Some time ago I was talking to a dear 70 year old friend, an autistic who is facing a lot of difficulties and a little help.
"The biggest mistake is that I allowed you to instill hope in me, I hope next time I will not be stupid," she told me honestly.
She spoke to me, but basically my way to all the people who are trying to promote change in the world of disability.
For years I have been telling her that we are working for change.
And she believed.
In her stupidity.
It is not popular to talk about the lack of hope, probably on the eve of Passover.
But to get out of Egypt one must first recognize the darkness.
We will take the Bnei Zion affair that darkened our knives.
For several weeks we shuddered at the scenes of severe abuse that took place at this institution, in Rosh HaAyin.
The cameras revealed violence, humiliation and abuse, whipping, strangulation and kicking of about 17 residents with disabilities by several staff members.
In a proper decision, the Ministry of Welfare terminated the contract with Elor, the operator of the Bnei Zion residence, and declared that a thorough home inspection be conducted.
But as the news coverage shifted to the next horrors (and such are not lacking, unfortunately), things took a turn.
The Elor company was quick to distance itself from its disgruntled employees, sent its lawyer to a debate in the Knesset, and we were privileged to hear the director of the institution in the news turning all the arrows of responsibility towards the Minister of Welfare.
So true, a business company takes care of its business, okay.
But the Ministry of Welfare - what about it?
We were recently informed that Alor has successfully passed a tender to operate frameworks of the Ministry of Welfare.
When a riot broke out, the ministry's management explained that it was just a tender that would allow it to enter a pool of operators, and in any case their hand was legally bound.
In other words, the Ministry of Welfare did not find a single legal clause to disqualify, delay, suspend - you will choose the appropriate verb other than the one chosen by the ministry - to authorize the company that operated Bnei Zion to operate new frameworks as well.
The house inspection that was promised soon became another committee appointed by the Minister of Welfare, which operates in rooms without involving the public.
A decade ago, another welfare minister appointed a committee of experts on the subject, which recommended closing all institutions in Israel within a decade.
The same Minister of Welfare, Yitzhak Herzog, has been President since then, and we are in the meantime with a new committee.
The ministry reportedly contacted about 30 operators, who politely refused to operate Bnei Zion.
They realized that the rot was deeper than the handful of workers who had been fired.
That the method is broken.
Finally, the association was selected, with little experience in the relevant field, and called on the public to cooperate in the fields of clothing, footwear and furniture in order to rehabilitate the difficult physical conditions in the residence hall.
And so the process of turning the sheltered and helpless tenants into beggars was completed.
About the transition to the community - none of the office staff speaks.
These 250 people (people, not sponsors) will remain in the institution.
Will wait for the conclusions of the following committees.
Which brings me back to us - the people inside and outside the system, who have taken on the role of leading change.
We are champions at explaining why changes take time.
It was possible to destroy and rebuild Rome at this time when we are told that "even Rome was not built in one day."
We know how to point out the legal difficulties and bureaucratic barriers, and inadvertently, out of caution and processes and round tables, we have abandoned another generation and another generation of people with disabilities to a dismal and unbearable fate.
In every generation a man must see himself as having come out of Egypt.
Sometimes the difficulty is not to imagine Egypt, but the Exodus.
"My biggest mistake is that I gave you hope in me."
This sentence does not leave me.
Whenever I hear a minister and CEO promise that they are going to lead change, I hope they too will remember the price of hope that was disappointed. In the end, I am in favor of being stupid and believing in change. But sometimes I really feel stupid that I still believe in it.
Were we wrong?
Fixed!
If you found an error in the article, we'll be happy for you to share it with us