Is Israel's Minister of Welfare both opposed to institutionalization and in favor of it?

Minister of Welfare and Social Affairs Ya'akov Margi

[Photo Credit: Miriam Alster/FLASH90]

Israel currently has a Minister of Welfare and Social Affairs who is impressively skilled at speaking out of both sides of his mouth. 

When Ya'akov Margi addresses people with disabilities and their activist supporters, he is a passionate champion of their rights to equality. He assures them that he and his staff will endeavor to enable all of them to leave institutions for independent living in the very near future.

He did this in March 2023 at a committee hearing into the report of another committee headed by retired judge Shulamit Dotan. The Dotan Committee's recommendations relate to a new law passed by the Knesset in June 2022: the Welfare Services for People with Disabilities Law, discussed here [in Hebrew].

The committee recommended closing all the institutions for people with disabilities within the next five years and replacing them with solutions within the community. 

It is no surprise that the law's passage was hailed by activists as "dramatic" and "historical" and raised high hopes that Israel would at long last follow the rest of the developed world in shutting down its large, locked, isolated institutions that today house some 18,000 of its citizens with disabilities.

Behind those walls, the basic human rights of these citizens are denied on a daily basis, repeatedly resulting in neglect, abuse and occasionally death.

It is obvious that the new law's achievements will largely depend on the stance of the incoming Minister of Welfare. He will determine the details of the many outstanding regulations that must be established.

One crucial subject, a fraught one, will be budget. Cash will need to be re-channelled away from the institutions to individuals with disabilities.

For years it has baffled many of us who abhor institutionalization that Israel, otherwise such a progressive country, remains in relation to this specific issue mired in the Dark Ages.

It has, however, become increasingly clear that much of the foot-dragging is rooted in the huge profits pocketed by the operators of those institutional facilities. All of the government benefits accruing to the residents of their institutions reach the operators. The Ministry does not trouble itself to demand detailed accounts of the distribution of those funds.

The less those operators spend on staff and care of their residents, the more cash they themselves retain. The many cases of abuse and neglect at those institutions leave little room for doubt about the operators' priorities.

Hence it should not come as a surprise to discover that they exert pressure on politicians to evade the new law and the Dotan Committee recommendations. After all, the status quo is working fine for them.

Usually, though, the public can only imagine the exchanges taking place between those operators of institutions and our politicians.

So it was highly unusual - and shocking - to read of the open assurance made by Minister Margi to one of those operators, less than three months after his address at the committee hearing I mentioned above. 

Image source: The ADI website (Click to enlarge)

Some details:

• According to an early-June 2023 public relations handout, Minister Ya'akov Margi, accompanied by other Ministry officials, visited the ADI Negev-Nahalat Eran rehabilitation village. 
• Alongside its integrated nurseries, rehabilitation center and therapy pool stands a closed institution housing some 163 residents, ranging from children to adults.
• At the conclusion of their tour of the premises which included the institution - or, as it's referred to on the ADI site, the "residential homes" - Minister Margi lavished praise on the enterprise. “I am more than happy to be here today. This place has grown immensely and the entire subject of rehabilitation has blossomed."
• He concluded with these words: “We must copy this village model to other parts of Israel.”

None of this has been reported in the mainstream media yet. Only ADI itself and the B'Hadrei Haredim news site, have publicized it.

But what's abundantly clear is that Minister Margi is eager to spread the curse of institutionalization even further throughout Israel than it currently is.

And the hell with that "historic" new law.

A travesty of justice and Netanyahu's role

March 20, 2017

Responding to this past Tuesday's murder of Meir Tamari, a young husband and father of two, in a terror shooting attack ["Victim of West Bank shooting attack named as 32-year-old father of two Meir Tamari"], Prime Minister Netanyahu, quoted on this Israel government site, offered predictable condolences and assurances. 

He concluded with this promise to arrest and punish the perpetrators:

"Our forces are now pursuing the terrorists in order to settle accounts with them - and they will be settled soon. As we have reached every terrorist and settled accounts with them until now - we will do the same this time."

Most Israelis probably accepted that as, at worst, a hackneyed statement. But certainly not an infuriating one.

But when parsed, as it ought to be, it is clear that Netanyahu was circulating a bald-faced lie. His boast "as we have... settled accounts with them until now - we will do the same this time" flies in the face of his past actions.

 
Here is why.

The sad passing on Wednesday of Chana Nachenberg, the 16th victim of the 2001 Sbarro Pizzeria bombing, should remind everyone of that lie. Yet it is my husband and I and only a handful of others who have noted it. 

Our daughter, Malki, 15 years old, was among the original fifteen Sbarro victims. Her absence relentlessly torments us to this day.

The chief orchestrator of that Hamas bombing, Ahlam Tamimi, was freed by Netanyahu in the 2011 Shalit Deal - at the urging of his wife Sara as he himself explained ["PM says wife convinced him to go ahead with Schalit prisoner deal" Israel Hayom] to the German news magazine BILD in 2012. 

It was Sara, says Bibi, who urged him to execute the Shalit deal and release 1,027 convicted and unrepentant terrorists. They included Tamimi whom Netanyahu handed her to Jordan's King Abdullah II under the guise of "exiling" her as he termed it in his address to his constituents. 

In truth, he was returning her to her family and to the home in which she was raised in Jordan's second-largest city, Zarqa. Some exile.

There - and in Amman where she has resided since 2011 - she has enjoyed a high-profile life replete with TV interviews, hosting gigs, award presentations and all the coverage a proud mass-murderer could wish for.

 
A minor kink in her glorious life has been her indictment by the U.S Department of Justice (at first under seal in 2013 and then unsealed in 2017) and the subsequent public American demand for her extradition by her protector, Jordan's Abdullah.

1995

The demand is based on a valid extradition treaty dating to 1995, signed and ratified by the U.S and by King Abdullah's father, King Hussein. The State Department has asserted numerous times [here for instance] that the treaty continues to be in force, valid and binding.

But not to worry, King Abdullah has navigated his way around all that, has ignored the demand, has declared the treaty "not ratified" and has won a cadre of supporters in the U.S. Congress on both sides of the aisle.

Abdullah's Jewish admirers, who are numerous and include influential individuals and large, prominent organizations,  have also assisted his rejection of the demand. Their continued regular, reverential meetings with him and their silence on the subject signal to him that they are fine with his evasion of justice.

 
Who cares whether the mass murderer whom he is shielding slaughtered Jewish children - eight of them?

Finally, King Abdullah's position regarding the extradition demand has been buttressed by none other than Netanyahu. Informed sources have quietly suggested to my husband and me that our prime minister, off the record, has urged Jewish leaders not to touch the Tamimi matter - and not to pressure the king to comply with the U.S. government's demand.

Is this a man determined to settle scores with terrorists? Actions speak louder than empty condolence messages.

Clearly, justice for murderers of Israelis is not on Netanyahu's list of priorities.