Where is the "inclusion" for Aleh's residents?

The very issue of the Jerusalem Post Magazine that featured my article, "The Special Torah" [see "My brother the rabbi and his message of inclusion"] included a classic Aleh piece courtesy of its slick PR team.

Entitled "A New Rehabilitative Path in the Negev", it describes the latest Aleh project, a

"neuro orthopedic rehabilitation hospital that will attract more people to live in the area and benefit the existing population of the Negev".

From the Jerusalem Post

I do not question that the hospital will achieve those goals. Nor that it "will be a real game changer for the southern part of Israel" as Dr. Itzhak Siev-Ner, medical director of Aleh Negev states.

By the way, another hat which Dr. Siev Ner wears, according to the piece, is director of the Division of Rehabilitation at the Health Ministry which I'm sure you'll agree screams a thunderous "conflict of interests"!

But I'll leave that outrage aside to concentrate on the repeated references in this piece to "Aleh's mission of rehabilitation and inclusion".

This amazing hospital project is being constructed on the back of an institution housing 145 residents with disabilities ranging in age from 2 months (!) to 61 years. who live detached from their families - or any foster/adoptive families - and from the rest of Israeli society.

I would appreciate some clarification as to how that is remotely akin to "inclusion".

This is probably an opportune time to also note that a five year old child died at Aleh Negev just two months ago from apparent choking on a marshmallow (see "Justice, O Justice, where art thou?").

And that a second 20 year old resident at Aleh Bnei Brak died two weeks ago after suddenly "turning blue" - according to his father - and then slipping into a three-week long coma.

The first death was reported scantily in the Hebrew press while the second was not reported at all. In neither case was an autopsy performed despite the police demand for one in the first case.

Remember: these are two recent cases that have reached me. There is no way of ascertaining whether any more such tragedies have occurred.

There is a third case, reported twenty years ago where Aleh Jerusalem's own doctor conceded there had been negligence in the supervision of the child who choked to death there. Read about it here.