Self-promotion and Holocaust Day

Image Source: ADI website

Nothing is off limits, it seems. No topic, no matter how sacred, is deemed by Doron Almog and his PR team as unrelated to the relentless campaign they wage to entrench institutionalization in Israel.

And so today, on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, they turned to nazism's evil as a defense. Yes, you read correctly: defense of the practice of removing people with disabilities, even children and babies, from their families to be locked up in large, isolated institutions for the remainder of their lives!

Readers, if you see any justification for that practice in the evil of nazism, please enlighten me! (I warn you, your chances of success are nil).

In case you are incredulous as to the ADI shenanigans and suspect I exaggerate, here are a couple of verbatim excerpts from ADI's two recent media statements. One, apparently, would not suffice.

Almog mentions the German youth who volunteered at Nahlat Eran as a gesture of atonement for the sins of their people during the Holocaust: 

"By volunteering in Israel with the most vulnerable members of our society, they are breaking the silence and making the exact opposite statement made by their grandparents just a few decades ago – that they consider Jews to be their brothers, that all people are equal, and that as humans, we are mutually responsible for one another.” ["Descendants of Holocaust perpetrators seek atonement in Israel", FORWARD, January 26, 2021] 

Excuse me for wondering. If "all people are equal", why are our most "vulnerable" as ADI enjoys labeling people with disabilities, not "equal enough" to merit a life within a family and community?!

And here is the second post: 

“Their grandparents [the volunteers] were indoctrinated in racist ideology. They thought they were the superior race. In 1939, Hitler rounded up disabled people and murdered them. Here, their grandchildren learn that we are all equal. That every life is precious.” [Facebook]

Once again, forgive my denseness. I just can't fathom how the separation of babies and children from their parents and siblings to languish in institutions demonstrates that "we are all equal. That every life is precious."

I urge you to call out the supporters of the vile practice of institutionalization - Israel's ongoing, thriving evil. They will persist in disseminating the above distortions and lies unless we raise our voices..

'Stuff' the ambassador forgot

Image Source: Israel Hayom

The hyperbole surrounding former US Ambassador to Israel David M. Friedman ["With ambassadors like this…"] and his tenure grows with every fresh interview he gives the media. 

And since reticent is not an adjective suited to the man, the interviews are accumulating. See for instance the recent items in the New York Times and the Jerusalem Post.

The latest one, in Israel Hayom ["'We left the Middle East in good shape'"], describes him as "the most influential US ambassador in the history of US-Israeli relations." It's unclear how that conclusion was reached. Perhaps Friedman himself contributed the assessment. He certainly seems enamored with his position and his accomplishments. As he said: "There are so many things that we've done that nobody really knows about." Adding, "I wish I could keep this job forever."

In fact, in his NY Times interview he revealed that he won't be making aliyah for four years, awaiting Trump's prospects in 2024. 

“I want to give myself every opportunity to return to government.”

In his Israel Hayom interview, he reiterates that hope. Asked whether there's any chance that Trump will run in 2024, Friedman responds: "I just don't know. It's too soon to be making predictions for 2024." 

And then segueing to self praise - his favorite mode: 

"During those four years, we had a lot to be proud of, we got a lot of stuff done." 

Well, there was one bit of "stuff" to which Mr. Friedman was entirely apathetic: Justice for the fifteen Jewish men, women and children who died in the Sbarro massacre of 2001. 

Image Source

My husband and I sought Mr. Friedman's attention throughout his tenure in that regard. We were, and still are, encountering silence from the State Department about Jordan's defiant refusal to extradite Ahlam Tamimi, the mastermind of that terror bombing, in which our child, Malki, was one of the eight children who perished. 

The US Department of Justice unsealed charges against Tamimi in 2017 and has since been demanding her extradition pursuant to the extradition treaty signed and ratified by the US and Jordan in 1995. The validity of that treaty was most recently affirmed as valid ("The United States regards the extradition treaty with Jordan as valid and in force") by the State Department in August 2020.

Given that Friedman was employed by the State Department, he was the logical address for assistance in the matter. Yet our numerous approaches to his office elicited no response from him. To this day, he has not commented on the matter in any shape or form. Mr. Friedman was obviously too pre-occupied with his other "stuff" to deign to communicate with us. 

I trust that interspersed with the hagiographies emanating from the Jewish public, in particular, the Orthodox sector, will be this truth: That justice doesn't rank on Mr. Friedman's list of significant goals. That he is unperturbed by the fact that Jordan's regime has been honoring, sheltering and celebrating a self-confessed, proud murderer of Jews since 2011. 

That he is unmoved by the fact that the administration he represented maintained a strong partnership with and channeled millions of dollars to the ruler responsible for this travesty of justice, King Abdullah II.

The Israel Hayom article about the ex-ambassador noted that Mr. Friedman's Jewish name is David Melech. And that he quipped at a Bnai Brith International ceremony shortly after his appointment to the Post: "If you were wondering about my middle name, Melech, it's not because my parents expected great things of me, but because my grandmother was named Malka [the feminine version of the name]" causing the audience to "double over with laughter".

I certainly didn't laugh to read that. 

Rather it was pathetic. Even the fact that our murdered child had the same name as his grandmother didn't spur him to respond to our entreaties. 

Admittedly, power and glory have been known to extinguish one's idealism. So Mr. Friedman has plenty of company.

With ambassadors like this…

Malki with me on the right; the US Embassy in Tel Aviv on the left

[My blog post below originally appeared in Times of Israel on January 15, 2021. This version includes some changes.] 

“Love him or hate him” began a recent New York Times farewell article ["Strong Views and ‘Close to the Boss’: How U.S. Envoy Reshaped a Conflict", January 10, 2021] about US ambassador to Israel, David M. Friedman. 

And we are left in no doubt which is the NYT’s sentiment.

It’s also abundantly clear that Friedman himself is a huge fan of Friedman. He can’t stop tooting his own horn, to the point where the reader is left cringing.

“There’s no going back on what we’ve been able to do,” he says in the interview. “I’m frankly somewhere between addicted and intoxicated with what I’ve been able to do, and how much joy it gives me.”

And the adulation he has won from Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law, no doubt enhanced that swelled ego:

He set a very ambitious agenda,” said Kushner. “Quite frankly, toward the end we were almost running out of things to accomplish, because David had gotten done so many things that were unthinkable.

In fact, Friedman is so high on the glorified role he has played in the Trump administration that he says he won’t be immigrating to Israel yet:

“I’m going to stay American-only for at least four years,” he said. “I want to give myself every opportunity to return to government.”

Of course, he said that before Trump’s impeachment and expected disqualification from running for the presidency in 2024.

Click the image to enlarge:
My husband I bought and placed this advertisement on the front

page of the Jerusalem Post on the day US Secretary of State Mike
Pompeo ate breakfast in our city this past November. He never
troubled himself to respond: not then. not before, not since

With all those idealistic accomplishments, it is noteworthy that Mr. Friedman was utterly deaf to our many approaches to his office which spanned over two and a half years. These, of course, concerned our efforts to have the US press Jordan to extradite the terrorist charged with bombing the Sbarro pizzeria where our daughter Malki was one of the many victims.

His office staff repeatedly assured us that our emails had been received and would be dealt with. At times, the response was slightly more detailed: “We are looking into the points you raised and will respond to you when I have more information.”

In 30 months of efforts, it never progressed beyond that stage. We never heard from the ambassador; not directly, not indirectly. Silence.

My husband and I placed this ad on the Jerusalem Post’s front page so that Secretary of State Pompeo would see it at breakfast in his Jerusalem hotel on November 19, 2020. We never heard from him or his entourage.

We had hoped that Friedman would conduct himself as an ambassador should. That he would help clarify for us — the parents of a US national murdered in a terror attack — why the State Department which he represented here in Israel these past four years — was so mystifyingly unresponsive to our approaches.

Charges were unveiled against Ahlam Tamimi, a Jordanian bomber, in March 2017. She was added that month to the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorist list.

That’s also when King Abdullah’s regime came out of the closet as her defender and protector, steadfastly shielding from US justice the accused mass murderer and admitted Hamas terrorist.

The 1995 extradition treaty between the two countries, and which the US insists is valid, has not fazed the king in the least. And luckily for him, little evident pressure is being exerted to elicit his compliance.

Tamimi, the mastermind of the 2001 Sbarro massacre, the Hamas operative who selected the target – a bustling eatery crowded with women and children – and transported the bomb to its door, has emerged as an honored celebrity in her place of refuge, Amman, the capital of Jordan.

Fifteen men, women and children were murdered in that massacre of which Tamimi has boasted repeatedly to her huge fan base.

The US has not permitted any of that to affect its much-touted “partnership against terrorism” with Jordan. Nor its generous funding.

And even Mr. Friedman was unperturbed by that reality. The many emails we sent him, every one of which he ignored, detailed the travesty of justice we are fighting to correct.

To the numerous friends and contacts who over the years have directed us to Friedman for support, confident that he would be an avid ally, I have this to say: Nothing could be further from the truth.

Let’s hope that Mr. Friedman’s replacement will be blessed with a bit more modesty and a lot more morality.

Update: Epilepsy medication

We are nearing the end of the 6 mg phase of Fycompa (generic name: perampanel) and approaching the therapeutic dose of 8 mg.

We still haven't located anyone else taking this drug which received its first FDA approval in 2012, for patients over 12 years old. And in 2018, was approved by the FDA for anyone over the age of 4. 

Some of the possible side effects are irrelevant to Haya.

For instance slurred speech; we're actually hoping it does give her some slurred speech!

And deterioration in gait: any sort of gait would be great!

Reaching out to people with disabilities in closed institutions

Image Source: Ministry website

It seems Israel's Ministry of Justice means business. 

I just read the questionnaire it has disseminated in simple language for the cognitively impaired. It is clear that the Ministry is now seriously pursuing abuse and neglect in institutions for people with disabilities - which, by the way, includes ALEH and ADI.

The questionnaire, which I mentioned in my last post [March of the ministers, January 9, 2021], asks pointed questions (which I have translated to English). 

Here are a few:

Do you feel safe in your residential framework?
Responses:
Yes

No

Don't know

When something happens in your framework that bothers/upsets/disturbs you, are you comfortable approaching someone in order to complain?
Responses:
Yes

No

Sometimes - there are times that I do and times that I don't.

If something in the framework upsets you, whom do you usually approach to complain? (Mark all the answers that are appropriate).
My family
The social worker in the framework
The director of the framework
The supervisor of the framework
Someone in the Ministry of Welfare
The social worker in the municipality
The parents committee of the residents in the framework
A social organization (for example Bizchut, Akim) or to a private lawyer
The Commission of Equal Rights for People with Disabilities
Someone else (write here to whom)

Has this happened to you?
My room was in bad shape/condition (for example, there was broken furniture).
Someone from the staff hit you (hurt you on your body)
Someone from the staff insulted you or cursed you
They tied you to a bed or they left you in locked room.
Someone on the staff took some of your personal things (for instance, your telephone)

Responses:
It happened to me and I complained
It happened to me and I didn't complain
It didn't happen to me

Has this happened to you?
They don't keep your apartment or framework clean
They don't keep you or your body clean
They don't include you in decisions about yourself
They didn't allow your family members to go into your room during visits (before Corona)

Responses:
It happened to me and I complained
It happened to me and I did complain
It didn't happen to me

Did you ever complain about something else? 

(Write here what you complained about. You don't have to answer.)

How much did the one who took care of your complaint listen to you?
Responses:
Listened closely
Didn't listen so much
Didn't listen at all

Did they solve the problem you complained about?
Yes
No

. . .

Here's hoping the existence of this questionnaire will serve as a deterrent to the staff of those institutions. But that would only be a step in the right direction.

We can't abandon the ultimate goal: putting these institutions in our rear view mirrors.

Perhaps, when scrutiny, transparency and enforcement of the law - of which this questionnaire is one example - spreads, the appeal of them evil will wane. And the rights of people with disabilities to remain with their families and in the community will be respected.

March of the ministers

Image Source: JNS

The parade of politicians paying their respects to Aleh and ADI has been nothing short of disgraceful. 

We saw Yoav Galant, Minister of Education; Yuli Edelstein, Minister of Health; President Reuven Rivlin; Knesset members Haim Katz and Etti Attia trotted out by Doron Almog in recent weeks. They all dutifully parroted the PR team's fulsome praise of Adi - Nahalat Eran.

Not to be outdone by Almog, his ex-partner, Rabbi Yehuda Marmorstein, collared Knesset member Bezalel Smotrich who visited his Bnei Brak branch where he extolled Aleh. (True, he's a low-ranking celeb but Aleh appears to be trailing ADI in every realm of the PR competition. Its websites and Facebook pages are all still out-of-action.)

A logical conclusion after that Ministers' March would be that our government still just doesn't get it. It is incapable of grasping what the rest of the world realized years ago: that institutionalization injures and violates the human rights of individuals with disabilities.

But here is a touch of encouraging news. Our Ministry of Justice has just taken a stance against institutionalization. It is urging residents of institutions and their families to share their tales of woe. The goal is to enable the Ministry's intervention on their behalf.

Bizchut, Israel's Center for the Human Rights of People with Disabilities, has circulated the Ministry's new questionnaire which covers abuse, neglect and other human rights violations.

Here is Bizchut's Whatsapp memo to its supporters (translated from Hebrew by me):

"Residents of institutions and hostels and their families: It is time for you to make your voices heard! You have contacted us - at Bizchut - many times with disturbing accounts of the situations in institutional frameworks. Generally you reach us after failing to receive an appropriate response from the Ministry of Welfare. We have flooded the Ministry of Justice with these difficulties and following our pleas, the Ministry has disseminated a questionnaire aimed at examining how to enhance the protection of people with disabilities living in institutions. 
!! It is important that the maximum number of people log in and portray the conditions in institutions! Please spare a few minutes to answer the questionnaire, and also forward it further...
Please note - there are separate questionnaires for residents (which must be returned by 30/1) and for families (which must be returned by 20/1). All questionnaires are at the bottom of the page in the link.

The version for residents is in simple language and is 20 pages long. Here are a few sample questions:

How would you like to answer the questionnaire?
I would like to answer the questionnaire without writing my name:
I would like to write my name (write your name here):
Which sort of disability do you have? -

mental, developmental or cognitive

emotional (mental health)

autism

physical disability (in movement)

hearing disability (deafness or hearing impaired

visual disability (blindness or serious visual impairment)

I don't want to answer

Other disability (write here which):

And here is how the Ministry described its new effort:

"As part of the work we do in the social cluster of the Advice and Legislative Department of the Ministry of Justice, we are examining ways of improving our involvement, and where necessary the protection of people with disabilities who reside in out-of-home frameworks, with an emphasis on the means of presenting complaints and their investigation."

I am so thankful every day that our Haya has been spared the plight of other Israeli citizens with disabilities who are locked up in large institutions - like Aleh and ADI!

Here (over on the right) is Haya receiving her first Fycompa pill of 6 mg. It only took about ten hours on the phone to various offices of our health fund to finally purchase them. And for no comprehensible reason other than bureaucratic whim! 

Nothing works like a haranguing mom.