Actually, zero steps forward

A recent meeting of the Israeli cabinet [Image Source]

Last week, I asked our WhatsApp group of disabilities activists/parents for an update about the scheduled Government of Israel cabinet meeting that was going to discuss a proposed grant of 126 million shekels (roughly $40.8M in US currency) to ADI Negev to fund its expansion. 

The meeting that had gotten my hopes up sky high: "Ministerial scrutiny of Israel's largest institution for children with disabilities?" (Dec. 12, 2021)

Here's the response sent by a member who is also a staff member of Bizchut, Israel's leading disabilities rights organization:

"To our dismay, the government authorized the transfer of funding to Adi Negev. We will continue to fight for a halt to the State's investment in institutions, both large and small and in services that result in the separation of people with disabilities from the community and for its investment of resources towards services within the community..."

There is such a bundle of bad news in that response that I'm still struggling to fully digest it. 

The major message I deduce is this: Nowadays in Israel, "protektzia" - i.e. connections - still reigns supreme. By that I mean it rides roughshod over everything else: morals, ideals, international conventions, progress, the welfare of the downtrodden and of the vulnerable and above all of people with disabilities.

Even in 2022. 

ADI Negev, blessed with limitless protektzia in the form of its founder and chairman Major General (Res.) Doron Almog, clearly sailed through that cabinet meeting where its lavish cash gift was discussed.

Then there was absence of any reactions to that update from anyone else in the WhatsApp group That one has me stumped.

Where is the fury that I feel?

The struggle for equal rights for all will continue. But my hopes for victory here in Israel have been definitively and thoroughly dashed.