Tel Mond Therapeutic Farm (Photo: Asher Cohen)
The Riding and Therapy Dog Association filed a petition with the High Court of Justice against the Planning Administration, the National Planning Headquarters and the Israeli government, demanding that the association's activities be regulated in its current location in Tel Mond, in an attempt to prevent the intention of the state planning institutions to close the therapeutic farm.
According to the petition, "The dreamy conduct of civil servants for years and years, deafness of heart and lack of flexibility, violates constitutional rights and one of the most disadvantaged populations in Israel, people with disabilities, disabilities and the special needs population. In the name of the value of 'preserving the landscape,' state institutions are thwarting the permanent planning arrangement of an association that is a unique and vital therapeutic farm in its specific location, which has been operating for 23 years on their behalf."
The Riding and Canine Therapy Association is the oldest in Israel in its field, and treats people with disabilities, cerebral paraplegics, blind people, children and youth from special education, children and youth at risk, disabled IDF head injuries and post-trauma victims, families victims of violence with their children and more. The organization has agreements with the Ministry of Social Affairs, the National Insurance Institute and the Ministry of Defense for the provision of services and therapeutic projects.
A child undergoes therapeutic horseback riding (Photo: ShutterStock)
In 2000, the association moved to its current location in Tel Mond, to land allocated to it by the state. The organization has become a leading and groundbreaking organization in the field of horse and dog therapy for people with special needs and severe physical disabilities.
In the background of the petition, the Planning Director's position is that the therapeutic farm will not be able to remain on the land in Tel Mond. According to the planning authorities, there is no possibility of legally regulating the existing use and even the required construction, and that new enforcement against the association's activities at the site may begin every day.
In a petition filed by attorneys Yuval Galon and Meital Arbel of Amit, Pollak, Matalon, the association claims that in order to regulate its activities in its current location, "it carried out everything imposed on it by the government authorities, and acted in every framework in which a solution was promised to it. However, she found herself maneuvering between bodies: from the regional committee, through the district committee, to the interior minister and the head of the planning administration, she arrived. Unfortunately, the "adventures" that the organization has undergone through the complex bureaucratic maze in which it has walked over the past 23 years are not figments of the imagination of hundreds or even thousands of people – patients and their families, who are now facing a crisis due to the closure of the organization's activities."
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"Serious failures and omissions of planning institutions"
Every day, hundreds of patients pass through the organization, and the farm receives an average of 1,100 treatments per month, riding and therapy dogs. The area of the complex is about 30 dunams, and there are buildings for raising 30 horses and 20 dogs.
The petition was accompanied by affidavits of many patients in the organization, among them the father of Yehuda the Israeli, a Givati Brigade soldier who was critically wounded in Operation Protective Edge and has been treated by the organization for the past 8 years. In the affidavit, David, Yehuda's Israeli father, writes: "I recently heard that the association is about to cease its activities due to difficulties in regulating the use of the site, since it is an open landscape agricultural area. I can't think of any other framework that can provide Yehuda with comprehensive treatment that improves his condition dramatically, as the encounter with animals, caregivers and open nature does. Just as Yehuda enlisted in Operation Protective Edge for the good of the state and paid for it with his health, I would expect that the state will now contribute for him and help regulate the place responsible for his rehabilitation."
According to the petition, "The long factual mask describes serious failures and omissions of the planning institutions, which piled on the back of the association one after the other for years, with the administrative demolition order being the straw that broke the camel's back. Had the authorities acted fairly, reasonably, while giving weight to the public interest and taking affirmative action, they would have found a variety of legal ways to regulate the association's land." The petitioners argued, noting that dozens of options had already been proposed in the past to regulate the farmland, yet the planning institutions chose not to act on a solution in cooperation with the association, thereby abandoning the rights of its patients.
Introductory meeting of the Department of Therapeutic Riding Instructors - Kibbutzim Seminar (Photo: Yoram Studies)
The petitioners claim that "the message of the state institutions to these thousands of patients is clear and clear: there is no place in the open areas and landscapes of the State of Israel in the center of the country for those whose fate has not improved them. Holistic treatment within the framework of an area intended for citizens to enjoy the landscape, and with the help of animals, cannot take place according to planning and building laws, in the center of the country, and it must therefore end, despite the fact that for a quarter of a century, the state institutions have deluded the petitioners into believing that perhaps its blessed activity can be regulated in its current location."
The bottom line, the petition states, is that "words are not enough to describe the devastating effects that closing the farm will have. The director general of the association wrote in her letter to the chairman of the district committee: "The cessation of the therapeutic farm's activities will lead to human tragedies – no less – for thousands of disabled people and people with disabilities, youth and young adults at risk."
- Real Estate
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- Real Estate
- High Court of Justice
- Planning Administration
