Demeaning, distasteful, downright disgusting

Video capture [Source]

In 2016 I wrote about an organization called Refuah and Yeshuah [see "The Pesach seder and the children who won't be there"], offering to rid families of their children with disabilities on Seder night. It was, in my view, the height of distasteful.

The advertisement, which appeared in a local Hareidi business booklet, featured a young child with Down's being lifted by an adults hands. The text on the photo read:

"Chaimke's father has no questions!" 

Below the photo it continued:

'The most special Seder in the world' Many families with special children endure difficulty and cope throughout the year in silence. Refuah and Yeshuah holds a special seder for special children and gives them days of relief and joy on the Pesach holiday". 

The ad posted a phone number for donations.

I presumed that, in the years since, such a jarring project would be recognized as anachronistic and discriminatory and would have been, deservedly, ditched.

I couldn't have been more wrong. 

This year I found not one but two Hareidi organizations soliciting donations to fund their seders for children with disabilities. From the accompanying photos and video clips it is clear they too were targeting children with Down's.

Here's the way one of them, Alei Siach, touted the idea:

From bedikat hametz until packing away the Pesach dishes: The organization Alei Siach will carry out its revolutionary initiative for Pesach and will host at its Pesach retreat in Pisgat Zeev in Jerusalem, scores of special needs children and adults with heartfelt warmth for the entire holiday. Volunteers of the organization will thereby remove the burden and worry over the child from the parents and will enable them and their families to enjoy the holiday joy and true freedom.

The second organization, Giusim (which might be a fund-raising platform and the charity might be called Ohel Sarah - it's not at all clear), posted this bizarre wordless clip apparently depicting a child being excluded from the seder by his own family:

[If the video clip does not stream, I urge you to go to YouTube and stream it from there.]

One encouraging detail in this sordid picture is that when I saw it last night, Giyusim listed no more than 14 donors and a total of 4,886 shekels (roughly USD 1,350).

One small step for mankind? Let's hope.

With the recent conclusion of two breaking news stories - missiles from Gaza and the national elections - news stations were free to indulge in "lighter" material.

So this week, Kan - the brand name for Israel's public TV and radio broadcaster - aired a news feature on the institutionalization of people with disabilities. (It's here in Hebrew.) 

I was interviewed in front of their cameras in February along with several others critical of some institutions.

The Kan film crew were in my house for nearly two hours. But I understood that only a tiny fraction of the resultant footage would appear in the segment.

But ultimately, the producers included a lot of it probably because I was one of only two who agreed to disclose their identities.

The fact that other interviewees were (I presume) too frightened to, and appeared with their  voices and/or faces disguised is a sad testament to Israel's primitivity in this domain.

More of that primitivity was evident in the avalanche of viciously angry - occasionally ad hominem - responses that were posted on the Kan site by past and current employees and volunteers at Aleh institutions.

I still haven't fully recovered from the distress they caused me. The impression is that this was at least partially a coordinated campaign instigated by the Aleh PR team

Aleh Jerusalem, as I wrote ("Notes from an Aleh visit") is the one I visited in January 2019 along with a member of the Israeli Knesset. I hope to post a transcript in English of the interviews.

Let's get the Tamimi facts right

The Jerusalem Post is currently circulating a news item whose sub-title correctly asks "How does a terrorist who killed two Americans have an active Twitter account?"

That terrorist murdered my child.

The photo accompanying the piece is of my child and me.

The source of the revelation of that account is my husband's research.

Thus I feel compelled and justified in critiquing that Jerusalem Post item.

Just as most Arab language news services do, the Jerusalem Post has diminished Tamimi's role in the 2001 Sbarro Pizzeria bombing to just barely this side of criminal.

Tamimi is described as the one who "drove the suicide attacker to the restaurant" and adding that the "perpetrator himself was killed in the explosion".

In fact, Tamimi, was the mastermind of that attack. She was the perpetrator.

According to her own account, she scoured the center of Jerusalem for a venue offering the highest number of women and children as potential victims. She coached her human weapon, the suicide bomber. She accompanied him on their journey from Ramallah and as he carried the 10 kg. explosive-filled guitar case from East Jerusalem to West Jerusalem. She escorted the human bomb to the target she had selected. She instructed him to wait fifteen minutes before detonating to enable her to escape unharmed.

At no time did she drive. They came by bus and cab.

This evil mass murderer of fifteen men, women and children lives under the protection of Jordan’s King Abdullah II. She is free to incite admiring fellow Muslims to follow in her footsteps by hosting TV programs, guest appearances on talk shows and her Twitter account which my husband and I have requested be shut down immediately.

Tamimi was indicted in 2017 and her extradition from Jordan requested by the US Department of Justice. Her name was added at the same time to the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists list.

Despite Jordan flatly refusing the US extradition request, the White House persists in hosting King Abdullah and hailing him as a loyal partner in the fight against terrorism.

When covering this travesty of justice, I urge reporters to stick to the facts. Let’s leave the misrepresenting to our enemies.