Institutions grab headlines again

Beit Bar Dror in the Israeli news (December 9, 2022)

Naama Lerner, our local unsung hero ("A woman of valor" December 11, 2022) followed up her one-person protest with the update below. 

It's so shocking it sounds scripted. But trust me, Naama doesn't do that. (The translation from the Hebrew source on Facebook is mine.)

On Friday morning a news report was published about food poisoning at the Bar Dror institution in Kfar Saba. Thirty-six out of the one hundred residents came down with diarrhea, and some of them even had high fevers.

Does this news sound painfully familiar to you? If so, it's because a few months ago a very similar article was published about the Beit Dafna Institute. There it ended with the death of three residents. This time, miraculously, no one paid with his life.

But is this incident any less serious because of that?

A side anecdote. As you remember, last week private institutions held a demonstration in front of the Ministry of Welfare, demanding additional money and standards. Facing them the Movement for Independence placed signs intended to remind the institution managers of the incidents of neglect, abuse and death that occurred in the last year in these institutions, and of their audacity in demanding money and services.

At some point, some of the protesters began to cross the road and attempt to have a dialogue about what was written on the signs. One of the protesters introduced herself as an employee of the Bar Dror Mossad. She was angry that the signs lumped together all the institutions, and claimed that Bar Dror should not be included with the institutions where residents died due to neglect or abuse, since no untoward events had occurred there and it is exemplary..

"Our facility is different," she claimed. "It operates in an exemplary manner".

Less than a week has passed, and the news about food poisoning at the Bar Dror institution has been published. Need another explanation about the inclusion of all institutions under the same umbrella? Who is next in line?"

And now "hot off the press", an update on that update:

Sanitary deficiencies were discovered at the Bar Dror institution, a hostel for people with special needs, in Kfar Saba. The Ministry of Health today (Wednesday) issued an instruction to close the kitchen at the institution after tests of food samples revealed low levels of Clostridium bacteria and E.coli bacteria. Although these levels do not cause illness, they do indicate poor sanitary conduct of the institution." [Source: Walla (Hebrew)]

It doesn't seem like this institution will be excluded from the inclusive list of "bad entities" anytime soon.

And while we are agreeing on that generalization, note that Doron Almog's "babies" (ADI Negev and ADI Jerusalem) are two more such private, large, institutions enclosing people with disabilities from infancy to middle age. 

But that fact is carefully swept under the carpet. Instead, Almog, now head of the Jewish Agency is touted as a champion of the rights of people with disabilities. 

Here is but one example of many such distortions. Since he became chairman of the Jewish Agency, Almog has been promoting a policy of opening up the world of aliyah to all types of Jews in the Diaspora, including those will special needs. As the Jerusalem Post recently wrote: 

This topic is especially close to his heart, as the founder and chairman of the rehabilitation village "ADI Negev-Nachalat Eran" which has become a model for integrating people with disabilities. 

Which brings to mind Abraham Lincoln's words: “You can fool some of the people all the time; you can fool all the people some of the time; but, you can't fool all the people all the time.” 

Some of us are not fooled about Doron Almog.

A woman of valor

There are surely many unsung heroes among disabilities activists all over the world.

 
We are blessed with one in Israel, Adv Naama Lerner of Hatnuah L'atzmaut (The Movement for Independence): tireless, brave, determined, idealistic, compassionate, intelligent and religious - obviously a rare mix of traits. 

While she's often interviewed by journalists, and has been an activist for decades, she never toots her own horn. Which probably explains her relative anonymity.

Last week Naama exhibited unusual pluck which earned her a few kudos among activists. One person who acknowledged this was former Knesset member, Stav Shaffir. I've mentioned her here before because she organized the surprise visits paid by activists to closed institutions for people with disabilities in December 2018 in which I took part ["Making history: After the raid"].

She paired-up activists with Knesset members to enable us to gain entry to these normally locked institutions. (Note: the institutions are obligated to open their doors only to Knesset members.)

Naama Lerner protests outside Israel's

Ministry of Welfare, December 5, 2022 [Source]

Here - in my translation from the source Hebrew - is what Stav wrote about Naama on her Facebook page this past week:

I want you to meet a very brave woman: Naama Lerner. Yesterday she stood alone opposite the Ministry of Welfare in protest against the private companies that make millions at the expense of people with special needs. 

These companies receive a budget from the state in order to take care of them - but instead of paying a fair wage to the caregivers, they put the money in the management's pocket, and then come asking for more. 

The therapists get discouraged and are replaced, are usually untrained, and the treatment of a person with special needs - is accordingly. 

This year, residents in such institutions died due to food poisoning and in other unknown circumstances.
Naama stood there in front of the office alone, but she is really not alone: she stands on behalf of tens of thousands with special needs. On behalf of families who lost their children (physically or mentally) to institutions that did not treat them properly. 

I learned about her activities in depth when, as a Knesset member, I began conducting surprise visits to these institutions as a member of the Knesset - and I became a fan of her way, of her depth and endless devotion.
This year she founded the Movement for Independence which aims to promote people with special needs to independence in the community, instead of closed institutions. This is a movement in the right direction, operating with almost no resources against huge companies that make billions from the state and maintaining a strong lobby in the government. 

Let's cheer and strengthen her. She deserves it and we all deserve it.

It happened at the pool

That's us in the big pool

I am writing this post on International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPD). 

December 3 was first proclaimed as such in 1992 via United Nations General Assembly resolution 47/3. Its aim is to promote an understanding of disability issues and mobilize support for the dignity, rights and well-being of persons with disabilities.

Here in my own world, this past week provided a small reminder of the long journey that faces our society before it achieves those goals.

First, a bit of background.

The local, private, small and generously-heated pool we have enjoyed using weekly during these past two years has been officially shuttered. A child was injured on a broken pool tile, the parents threatened to sue the owners, and the latter's lawyer advised them to cease renting out the pool because of liability risks. Needless to say, they have heeded the advice.

Last week, we hadn't yet been notified of the permanent closure. So we were still hopeful that the small pool would reopen soon. We took Haya to the nearest public pool, a much larger facility where the water temperature is set at 29 degrees Celsius (84 in Fahrenheit terms) as compared with the 32 degree (90 F) of the private one. 

That may sound like a negligible difference. But trust me, it isn't. When I swim laps in that same water, it's fine. 

But as her hydro-therapist and standing mostly-still in the pool for Haya's session, I freeze.

As soon as we were notified about the small pool's demise I ordered a wetsuit online. Here's hoping it arrives in time for next week's session.

But I digress.

A few days ago, on arriving at the public pool, we were greeted with a shock. I mentioned to the guard at the entrance that since my daughter is wheelchair-bound I will swipe my chip (a digital entry ticket with stored value - not uncommon here) for her upstairs and then wheel her in via the street-level entrance. 

"Your daughter is in a wheelchair?" the guard asked. When I concurred, she told me that Haya couldn't enter and that I must go speak to the secretary.

 
The secretary explained that the office had "received complaints" about Haya's presence in the pool because she is so severely disabled.

"You need to bring her to a therapy pool, not here".

While my blood reached boiling point and I was contemplating a response, she made a phone call. After hanging up, she did a complete 180.

"It's fine. There's no problem. You can bring your daughter in."

What had really happened is anyone's guess. But regarding the "complainants", the mystery was soon solved.

As the three of us - Haya's carer, my husband and I - brought Haya in to the pool area, a woman in the water addressed the lifeguard with the sort of anti-disabled venom I'd presumed had exited long ago.

"You can't allow her in!" the woman told him, carefully ignoring us. "She doesn't have authorization to use the pool! It's your responsibility to keep her out!"

When the kind lifeguard defended Haya, the woman and her buddy left the pool in a fury.

The need for an International Day of Person's with Disabilities is clearly an ongoing one so long as people with disabilities remain unwelcome and unwanted by vocal segments of society.

On my murdered daughter's birthday, a request

Last week's terror bombings that took the life of Jerusalem teen Aryeh Schupak, and, a few days later, of Tadese Tashume Ben-Ma’ada, 50, father of six, who succumbed to his wounds on November 26, 2022, jolted the nation. 

They also stirred up the horror right beneath the surface of my soul. Horror that has lingered there since 2001, when my daughter Malki was murdered in the Jerusalem Sbarro pizzeria bombing on a hot, summer's afternoon. 

Like the twin bus-stop bombings of last week, the 10 kg bomb that destroyed Sbarro was also packed with nails to maximize the casualties it would inflict. And the Sbarro bomb's target was also a site that children, specifically, would be frequenting at that hour.

A Jerusalem bus stop, one of the two attacked on

November 23, 2022 [Image Source]

Now another innocent Jewish teen - kind, generous, earnest, industrious full of dreams and plans like our child - did not return to his parents.

When I say my heart goes out to his family, those are not just formulaic words. I really do know what they are enduring.

Malki would have celebrated her 37th birthday today, November 27, 2022, if not for that evil act of Hamas operative, Ahlam Tamimi. 

But unlike the terrorists who murdered Aryeh and Ben-Ma'ada, Ahlam Tamimi's whereabouts are known to all. She lives free and protected by Jordan's King Abdullah II. She was indicted by the United States Department of Justice in 2013. Her extradition from Jordan was subsequently demanded under a 1995 treaty signed and ratified by both countries. The U.S. has explicitly deemed that treaty valid despite Jordan's years-late insistence to the contrary.

But there the U.S.'s pursuit of justice for our Malki - a U.S. citizen - has come to a screeching halt.

The very same administration that declared on November 23, 2022, that "We condemn unequivocally the acts of terror overnight in Jerusalem. The United States has offered all appropriate assistance to the Government of Israel as it investigates the attack and works to bring the perpetrators to justice" is doing nothing, I repeat nothing, to bring the fugitive Sbarro perpetrator, Ahlam Tamimi, to justice. 

She has boasted of murdering fifteen men, women and children in the bombing she orchestrated at Sbarro but remains free as a lark.

My husband and I have been struggling since early-2012 to garner attention for our fight. The persistent silence and indifference that have met our pleas is not something we could have anticipated. It crosses all religious, political and geographic lines and is utterly confounding.

But without a doubt, the most disconcerting has been the silence and indifference of American Jewish activists, leaders, politicians and organization heads who claim to be concerned with causes precisely like ours: justice for Jewish victims. 

Many have close personal relationships with Jordan's ruler, Abdullah, often to the absurd point of adulation. His country's blatant anti-Semitism doesn't faze them.

Their hypocrisy has been a bitter pill for us to swallow.

If you too are incensed by this outrage, and are in a position to promote our cause, we are currently preparing a campaign where your help can be instrumental. Please contact us by email at thisongoingwar@gmail.com

Even if you feel you cannot take part, please do consider signing our petition addressed to the U.S. Secretary of State (you do not need to be an American to sign it): change.org/ExtraditeTamimi

Support group musings

Some thoughts below about a recent post on the Facebook page of the FamilieSCN2A Foundation - an online support group for parents of children with that genetic mutation. It's the one my daughter Haya has. 

Members of the group come from all over: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Czechia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Scotland, Serbia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, UK, USA, United Arab Emirates, Venezuela. And probably more.

It was written by Carla Forbes, one of the group's administrators, and is about the FamilieSCN2A logo and the colors that feature so prominently.

This is what the SCN2A support group is all about and this is why the following recent post there grabbed my attention. 

First, to clarify: I only peruse the page occasionally. The posts aren't usually relevant to me as most of the children are both younger and higher functioning than Haya. Hence many of the posts just depress me. 

But all convey the sense that these parents are utterly devoted to their children and determined to provide them with every available therapy and treatment to improve the quality of their lives.

Then this week, while I was up in the wee hours caring for Haya, I read the post I mentioned. It was exceptional, jarring and disappointing - to me at least:

Well... we found a host family in Houston (a hour and 45 mins from us) that is interested in having Alyssa live with them full time. We meet them Saturday.  This is the hardest and loneliest decision we have ever made. No one gets it and not many have gone down this road..... its a hard road y'all. Praying this is the right fit but if not, we will keep looking.

Several readers offered supportive comments and another few "liked" it. I thought a loud "ouch" to myself.  

But then I noted that neither of the site's administrators responded, as they usually do. Their silence seemed telling. This page was obviously not the right venue for news of this sort. 

Here below is my daughter Haya at her latest Monday Hydro with Mom session. 

Next week the pool will be closed for repairs. So we will be relegated to the large, cold public pool nearby. 

Why have I not bought myself a wetsuit like Haya's yet?! 

Sara Netanyahu is no friend of mine

[A version (with certain changes) of my opinion piece below was published as a blog post on the Times Of Israel site on October 27, 2022 under the title "Sara Netanyahu and the strings she pulls".]

Freed in Israel a day earlier, my child's admitted killer arrives

to a hero's raucous reception in Jordan, October 18, 2011

Raviv Drucker is an Israeli investigative reporter who has been sparring with former prime minister of Israel Binyamin Netanyahu since 2016. That's when, as host of Hamakor ("The Source"), a TV current affairs program that ran on what was then known as Israel's Channel 10, he revealed (see a 2016 post on Drucker's blog) that Netanyahu, then serving as prime minister, was promoting the idea of Israel buying three German-made submarines for about $1.5 billion at the same time as his personal attorney David Shimron was the lawyer for the man representing the German company in Israel.

Last week, a new 3-installment expose aired on Israel's Channel 13 (which is where the now-defunct Channel 10 ended up after a merger) that has probably left thousands of viewers shocked and incensed. (Part 1, in Hebrew without subtitles, can be viewed online here.)

But I expect few will have felt the personal affront that my husband and I did from Sara Netanyahu who has a hefty presence in the program. The disdainful references she made, via recorded conversations, were to us despicable.

Now, after listening to her, the prospect of the Netanyahus returning to the Prime Minister's residence after November 1's elections, as most pundits are predicting, seems more ominous to me than before. 

And yes, her husband's re-election, if that's what happens, would clearly mean Sara's return to power via the invisible strings she so relishes pulling.

What exactly did she say, you may wonder, about my husband and me?

Well, we are two of the terror victims she referred to dismissively in the context of the 2011 Shalit Deal over which her husband presided as prime minister at the time. [See "Shalit Prisoner Swap Marks 'Colossal Failure' for Mother of Israeli Bombing Victim", Haaretz, October 19, 2011] 

The Hamakor recordings expose the active role she had in it.

Since 2011, our Malki's murderer, Jordanian reporter Ahlam Tamimi ["27-Feb-22: The Jordanian woman who bombed Sbarro has earned another title"], has enjoyed freedom and fame, in part, because of the Netanyahu couple's determination to release her along with another 1,026 terrorists. 

More than a decade ago, Barak Ravid who was then a political commentator at Haaretz, wrote ["New Info on Shalit Deal Shows, Yet Again, That in the Mideast, Nothing Is as It Appears", Haaretz, July 24, 2012] that 

"at the time that Netanyahu made the decision to go ahead with the prisoner exchange, he regularly denied that his considerations were based on anything but security and diplomacy. Anyone who asserted otherwise was met with a furious response, at best, and a threatened libel suit, at worst. Only recently, several long months late, he agreed to admit – in an interview with the German newspaper BILD – that his wife Sara put pressure on him to approve the deal."

Yes, pressured by Sara. 

Interviewed for BILD, a German daily tabloid and Europe's best-selling newspaper, in June 2012, nine months after Malki's killer was let loose, Netanyahu said this:

 ...about his wife: “My wife gives me tremendous support and warmth. She is the cornerstone of our family, she raises our children, she always tells me you have to make time for the children.” When all of Israel was following the fate of abducted IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, 25, it was Sara, says ‘Bibi’, who finally convinced him to free Shalit from his captors. “She was the one who told me, think of that boy Gilad Shalit”, says Benjamin Netanyahu. “Think of that boy in that dark dungeon, having no hope, no light. Think of him as if he were our son. Think of him, his mother, his father, and then make the decision.”

The Netanyahus - and some of the freed terrorists

I now understand why my articles and personal letters to the Prime Minister's Office pleading for Tamimi to be deleted from the list of prospective releasees was ignored. We never stood a chance of eliciting a response. [See "22-Jul-22: The loneliest battle of my life"] 

Hundreds of those 1,027 imprisoned Arab terrorists were, like Tamimi, convicted murderers. Yet Netanyahu willingly handed them to the extorting terror group, Hamas, in return for one hostage, Gilad Shalit. 

None of them had taken as many lives as Ahlam Tamimi, our child's murderer: 15 men, women and children. And none had been sentenced to anything near the 16 consecutive life sentences she was given. 

Many of those releasees returned to active terrorist duty. Some subsequently murdered innocent Israeli civilians. A significant part of the current Palestinian Arab terrorist leadership - both in Gaza and in Istanbul - would still be behind Israeli bars today were it not for them winning freedom in the Shalit Deal.

Ahlam Tamimi herself has actively incited to terror from her TV programs and social media platforms. [See "23-Feb-22: Weaponizing Turkish teenage girls: What the Sbarro bomber did next"]

But what precisely was Sara's contribution to this lopsided, ill-conceived and lethal exchange?

Nir Hefetz, for years a spokesperson for Benjamin Netanyahu and currently a state witness in the former prime minister’s ongoing corruption trial, has the central role in the three-part Channel 13 expose I mentioned above. 

Recorded conversations he had with Sarah Netanyahu shed more light on her interference in Israel's decision to do the Shalit Deal. They're especially important because - in my opinion - unlike Hefetz's own oral testimony to the court and what he says in his interviews with Raviv Drucker, the veracity of Sara's recordings is indisputable. 

The only retort her camp was able to offer right after they aired was that Drucker had paid Hefetz "hundreds of thousands of shekels" for them. (Mentioned here.)

To which I say: money well spent! The Israeli public is entitled to hear their contents and the dirty truths that have been swept under the carpet until now.

* * *

You can get a sense of what I mean from the following Hebrew-language exchanges between Sara Netanyahu and Nir Hefetz. The translation is mine and thus unofficial of course:

Nir Hefetz: We just sat, about an hour ago, with the families of the Organization of Terror Victims

Sara Netanyahu:  Yes.

Nir Hefetz: Then one of them said something about you; that you assessed something very correctly. Gave you, so to speak, a compliment.

Sara Netanyahu:  Yes.

Sara and Bibi: From a 2012 Vanity Fair profile

Nir Hefetz: Then your husband told them: "Listen, this may surprise you, but it doesn't surprise me at all. She is s-o-o-o smart. [We hear Sara chuckling in the background.] That's how he said it to them, in that same tone as I did to you now. Like that, narrowed his eyes, like this, he says to them: "She's so smart. She's so smart." It was simply... you know, they saw that he said it from the heart."

Sara Netanyahu:  By the way, who do you think asked him to have this meeting?

Nir Hefetz: Ah, really?

Sara Netanyahu:  Nu, who else? [In Hebrew ?אלא מה meaning "naturally!"].

Nir Hefetz: And you know, he is so glad that he did it because now there's a positive report in Ynet.

Sara Netanyahu:  I told him: "You must listen to them [the bereaved families]. It can't be that only after the decision you'll sit with them.

Nir Hefetz: He sat with them for an hour and a half.

Sara Netanyahu:  Nice, nice. And hour and a half is "fair enough" ["פייר אנאפ"]. It's nice.

* * *

She evidently felt she had given us a big enough lollipop to win our docility and compliance. 

But, for the record, these two terror victims, parents of a murdered child, will not be silenced that easily. Our fight to have Malki's murderer extradited by her current protector, Jordan's King Abdullah II, will continue until she is tried under US law in Washington DC. 

And, thereafter, once again behind bars - the only place she belongs.

A shofar message for Doron Almog

Image Source

On August 16, 2022, Doron Almog took the helm of the Jewish Agency.  

Since his nomination for that position, on June 16, 2022, Almog has been hailed as an Israeli hero. Here is the Times of Israel summarizing his claim to that status:   

Almog, 71, a past head of the Israel Defense Forces’ Southern Command, dedicated his life after leaving the military to running a widely lauded rehabilitation village in the Negev desert for people with physical and mental disabilities. ADI Negev-Nahalat Eran is named for his son Eran, who had severe autism and physical disabilities before his death in 2007... [Times of Israel, August 21, 2022]

Since then, hardly a week goes by without a news item about Almog and the Jewish Agency. They have all been unadulterated hagiographies. And occasionally when no such report appeared, he - or his staff - seem to have produced their own. 

So it's fair to predict that some will be enflamed by what I have to say about him.

Almog oversees two large, closed institutions (one of which he founded) named ADI, for people with disabilities ranging from infancy to young adulthood. Its motto: "It’s all in the name: ADI celebrates ability at every level, promotes diversity and insists on inclusion."

He does so despite growing global opposition to institutionalization of this population. 

And he does so despite the recent passage of a new Israeli law that, once implemented, promises to begin the mass transfer of people with disabilities out of the sort of warehouses that Almog champions.

One would have hoped that Yom Kippur and the self examination it encourages would stir Almog to reconsider this major "life achievement" of his. It doesn't seem so when you read his latest op ed, replete with content like this:

"After honoring my late brother Eran who was killed in battle during the Yom Kippur War and my late son, Eran, who was born with severe disabilities, my life philosophy has always been to never leave anyone behind. This applies to my approach regarding aliyah as well. That is because how we treat the vulnerable among us reflects our morality as a society... The absorption of olim should be a national responsibility... We must continue to work, in accordance with the government of Israel, to reunite families and bring olim home, no matter where they are in the world. It is also our obligation to ensure that Ethiopian olim become the absolute best version of themselves. It is what they deserve and what Israeli society needs." ["A full-circle journey: Bringing Ethiopian Jewry home", Times of Israel Blogs, September 28, 2022]

I would remind Almog that much of what he promises to deliver to our new olim has never been provided to our "most vulnerable" as he refers to our population with disabilities.

"Absorption", "reuniting families", is also a national obligation toward those with disabilities who are taken from their families and locked up in large, isolated, closed institutions because the government refuses to provide for their needs at home.  

I am not alone in this assessment. 

Recently an employee at ADI Negev visited (infiltrated?) one of the Whatsapp groups in which I am active. It's designated for people with disabilities, their families and activists in the field.  She said she was soliciting employment as an aide for people with disabilities. But she added her view of ADI Negev: 

"I am referring to ADI Negev, the Rehabilitation Village, a wonderful place for any age with one on one projects and programs." [My translation of the Hebrew source]

And after she received negative responses re ADI, she wrote:

"First of all I didn't request opinions about ADI Negev. The place is not a fortress. It is actually a village, suitable and pleasant for residents happy with many programs and choice and they create gift (sic) and go out and more. I am only asking that if any of you are seeking a worker, for independence with individuals, approach me." [Again, my translation from Hebrew]

Naama Lermer, a disabilities-rights attorney and founder of Hatnu'ah L'atzma'ut ("The Movement for Independence") and formerly of Bizchut, then posted to the same Whatsapp group in response [again my translation of the Hebrew source]:

I know ADI Negev well. I visited there more than once . It's an institution in every sense of the word. Many groups of residents with disabilities. With a uniform daily schedule. Without any real connection to the community. Some of them are cut off from their families because their families live very far away. People who won't experience what it's like to lick an ice cream in an ice cream shop in the mall. To buy clothes in a clothing store. To get on a train and see the view. Adults who spend most of the day sitting with construction games or children's toys. And it's sad. I wouldn't want to live like that. I wouldn't want my children to live like that. So I don't wish that on anyone else. I want more than creative works and children's games for them. I want more than a clean, tidy place. I want a real life for them. Even if their disabilities are very present."

Many of us have just heard the shofar blown at the close of Yom Kippur prayers. In his New York Times op ed this week, the former chief Rabbi of Moscow, Pinchas Goldschmidt, wrote:

And this is perhaps what the shofar, the ram’s horn that Jews blow on the High Holy Days, represents. According to the Bible, the shofar blow is the sound of freedom. It was historically blown at the beginning of the jubilee year — the year that freed all slaves and returned all sold ancestral property. The sound of the shofar blow is meant to remind us of both freedom and equality.

Let's hope that message will reach those, like Almog, who persist in their perversion of "freedom and equality" to include the warehousing of citizens with disabilities in institutions.

Waiting for sundown

My daughter Haya awaits the start of Yom Kippur 5783.

To everyone from all of us. May this be a year of good health and joy, a targeted treatment for SCN2A, and the advent of de-institutionalization and in-community living for all citizens!

(I prepared this for posting on Tuesday, the eve of Yom Kippur, but didn't manage to do so before sundown.)

Two thousand days

Click image to enlarge

Today is Day 2,000.

That's how long it has been since our Malki's murderer, Jordanian fugitive Ahlam Aref  Ahmad Al-Tamimi, was indicted by the United States Department of Justice on terror charges ["Individual Charged in Connection With 2001 Terrorist Attack in Jerusalem That Resulted in Death of Americans"].

But she remains free.

The consequent demand that Jordan - where she was born, raised and educated and to which she returned in October 2011 - extradite her to be tried in a US court has been refused by King Abdullah II's regime. 

Never mind that the valid US/Jordan extradition treaty cited by the DOJ was signed and ratified by both countries in 1995. And that Jordan breaches it, according to the State Department.

Never mind that Abdullah's own father, the widely respected King Hussein, formally ratified it, declaring via the use of the Royal "we": 

"We further pledge to carry out its provisions and abide by its Articles, and We, G-d willing, shall not allow its violation. 

Never mind that Tamimi is one of the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists with a $5 million reward for her capture. (But in reality it's hard to see why any reward is called for since her whereabouts in Jordan are public knowledge.)

It would be hard to find a more egregiously defiant reaction by a purported US ally - an ally that depends on generous, ongoing financial backing from its benefactor totaling close to US$2 billion annually.

Jordan's conduct has been variously ignored, excused or justified by nearly every politician and influencer that we have approached.

That stance crosses the aisle, religious lines and geographical boundaries.

It is shared by many respected Jewish organizations and leaders whom we plan to name at some suitable moment. I am certain many of you will be shocked to learn them.

For now, please... remember, condemn and rage with us against this travesty of justice.

Pushing buttons

Over the past two years I've accumulated what is undoubtedly an impressive collection of button-push-toys. Each produces a wide range of animal calls, musical scores, automobile and instrumental sounds. 

Some even light up - an irrelevant perk for us, of course, with Haya cortically blind.

A few were inexpensive, others not so. But none has suited Haya and they have been relegated to the grandchildren's toy collection.

A few were inexpensive, others not so. But none has suited Haya and they have all been relegated to the grandchildren's toy collection.

So I have continued hunting for the ideal one. 

Here below is my latest acquisition which cost me a whopping 20 shekels, about US $6. (Well, that's without batteries, but still rates as a bargain IMHO). 

Haya has been working on reaching for the buttons and pressing them to trigger a sound. 

As the video clip shows, Haya's rather adept at stretching out her fingers but pressing down is often still a challenge.

Beside my daughter's grave today

Malki and me, Jerusalem, 1993 

I spoke at the graveside Azkara ceremony today, the anniversary according to the Hebrew calendar of the day we lost our daughter Malki הי"ד to the monsters who bombed the Sbarro pizzeria. The text below is translated from the Hebrew in which I addressed the family and friends who attended.

* * *

For most, the terror attack that robbed us of our precious Malki and [her close friend] Michal is relegated to history.

But for their loved ones, it is as vivid and deeply painful as it was 21 years ago.

While at past azkarot [memorial services] we said we didn’t believe there will be any nechama [comfort, respite], this year we can declare that in fact there wasn't and isn't any.

I have been combing through old papers that were stashed away at the time of our move from another part of Jerusalem where we lived for the past thirty years to where we now live.

In the storage room, I found a collection of scores of notes that Malki had left to me, and to other members of our family, most of them tucked under the challah cover on Friday evenings.

I force myself to read a few. Each one is a fresh stab at my heart. 

Each one reminds me again of Malki's love, generosity, warmth and empathy.

Here is one from when she was little:

לאמא המקסימה!

אמא! תודה רבה על כל ההשקעה שהשקעת בי כל השנים הללו מכשהיית בהריון איתי ועעעעדדדד היום.

א - ותך אוהבת לעולמים

מ - ימך קיבלתי את כל הצרכים

א - מא אחרת לא מוצאים

אני אוהבת אותך ככה ------ הרבה.

מבתך,

מלכי

To my mag-nif-i-cent Mom!

Mommy! Thank you so much for all that you've invested in me all these years from when you were pregnant with me uuuuntil today.....

I - love you forever
F - rom you I have received all my needs
A - nother mother cannot be found!
I love you this ---- much 
From your daughter,
Malki

A couple of them remind me that she was a normal child with a full range of children's emotions including anger and resentment.

Tragically, I can't right those wrongs now. The only thing I can do for her is continue our fight to attain the elusive justice for which her blood cries out.

That travesty too is now deemed history by most others but for us it is fresh, painful and demanding of action .

Let's hope it will be rectified sooner than we anticipate.

Mourning the loss of our doctor and friend

Dr Greenfield recites one of the seven traditional blessings

under the huppah of our daughter's wedding in 2010

Dr. Geoffrey Greenfield, who was our children's pediatrician since our aliyah in 1988, passed away two weeks ago here in Jerusalem. An obituary appeared on August 10, 2022 in the Los Angeles Times.

He was unsurpassed in his devotion, medical knowledge and diagnostic skill. He was also incredibly warm, friendly and interesting. 

He never limited his conversations with us to the medical matter at hand but chatted about wide-ranging, captivating topics. Often he shared personal anecdotes. 

He related to us his vacations climbing mountain ranges in the United States. 

He told us about the concerts he organized in private homes for Russian immigrant musicians in the early years of the Soviet immigration to Israel when many of them were struggling financially. 

Geoffrey - he insisted we call him by his first name - was himself a proficient flautist and pianist.

On several occasions when our children were hospitalized, he appeared unannounced at their bedsides. 

He once brought one of our daughters who spent weeks at a time in hospital a disc of Etti Ankari's songs.

When our children reached adulthood, (actually when they were well into their twenties) he requested that they switch to a family physician which they reluctantly did. But we pleaded that he continue caring for Haya, our severely disabled child, even after she aged out of pediatric care. And he agreed.

When he retired suddenly in January 2022, all we knew was that he was having pains that prevented him from working. I emailed him immediately to convey our thanks for all he had done for us and our children and our regret that he had left his practice. He never responded. 

We later learned that immediately after retiring, his condition deteriorated and he was hospitalized for long months until he passed away.

We miss him terribly and I am certain we always will. יהי זכרו ברוך.

Tail wags dog: How does Jordan keep getting away with it?

Via Twitter

While we note our Malki's departure from this world on the 20th day of the Hebrew month of Av which this year falls on Wednesday, August 17, 2022, we mark today - August 9 - as the secular anniversary of the Sbarro bombing in which she perished.

 
It has also become the day when Arnold and I note the injustice with which we are grappling: Ahlam Tamimi, the Hamas operative responsible for the Sbarro massacre that snuffed out 15 precious Jewish lives remains... free!

She publicly boasts of her guilt or, to quote her, of "my operation". She has been indicted by the United States Department of Justice. Her extradition from Jordan, her home and refuge, has been demanded by the US under a valid 1995 extradition treaty with Jordan. She is an FBI Most Wanted Terrorist and has a $5 million reward posted for her capture.

 
Yet despite the open-and-shut nature of this case, Arnold and I find it near impossible to win the support of influencers: neither Democrats nor Republicans, neither Jews nor non-Jews, neither Americans nor Israelis. 

All are caught in the thrall of Jordan's dictator, a.k.a. King Abdullah II, whose impoverished regime refuses to extradite this monster.

 
A minor player on the global geo-political stage, under constant internal threat, hanging on to power by his fingernails and by repression ("Jordan is unfree"), Abdullah enjoys massive cash support and unadulterated reverence from all.

 
Why? 

Why is this tail able to wag the dog incessantly? Why does everyone we encounter sing his praises?

Of course, there is no shortage of lame excuses fed to us for this travesty of justice. But the truth remains elusive.

So, on this anniversary of the Sbarro massacre please join us in our grief and fury and ponder what can be done to right this egregious wrong.

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.