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.

Disability pride

The late Effie Ben Baruch 

I am sorry to concede that I learned about July being Disability Pride Month from none other than ADI's Facebook page. 

Actually - and ADI omitted this point - it is recognized as such only in New York City where Mayor Bill de Blasio declared it in honor of the 25th anniversary of the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA). Parades are held in a number of American cities including Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco and San Antonio. 

New York City is hosting a parade to commemorate the landmark legislation and as a born-and-bred New Yorker I'll jump on that bandwagon. 

While ADI did disseminate this helpful information, it is also hard at work entrenching the institutionalization of babies, children and adults with disabilities in large, locked structures far from the rest of society. 

So, you do the math. I'd say this mention of July doesn't clear them even one iota. In fact, this month is being touted thus: 

"....not only a time for the disabled community to celebrate who they are, but it's also a time to better understand how you can become a better ally to our disabled community members." 

And I will attempt to do just that.

Several days ago, advocates for disability rights in Israel learned that a former caregiver, Ali Akaria, who worked in Ramat Haifa, an institution for people with disabilities was sentenced to nine months of community service after he was convicted of attacking Ephraim Ben Baruch. 

The latter, a helpless 27 year old resident in Ramat Haifa with cognitive and behavioral impairments, endured repeated abuse there by other caregivers which, it is suspected, caused his eventual death in 2019. 

 In his judgement against Akaria, Judge Zair Falach wrote that the defendant asked for the court's mercy and he responded: 

"If the defendant had behaved with mercy toward his charge he would not find himself being judged before me. The defendant's request for mercy is an infuriating request when the defendant himself behaved with an absence of mercy toward the deceased charge."

A propos "infuriating", the fact that the judge's ire translated into several months of community service has had that same effect on the disability activist community. That slap on the wrist has galvanized them to redouble their fight for an end to institutionalization. Protest rallies, petitions, PR campaigns and lawsuits are all being weighed as the next step toward that goal. 

Parents and siblings constantly share their desperation to transfer their loved ones to in-community living in small hostels. 

Pull out your magnifying glass to see what has us very excited:
My daughter Haya is kicking a bit!

In Israel this isn't an option for most. As one of them noted: 

"...within the system of checks and balances that exists when residents go out to activities and live in the community among neighbors, leave their homes, a case of ongoing abuse would be exposed. The institution of Ramat Haifa - like Neve ha-Irus which we recently experienced - is an isolated island where anything can happen. Going out into the community ensures the safety of residents while the Ministry argues that an institution is the most protected place."

Somebody in that Whatsapp group posted an invitation to an ADI-sponsored Zoom event for parents of children with disabilities. Shocked and dismayed to see them ensnared in another ADI trap, I reminded them what the ADI enterprise is really about. You can help spread the word too! This is the month for you to help spread the message.

Silencing the whistleblower?

Nofer Moshe Fredo, a journalist at Kan, Israel's government TV station, tweeted what follows below and urged her followers to circulate it further. 

It highlights how brazenly ruthless facilities for people with disabilities can be. Their right to control and abuse our most vulnerable is so precious - and lucrative - they will even head to court to protect it. 

This specific instance, involving Neve Ha'Irus, about which I've written often (May 9, 2021; November 4, 2017; February 23, 2017; February 9, 2017; February 2, 2017; December 24, 2016) may confront the new Minister of Welfare, Meir Cohen, with his first real test.

It reads [my translation]:

Update on Neve Ha'Irus for the attention of the new Minister Meir Cohen. After the airing of an investigative segment on that place, among other things, about a resident who became physically disabled [due to mistreatment there] and about another one who died as a result of neglect and also about the locking of residents in the "white room", while several guards were fired and the Ministry of Welfare conducted a hearing that led to a series of procedural changes. Nevertheless, at the same time, the administration of that place decided to sue one of the employees who revealed and warned of incidents of violence against and injury to residents. They argue that he violated the privacy of residents. But don't be confused, this is a cynical lawsuit that is making use of a law intended to protect residents in order to signal to other employees that it would be worthwhile to keep quiet.

The court document, which Fredo posted, demands the following court orders:

• That the respondent be obligated to hand over all the photographs in his possession that he took of residents at Neve Ha'Irus.
• That the respondent be forbidden from using in any way either now or in the future photographs that he took at Neve Ha'Irus...

From one of my earlier Neve Ha'irus

posts - click image to enlarge [Link]

It goes on

The interest of the plaintiff [Neve Ha'Irus] and the context of the lawsuit, as detailed below, relate to the crude and serious violation of the obligations of the respondent who has a past rich in fraud and acts of deceit, towards the plaintiff.

There was more outrageous legal nonsense in Neve Ha'Irus' complaint but I'm sure you get the picture. 

It reminds me of the times I attempted to document neglect in other institutions for people with disabilities only to cop reprimands from the administration and staff for "violating the privacy of residents".

Verbal accounts, minus supportive photographs, are light on impact and accomplish little - as we all know. It remains to be seen whether the court will agree. For now, please help Nofer and circulate this further.

Deinstitutionalizing Israel: Battling uphill

The Knesset chamber

Yesterday's Maariv revealed that ten years ago Israel's Ministries of Health and of Welfare appointed a committee of experts to submit a report on the problem of residences for people with disabilities. 

However, they ignored the conclusions reached by those experts.

One of the solutions suggested by the experts was for Israel to transition from institutions to independent living within the community. It recommended that no more than six residents live in each apartment.

Bizchut, Israel's leading advocacy organization for people with disabilities, has now publicized for the first time its conclusions regarding that report. 

It discovered that, as of today, a decade later, those recommendations have not been implemented. Large, closed institutions continue to operate and hundreds of people with disabilities are kept in them against their wishes and without the possibility of living independently in the community. Many others must live with their parents.

Tommy Barchako is one such young adult - with CP - who rejected the Ministry of Welfare's placement in a closed institution. 

He says (my translation from Hebrew): 

"The services that I can receive in the community are very limited. They [the Ministry - FR] push people like me into institutions. That solution is unacceptable to me because there are institutions that force you to live a life that you don't choose and that doesn't interest you. But the State has no other solution to offer me."

In response to the Maariv piece, the Ministry of Welfare reportedly stated that 

"...only 16,500 people with disabilities live in institutions [in Israel] - all of their own choice and according to their wishes and the wishes of their families".

For anyone unfamiliar with the reasons for the growing outrage among people with disabilities and their families, below is a CCTV clip that captures flagrant abuse of one such resident:

 
On the two WhatsApp groups to which I belong devoted to activism for people with disabilities, passions have recently been ignited. The video clip above and the latest abuse scandal in Neve Ha-Irus have been the catalysts. 

Everyone is well aware that ours is an uphill battle. We lack large numbers and influential allies.

The list I've compiled below highlights those deficiencies. These are the names of government ministers, assorted lawmakers and various officials who have paid official visits to the institutions of ADI/Aleh in the past two years. While there, they posed for photo ops and lavished praise on Israel's largest chain of closed institutions for those with disabilities, ranging in age from infancy to adulthood. 

They spewed cliches much like those below courtesy of MK Etty Atria Boston who last week paid her second (!) visit in two years to ADI Negev. (The translation to English is again mine.)

You are doing truly sacred work here at ADI, work that deserves great recognition and appreciation. As a Member of Knesset, I promise to continue to serve as an ambassador for enhanced disability inclusion and care for the benefit of ADI's residents and all people with disabilities across Israel. 

The visitors

• Netherlands Ambassador to Israel Hans Docter
• Yuli Edelstein, Minister of Health
• President Reuven (Ruvi) Rivlin
• Yoav Galant, Minister of Education
• Omer Yankelevich, Minister of Diaspora Affairs
• Michael Biton, Minister of Strategic Affairs
• State Comptroller of Israel Matanya Engelman
• Ariel University's Chief Executive, Yoram Shay
• Member of Knesset Haim Katz
• Member of Knesset Bezalel Smotrich
• Member of Knesset Etty Attia - twice!

Towards de-institutionalization and the Neve Ha-Irus revelations

Today's blog post, like yesterday's and Sunday's, relates to the Neve Ha-Irus revelations that have just been publicized.

 
Bizchut, Israel's Advocacy Organization for People with Disabilities has now circulated the photos below. They depict scenes from the Neve Ha-Irus institution for people with disabilities. 

In case it isn't apparent, they show injuries, residents asleep on bare beds, a resident locked in a window-less room and a resident in soiled pants.

I've translated its accompanying text:

Yesterday, on the evening news program of KAN 11, an investigative report was aired about the institution, Neve Ha-Irus. The report included disturbing testimony about what is happening in that institution, which is intended to serve as a home for over 100 residents with disabilities. Sadly, this is not the first time that Bizchut is sounding the alarm about what is going on there.
Upon entering the institution you could be impressed by the beautiful exterior: flowers, small cottages, smiling staff. But behind the scenes one discovers scathing human rights violations and even injury to the residents.
It is important to emphasize: Neve Ha-Irus is only a symptom; in-community living is The Solution.
Every few months a "duty investigative report" is publicized that reveals the routine lives of institutionalized people with disabilities. They are detached from the world, some suffer neglect and in extreme cases even abuse.
This time, the focus is on Neve Ha-Irus. It is not the first time that Bizchut is exposing what happens in this institution. Over 100 residents continue living there deprived of their human rights.
Regular supervision from the Ministry of Welfare, closed circuit cameras operating 24/7, and still - complaints about what is going on in this institution do not stop flowing.
There is only one solution:
Close Neve Ha-Irus and the other institutions and construct a clear plan for transfer to in-community living!

The yellowed emphasis is mine.

More on the Neve Ha-Irus revelations

Here's a follow-up to the piece I posted yesterday: "Neve Ha-Irus in the cross-hairs of Bizchut - again".

I mentioned there was going to be a news report on Israeli TV. For those of you who missed the KAN 11 broadcast which went to air last night exposing the abuse committed by staff at Neve Ha-Irus, I have embedded it below. 

Note it's in Hebrew. If there is an English translation at some later point, I will add it here. The clip comes from YouTube. 

Warning: Some viewers may find the video clip below disturbing. Particularly when you remind yourself it is from 2021 and in Israel. 

Neve Ha-Irus in the cross-hairs of Bizchut - again

From the home page of the Neve Ha'Irus website

Tonight (Sunday) our government TV station, KAN, will air a program about an institution for people with disabilities, Neve Ha'Irus. 

The institution has already been accused of wrongdoing in the past by Bizchut, Israel's Advocacy Organization for People with Disabilities. But the abuse and neglect continued even after token changes were made in the wake of that earlier exposé. 

According to the Whatsapp group of parents and activists to which I belong, tonight's program will reveal shocking images of behind-the-scenes wrongdoing. 

This morning, one of the activists in that group shared a tweet that I have translated from the original Hebrew to English:

Another moment at @kereneubach: The disturbing routine at the institution, Neve Ha-Irus, for people with disabilities under supervision @Social_Justice. In this clip an employee pushes a resident into the "White Room" just because he interfered with her playing on her cell phone. And that's not all: pills, injuries, locking up one resident who became disabled and another who died due to negligence.
Please watch, react and share your outrage. 

The clip embedded below is online here.

And Chezi Shabbat from Bizchut, addressing the same group (my translation again) reminded us all:

When we first visited this institution [Neve ha-Irus], we were impressed with its beautiful appearance; the flowers, the small cottages, the smiling staff. But behind the scenes...? You are invited to see for yourselves. We already know: Neve Ha-Irus is not exceptional. Nobody wants to live in an institution. If you have a loved one living in this institution, Neve Ha-Irus, or in any other institution - contact us [at Bizchut]. We will do everything we can to help you transfer him/her from that institution - to a dignified life within the community.

I would presume the same comments apply to ADI/Aleh!

Meanwhile here are my previous posts, stretching back some years, about Neve Ha-Irus

• My contribution to Bizchut's forum on the Neve Ha'irus scandal (November 4, 2017)
• Aleh: Blowing smoke (February 23, 2017)
• Joining the struggle against institutionalization (February 9, 2017)
• The evils of institutionalization are now on the front burner (February 2, 2017)
• Not a Dickensian tale (December 24, 2016)

A plea for justice

My daughter Malki at 14, leaving for an outing
with friends. She was murdered a year later.

I had anticipated that by now we would have great news to share, namely, that the Knesset Ministers Committee for Legislation passed the bill regarding in- community living and personal aid baskets for people with disabilities. 

Instead, Bizchut has reported that, while the committee convened last Tuesday, it deferred the vote on that bill to an unspecified date. But don't despair. As Bizchut explained, this is actually good news. That's because the reason for the postponement was that the ministers want to learn more about the bill and its economic implications before a vote. 

Bizchut believes that its well-received "Make Room" campaign (see the video here), the Neve Ha'irus scandal (click here) and all the emails that were sent to those ministers (see my blog post on that) contributed to this decision. 

In addition, Bizchut is convinced that the ministers were swayed by its new survey results (here) which show that the bill's plan will reduce costs of care for people with disabilities by some 20%.

On another front, however, there is major news to share.

Ever since our prime minister executed the catastrophic Shalit Deal in 2011, my husband and I have suffered the pain of watching one of the convicted terrorists released, our Malki's murderer, Ahlam Tamimi, enjoy the bliss of freedom, marriage and hero worship by her Muslim fans. 

In early 2012, my husband went to Washington to meet with a group of senior Department of Justice officials and to ask for Tamimi to be brought up on charges in the United States. Our daughter was a US citizen, and the Koby Mandell Act requires US authorities in such situations to go after the terrorists wherever they are and bring them to court to face US justice. He brought along a video of me speaking and screened it to attendees at the meeting since I was unable to go. He told me later it had a strong, visible impact.

During the five years that followed, we have met and corresponded with some of those people as well as with FBI agents all of whom expressed determination and eagerness to bring Tamimi to justice. But they never divulged any information about their efforts or results. Those repeated frustrating exchanges were another form of torture for us. We had begun to despair of ever hearing any encouraging news.

Two weeks ago, however, they made contact with us to set up a meeting in Jerusalem for last week. This took place and they finally did some divulging. Big time.

We learned that they have been have been making vigorous efforts in secret to have Tamimi extradited ever since sealed charges were filed with a US court in 2013. The obstacle is clear: Tamimi lives in Jordan where she was born, where most of her family lives and where the vast majority of the population call themselves Palestinians. The government of Jordan does not want to see her extradited. Our understanding is they are not co-operating with DoJ’s efforts. 

Tamimi, a convicted murderer living free in Jordan
is my daughter's killer

At this point, and in view of what we have just learned, we are urging everybody and anybody who might be in a position to sway the two governments - the US and Jordan - to press for Tamimi's extradition. 

Just to remind you: this is the woman who boasted that she deliberately selected her target - the Sbarro pizzeria in the heart of Jerusalem - for maximum damage to women and children; that she then transported the bomb to East Jerusalem by taxi, and then within Jerusalem proceeded on foot with him (the human bomb) to the door of her target. And finally, who carefully instructed her weapon on how and when to detonate. She specified that he wait fifteen minutes to allow her ample time to escape unscathed.

She confessed in court to all of the above.

One year after her conviction, while interviewed in an Israeli prison, Tamimi was recorded smiling when she learned that eight of her sixteen victims had been children - not the three she had presumed. It was a smile of the darkest evil. 

The Jordanian king speaks volumes to western media about his battle against terrorism and desire for justice. But his harboring of this unrepentant mass murderer - and vocal inciter to more terrorism - reflects his true sentiments. 

It is incumbent on every goverment dealing with him to make it clear: there will be no trade or arms agreements without the extradition of Tamimi.

Israel is one such country. Only last month our government announced that it had 

"quietly begun exporting natural gas to Jordan after two Jordanian companies – Arab Potash and Jordan Bromine – were connected to Israel’s national pipeline network. The deliveries to the two companies, which operate plants on the Jordanian side of the Dead Sea, began in January, but all the sides involved opted to keep a low profile because of the political sensitivities in Jordan about doing business with Israel. To keep the Israeli side at arm's length, the gas is technically being sold to the Jordanians by an American company." [Haaretz, March 2, 2017]

The full original of this FBI Most Wanted poster
is here on the FBI website

It appears that Israeli officials are saying Israel's "hands are tied behind its back" in the matter of Tamimi's extradition. 

I think this is nonsense. It only means that our government has no interest in any involvement. It would rather enjoy a smooth and lucrative trade relationship with Jordan unencumbered by the Tamimi issue. It would like us all to forget Netanyahu's catastrophic Shalit Deal. It strives to erase the outrageous travesty of justice and mortal dangers that deal embodied - dangers that have since been realized in the murders committed by terrorists released in the Shalit Deal [see "Palestinians freed in Shalit deal killed 6 Israelis since 2014", Times of Israel, July 20, 2015] 

Untold other attacks have likely been committed by terrorists whom Tamimi herself incited to murder in her social media exhortations to her Muslim fans.

While the challenge is overwhelming, we intend to fight for Tamimi's extradition to the US until that goal is reached. 

Please help us any way you can.

Aleh: Blowing smoke

Not a parody: a genuine smoking ad [Image Source]

Aleh is "promoting" inclusion.

Ouch. Just typing that sentence felt painful and infuriating. Its irony is reminiscent of the cigarette advertisements that were common during the early 1900's. Some of them featured doctors urging the public to smoke specific cigarette brands to benefit their health. My own mother, usually tense, was encouraged in 1959 by her doctor to continue smoking during her pregnancy with my brother "to calm herself".

In that same vein, we now have Aleh, champions of the institutionalization of people with disabilities, launching a photographic exhibition last week [here] with the claim that it "highlights the importance of acceptance and inclusion".

At the risk of sounding tiresome and repetitive, I will clarify:

Institutions like Aleh's  - the largest such chain in Israel - are the epitome of EX-clusion and rejection. Hiring a professional photographer to capture artistic shots of  residents of those institutions doesn't change that incontrovertible fact. 

Last week a protest organized by Bizchut was held outside Neve Ha'irus, the institution housing 130 that has been accused of scandalous abuses and violations of human rights [see my earlier posts]. Not one news source reported the event. That omission speaks volumes about the state of de-institutionalization in Israel.

Prior to the protest demonstration, one news station did send an undercover journalist to Neve Ha'irus as a job applicant for a position as caregiver. Despite having no experience in the field, he was hired.

He learned disturbing facts about the treatment of the residents both from observation and from fellow employees that included:

• an intolerable stench in some of the buildings
• brass beds with misfitting mattresses forcing residents to sleep curled up
• closets containing nice, new clothes that are removed, according to staff, only when a resident receives visitors
• toilets without seats
• bathrooms without soap because, as the administrator explained, "there are some who would put it in their mouth". So nobody sees to it that their hands are cleaned either before or after meals
• dirty sinks and toilets
• common toothbrushes for all
• parents are never admitted to the buildings; only visit their children outdoors.
• much "dead time"; one resident tells the reporter he'd "like to work"  
• complaining staff members are penalized via their work schedules

Perhaps the most baffling finding is that the Ministry of Welfare hands Neve Ha'irus 10,000 shekels per resident every month and is responsible for "supervising" its operation.

Bizchut is demanding the immediate closure of this institution until an independent supervisory body is established to replace the clearly incompetent Ministry of Welfare.

Hebrew speakers can listen to the report via YouTube.

Back to Aleh:

All the dangers of institutionalization apply there too. The PR release accompanying the photo exhibition states:
"A quick glance at the photographs would not reveal the difference between these children and others, and that is exactly the point that the exhibition is trying to make: individuals with disabilities have an equal place in society and should be accepted just like anyone else."

They most certainly should! Acceptance means enabling them to live in the community and with either their own or other families; NOT warehoused within large closed institutions.

Here is our sweet Chaya at home (on the right) in an engaging pose I caught by chance.

Joining the struggle against institutionalization

Caption reads: "There were buildings where the stench was simply
unbearable..." Screen grab from the Israel
Channel 2 TV expose of serious deficiencies at
Neve Ha'irus (full video online here)

One couple on the Bizchut forum with whom I've communicated (see "My contribution to Bizchut's forum on the Neve Ha'irus scandal" and "The evils of institutionalization are now on the front burner" and "One small step for people with disabilities - Help make it a giant leap") is now compiling a list of Israeli parents whose children with disabilities live at home.

The goal is to gain some traction for our fight to win "personal assistance baskets" (in Hebrew: סל סיוע אישי). That is the only way to right the injustice being perpetrated by our government: it spends over $3,500 (13,374 shekels) per month on, for instance, every child in the Aleh institutions.

Children with disabilities living with their families receive a tiny fraction of that via National Insurance.

If you are such a family and resent the way we are unfairly saving the government millions of shekels in outlays each year at the expense of our children's welfare, please add your name to this list.

If you like, submit your details to me via this form [click] and I will pass them along to the parent who is compiling the list.

Also, anybody interested in demonstrating on behalf of the closure of Neve Ha'irus (see my post "Not a Dickensian tale" for background), Bizchut is organizing a protest outside that institution for people with disabilities today.

Here is what Naama Lerner of Bizchut wrote on the Bizchut forum (translated to English by me):

On Thursday, 09/02, we will demonstrate opposite the institution, Neve Ha'irus. Neve Hairus is a paradigm for all similar institutions in Israel. And we will tell the State, "Shut down all these institutions. incorporate the concept of in-community living in the law of equality and appoint an ombudsman to ensure that cases like this do not recur." 

With regard to our personal initiative, though, Naama wrote:

"Leave it to us and the Knesset members, Uri Maklav and Ilan Gilon. In order for the new law regarding fully funded  in-community living and personal assistance baskets to progress it must pass a vote in the Knesset committee for legislation. The cabinet ministers on that committee are opposed to it because of its high cost and primarily because it involves significant structural changes to the Ministry of Welfare. We are embarking on a major campaign to soften those committee members and to convince them to pass the bill. It will be a long haul. Sadly." 

Later she added:

"It will be a slow struggle, a sisyphian one, and there is no alternative but to conduct it will lots of patience and teeth-gritting."

My contribution to Bizchut's forum on the Neve Ha'irus scandal

"The carer didn't even notice that she (my daughter) had broken a tooth".
Video-still from an undercover investigation of Neve Ha'irus that appeared
in recent days on an Israeli Channel 2 news program [link]

Here is a comment I sent in Hebrew to the group of activists that has been discussing the issue of sub-standard institutions for people with disabilities and in particular Neve Ha'irus about which I wrote earlier.

(See my two previous posts: "The evils of institutionalization are now on the front burner" and "Not a Dickensian tale".)

The English translation appears below it, and the Hebrew right after it. I'll post the responses I receive as soon as I can translate them.

Hello All, 

Thus far, I haven't read a comment that represents those parents who choose to care for their children themselves at home. 

The government expends gargantuan sums on the care of people with disabilities only if they live in institutions. 

But if they live with their families the government doesn't subsidize their care other than with the minimal National Insurance stipend. 

The result is that we parents who are sacrificing our energies, our money and, often our health, are saving the government millions of shekels. 

For instance, for every child residing in Israel's largest chain of institutions, Aleh, over 16,000 shekels flow monthly of which 83% is taxpayers' money! 

So when we focus on the problem of these institutions let's also include the plight of parent-caregivers and our fight for a personal- basket-of-services for our children. 

Best,Frimet Roth

שלום כולם,

עד כה לא קראתי דעה שמייצגת את אותם הורים שבחרו לטפל בילדיהם בעצמם בחיק המשפחה.

הממשלה מעבירה הון תועפות עבור טיפולם של אנשים עם מוגבלויות אך ורק אם הם גרים במוסדות.אבל אם  הם חיים בבתיהם הממשלה אינה משתתפת במימון טיפולם - חוץ מהסכום המיזערי של  תשלומי ביטוח לאומי.

התוצאה היא שאנחנו, הורים שמוסרים את כוחותינו, כספינו ולעיתים קרובות את בריאותינו , חוסכים למממשלה מליוני שקלים. לדוגמא, עבור כל ילד ברשת הכי גדולה בארץ, "עלה", זורמים יותר מ-16,000 שקלים לחודש ש-83% הם מדמי משלמי מיסים!

אז כשמתמקדים בבעיית המוסדות האלה הבה נכלול גם את המצוקה של הורים-מטפלים ואת מאבקנו עבור סל סיוע לילדינו.

בברכה,

פרימט רוט

The evils of institutionalization are now on the front burner

From Bizchut's Hebrew-language Facebook page (there is an
English-language version as well). The photo shows an ill-fitting mattress
on one of the Neve Ha'irus residents' beds

If you are not already familiar with what is happening at Neve Ha'irus, see my December 24, 2016 background post: "Not a Dickensian tale".

Now this quote:

The 130 residents of Neve Ha'irus are exposed to contagious skin diseases that are not being treated properly. Bizchut has received difficult-to-view photos depicting shocking neglect. According to staff members, residents suffering from this contagious illness are "treated" with nothing but hand cream.
This is just another instance of how Neve Ha'irus is a gaping wound in the heart of Israeli society which has chosen to conceal these people and ignore their plight. We call for the immediate appointment of an independent investigative body in order to rescue these residents. In addition, they must be transferred to respectable residences. This wound has to be treated!
Would you like to make a difference?
Contact Knesset member, Haim Katz, Minister of Employment and Welfare [in the Israeli government] (email: sar@molsa.gov.il) and demand that he set up an independent emergency committee to investigate the operation of Neve Ha'irus.

The post above, which appeared this week in Hebrew on the Facebook page of Bizchut, the Israel Human Rights Center for People with Disabilities, has sparked a fiery exchange of views from readers. 

Several, who were enraged by the post and by accompanying photographs of Neve Ha'irus - one of the dining room and of a resident’s hand - conceded that they are employees of the institution. (Note: the comments of Neve Ha'irus staff members were posted without any Hebrew punctuation.) They asserted that their positions there grant them inside and irrefutable knowledge of the situation. Here is one excerpt:

“The warmth and love we give our work is holy work We the caregivers work every day of the year unlike you who sit in some office Sit there frustrated Stop harming Be adult people and leave Neve Hairus in peace because Neve Hairus is #1…” 

Another employee wrote:

“I don’t recall that dining rooms must be decorated and colorful… where is such a thing written is there a regulation that a dining room must be decorated with every color of the rainbow???????? What’s important is that the food be well-cooked and hot and fresh and varied and suited to each and every resident and that’s what happens here”

And regarding the photo of a resident’s scabies-afflicted hand, one employee wrote:

“This resident receives treatment in clinics We also have dryness on our hands at times or on our entire bodies and we go to a dermatologist and our residents go out for treatment as well…”

As one ex-employee pointed out, this is just what you would expect to hear from a frightened employee desperate to keep his job.

Bizchut responded to these comments stating, among other things:

“Is it possible that the entire staff at Neve Ha'irus is bad? Is this the reason that the facility is operating as it is? The answer is “No”.
We had the pleasure of meeting some of the employees during our visit and we maintain contact with some of them. They are warm people with values who truly desire to do good and to give the residents quality of life.
They do the best they can and the problem does not lie with them but with the structure of life in an institution. It is a closed place, surrounded by a fence. At its entrance stands a locked gate and even parents of the residents arriving to visit may not walk around freely nor can they visit the building where their loved ones live.”

Bizchut’s recent postings and emails about this institution have elicited critical responses from its supporters as well. Their gripes relate to the specifics of how to tackle this blight – not whether it is one at all.

Bizchut employees, parents of children with disabilities and other involved citizens have joined the discourse. Needless to say, it is uplifting to finally see institutionalization in Israel and its evils receiving the attention they warrant.

I’ll be translating those further exchanges as soon as I find the time.

Not a Dickensian tale

The Neve Ha'irus institution [Image Source]

This is reality for some people with disabilities in Israel of 2016.

Bizchut, the Israel Human Rights Center for People with Disabilities, has released the following summary of an unannounced visit last Thursday by the director of its Community Outreach Department, Naama Lerner, together with Knesset Member Ilan Gilon, to a closed institution for people with cognitive disabilities, Neve Ha'irus, in Nes Ziona. 

They were responding to a series of serious complaints from parents of residents and from past employees at Neve Ha'irus that Bizchut had received about that institution.

There they say they encountered many disturbing sights that included extreme physical and emotional neglect. Some of the shocking findings they reported:

• Residents locked into their dormitories without any activities.
• Bedrooms bare of personal cupboards or personal clothing. Some beds have boxes underneath them containing all of the resident’s personal possessions.
• Some of the beds lacked any bedding or winter blankets.
• In some of the dormitories,  the kitchen and bedrooms are locked, barring residents from entering their own rooms when they seek a bit of privacy.
• The handles of bedroom doors have been removed to prevent the residents from entering their rooms. Each staff member carries a handle in his pocket which he inserts into the door when he needs to open it.
• Signs of rampant neglect including spider webs.
• The absence of any books, games or computers. Residents roam around to and fro with doing nothing to do. A very difficult sight to behold: people are erased, robbed of their identity.

The homepage of the Neve Ha'irus website says the institution, established in 1957, has been under the full supervision of the Ministry of Welfare since 1985.

The original Hebrew text of the Bizchut announcement (posted here) goes on to say:

It was recently reported to Bizchut that, three weeks before, the dead body of a resident had been removed from the premises. When we arrived there to investigate, we happened to find an intensive-care ambulance standing at the institution’s entrance, preparing to rush to hospital another resident in a state of hypothermia.

This facility, intended to serve as home to 130 people, must not be tolerated. It is not located in some isolated spot but rather in the very center of the country, in Nes Ziona. The conditions there should not be permitted to exist in today’s State of Israel.

We demand that the Ministry of Welfare:

1. Immediately close Neve Ha’irus and transfer its residents to appropriate settings within the community.
2. Appoint an outside, independent body (an ombudsman) that will review the complaints lodged so as to ensure that the voices of the residents of closed institutions are heard and that abuses such as these are eliminated.
3. Investigate the deaths that have occurred in the past year at Neve Ha’irus and ascertain the reasons behind the hospitalizations of residents.

If you would like to join our effort, please contact Naama Lerner at Bizchut at naamalerner@bizchut.org.il or by phone 052-856-6219. Please leave a message and we will get back to you.