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.

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.