Court ruled in its 1999 Olmstead v. L.C. decision that the Americans With Disabilities Act required state Medicaid programs to offer community-based options as an alternative to anyone who wished to take advantage of them... [VOX again]

Is this why our government loves Aleh?

State Attorney Shai Nitzan visiting Aleh Negev [Image Source]

This blog has often bemoaned the incessant procession of dignitaries to Aleh's institutions. The latest to join is State Attorney, Shai Nitzan, who was given "a tour of the village", referring to Aleh Negev, on January 9, 2018.

The kudos that Israel's officials accord Aleh's large, closed  institutions is unforgivable. It intensifies the uphill battle facing  people with disabilities and their families who crave true equality and true inclusion as opposed to the ersatz equality and inclusion that Aleh's PR peddles.

But Mr. Nitzan must be commended for his honesty, inadvertent though it probably was. In his praise for Aleh's enterprise, he let the cat out of the bag, saying

"...Our place, that of the State Attorney, is to work to lessen discrimination, to take care of and assist the periphery in its lack of equality vis-à-vis the center of the country.”

There it is, for all to read and hear.

One crucial motive behind this government's promotion and funding of Aleh is the jobs it generates. Simply put, the warehousing of our most vulnerable children and adults, their isolation from families and communities, is a boon to the  economically-deprived south of Israel - the Negev.

Which means the welfare of the residents with disabilities themselves isn't a priority. And how could it be? If it were, our government would be supporting and funding their care with their families and in the community with the generosity it now unjustifiably bestows on Aleh.