Who's not applauding Israel's new law on disabilities?

Band performs a celebratory concert following the Knesset vote

Silence can be deafening at times. 

While the world of disability rights is shouting its jubilation from the rooftops, ADI (the organization headed by Doron Almog that operates large-scale institutions for housing children with disabilities) has made no mention, at least none that I can find so far of the passage of the historic new law ["Progress on one front - regress on another"] expanding the basic human rights in Israel of people with disabilities.

And that shouldn't surprise us.

The law (I am working on an analysis in English) is expected to enable independent, autonomous life for every person with disabilities at every level of functioning. It will require that the services will be provided in accordance with the Israeli Law for Equal Rights to People with Disabilities 1998 and the International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 2006.

The new law expressly mandates that the Minister of Welfare prepare a program to reduce institutionalization and to report to the Knesset annually about its execution. .

Most of the additional funding, reported to be totaling some 2 billion shekels, will be channeled to the community including services supportive of independent, autonomous living.

Many crucial details regarding implementation of the law have yet to be released by the Ministry of Welfare. Nevertheless, this is clearly a watershed moment in the fight for equal rights for people with disabilities.

To ignore it, as ADI has done so studiously, speaks volumes about the priorities and values of its founding director and soon-to-be head of the Jewish Agency, Almog.

And because we resisted pressure from our child's school and from social workers to place our Haya in ADI Negev, here she is in the pool this week. We take her every week so that I can do hydrotherapy with her. Haya loves it.

Please note: Haya now lifts her head while floating. What this signifies to us might not be the same as what others see in it. We are thrilled.

Progress on one front - regress on another

Last week, a significant new appointment was announced after its year long vacancy: Chairman of the Jewish Agency.

The Agency's selection committee voted for IDF Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Doron Almog. Its decision still must be approved by its board of directors which will convene on July 10 in Jerusalem.

Image Source: A 2015 promotional campaign on Facebook

Anyone who reads this blog will understand why the choice left me devastated.

Almog founded and operates large, closed, isolated institutions for hundreds of children and young adults with disabilities. Nevertheless, for the Israeli public he is an icon who can do no wrong. The kudos after the announcement have been streaming in on every mainstream and social media platform.

On a WhatsApp group in which i take part - made up of disability activists for people with disabilities and for their families - I saw a "share" of a Facebook post by Sivan Rahav Meir, a well known Israeli journalist, praising him to the sky. 

So I wrote the following to my co-activists (in Hebrew):

It's sad and infuriating to learn that Doron Almog won the nomination for chairman of the Jewish Agency. This man has acted tirelessly and for decades to entrench the institutionalization of children and adults with disabilities.

Where is the progress in the fight for in-the-community living for every citizen, when a person with this background is presented as a hero as Sivan Rahav Meir has done?!

Naama Lerner, a lawyer, formerly an official with Bizchut and now one of the founders of Hatnua L'atzma'ut, also known as Movement for Independence, responded with this (again translated by me from the Hebrew source):

I agree with you entirely, Frimet. But it's really not politically correct to say that. He has wall-to-wall support. Not just from Sivan Rahav Meir. He is presented as someone who has set up a marvelous life's enterprise.

It's a place that has cut off tens of people with disabilities from their families, people whose parents live in the north and they were placed in Aleh Negev [in the south]. It's a place that boasts of its connection to the community but is located in "nowhere".

And its connection to the community is expressed by groups of soldiers visiting to "make the pathetic children living there happy". It's a place that looks good physically but is emotionally very barren, isolated and remote. Truly sad.

And when another member jumped to Almog's defense, Naama added:

I am not judging him [Doron Almog] at all. I am judging the Ministry of Welfare that followed him blindly and didn't point out to him the error of his ways. Aleh Negev was founded at a stage when the Ministry of Welfare had decided not to establish any more new institutions (but to proceed with founding hostels).  But nobody could stand up to Doron Almog. So he established it and that's entirely not to the credit of the welfare system. It's a place [now operating under the name ADI Negev] that suffers from all of the usual maladies of all institutions. I have received complaints against it, I have been there, it's an institution in every sense of the word. And are the residents satisfied?  Who knows? They've never seen another life and aren't aware of alternative options. Ask the residents of Neve Ha'irus* and they too will say they are satisfied."

*To understand the reference to Neve Ha'Irus, click here to see several of my previous blog posts dealing with that disgraced institution.

Alongside the comments about Almog's appointment, there is another Israel-centric topic garnering far more interest. Sometime this week, a new, long-awaited law for people with disabilities is expected to be enacted by Israel's lawmakers. The draft was pushed through the preliminary readings stages in recent days to ensure its passage before the Knesset disbands this week.

It is being hailed as "historic legislation" on the WhatsApp group I frequent. The hope is it will advance the right of people with disabilities and their families to choose life within the community and will hasten country-wide de-institutionalization.

While it isn't perfect, for now this appears to be the best law attainable.  

Meanwhile on the home front, click here to view another "major" achievement, this one by my daughter Haya as captured on YouTube.

Texas, Jerusalem and innocents

Image Sources: Getty (Brandon Ball) - Uvalde and Getty (Staff) - Jerusalem

It has been difficult and painful to watch coverage of the Uvalde tragedy. Most trying has been listening to accounts of victims and their families.

Additionally upsetting for my husband and me has been the outrage expressed by some politicians. Their resolute vows to act to prevent further such horrific deaths are difficult for us to hear. That's because some of those very same people have ignored and rebuffed our pleas for action from them.

Our child was murdered too. But the perpetrator is alive, well and free! 

Furthermore everything is in place for her to be tried and convicted in a US court and imprisoned for life in a US jail. While Malki resided in Israel and was an Israeli citizen, she also had American citizenship just as I do. I was born and raised in Queens, NY.  The law under which Tamimi has been indicted applies in this case because Malki was an American.

What is lacking is the will to make that happen. The will to force the intransigent king of Jordan to extradite that mass murderer in accordance with the valid treaty his father's government signed and ratified in 1995.

Ahlam Tamimi, my child's murderer, who also killed fourteen others including 7 children, is one of the most wanted terrorists in the world.

Malki

Not one of those congressmen who are, justifiably, incensed by the Uvalde massacre, seems interested in ruffling the feathers of Jordan's dictator. As the darling of US politicians on both sides of the aisle, he has managed to evade the effect of the indictment filed by the US Department of Justice for more than five years. And with it, the extradition request under the treaty.

And he has accomplished that with no consequences, no sanctions and no reduction in his annual multi-billion dollar gift from US taxpayers' pockets. 

I implore anyone who values justice to join our fight. 

Please circulate this post and the accompanying tweets far and wide. And, if you are acquainted with any politicians, please urge them to ask the government of the US to pressure Jordan to comply with the US demand for extradition. We have a petition for that here.

He may be glib, speak an impeccable English with an impressive British accent, have a beautiful wife and be extremely wealthy ["While foreign aid poured in, Jordan’s King Abdullah funnelled $100m through secret companies to buy luxury homes"]. 

But none of those attributes should entitle Jordan's King Abdullah II to ignore his chief benefactor, the United States.