Micah Bitton and Ariel Zilber/Walla
The singer Micah Bitton accuses the writer Galila Ron Feder Amit because she "used him" for her book series "To Myself", which deals with foster children who come from a background of hardship.
Beaton himself grew up as a foster boy in the writer's home, one of ten children who did so throughout the 1970s.
The first publication of the "To Myself" plots appeared as a serialized story in the Haaretz HaNa newspaper in May 1974, the year Beaton arrived at the writer's home.
Over the years the singer ("The Bright Side") was identified with the main character in the book series, Zion Cohen.
The beginning of the affair began last weekend, with the publication of a profile article by Shlomi Elder in News 13 about Bitton.
Elder asked the singer about the moment he arrived at the foster home.
"We enter, a hallway, a family room, full of books standing on shelves, and my mother and Galila are standing and talking about when I will come to visit Sderot," he described.
Elder asked: "Didn't Galila invite your mother to sit and visit?", and Beaton replied: "I don't remember them sitting and talking. I don't remember anything like that, she just came, exchanging appointments. A short time later, my mother just makes her way Back to Sderot and I'm staying."
Micah Bitton/Aviv Hufi
In the rest of the article, it is described how after a few years Beaton left the foster home for Kibbutz Netzer Sirni.
Elder described it as an expulsion on the part of the writer, "after the series is over", as if it was no longer needed.
"I want to tell you that years later I felt, during a time when there was a disconnection, is that true?", Bitton replied, "and in the end, after the family home ended, they didn't want to be in touch with me. She stopped being in touch with me, and I didn't think that would happen to me Twice, in the most significant periods of my life, once when my mother sent me and a second time when Galila was not in contact with me."
"I thought she was really my mother and there were times when I even felt that she was really hurting me, and I find myself crying for her quite a bit. To let me feel that I no longer belong, that they don't want to be in contact, it really really hurts. And I thought that really on October 7 , when we went through what we went through, and then suddenly I received an SMS - I was very excited by it and thought that this is it, here it is going to change and she realizes that she has a boy here who loves her very much."
Elder urged: "She didn't talk to you after October 7, she didn't talk or ask, your family was in danger, your friends were murdered, the child who grew up in her house - nothing, she didn't care."
Beaton replied: "No, she just wrote, she wrote that she was happy that we were fine but didn't speak, didn't pick up the phone."
Ron Feder Amit vehemently rejected the comments.
"I am shocked and find it hard to believe that this is what Micha is telling. Micah was one of ten foster children who lived with me and he came to me after the book 'To Myself' was published. Micah was never a Zionist and his life story is not similar in any detail. The series was not extinguished and additional books were published after he left." .
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Following this, Beaton published a Facebook post in which he attacked the author.
"Shlomi Elder did a revealing article about me that was not easy for me, which was broadcast on Channel 13's Friday news. I was not prepared for Shlomi to take out of me what I have been carrying in my heart for many years. At the end of the article, the foster mother sends a response to Channel 13 and denies that she used us while we lived with her as material in the hands of the creator for writing the series of books 'To Myself'. Why deny and why lie, what is she afraid of? I came to the foster family in 1974. And the book 'To Myself' was published in 1976. This is a fact. My father died and the family fell apart for me and they sent me to a foster family to settle My life as a child. The foster mother revealed our life in the book series when we were children while we were growing up with her and we didn't realize how traumatic it would be. And now she also denies it. When I was young she bragged on every media channel and everywhere that I was Zion Cohen the hero of her book, even when I wasn't I was always comfortable with it as a child, under the pretext that it promoted me," he wrote.
"I never wanted to be Zion Cohen. Or an inspiration for his character. I wanted a warm home and a family. I wanted to be a singer and musician in my own right. But over the years I realized how much power and hope my life story and my songs give children, teenagers and adults the strength to overcome obstacles in their lives and fulfill themselves. More importantly For me, to be an inspiration in the book is to be an inspiration and a light to those who need me in real life. After what we went through on the seventh of October, I thought the world would look different. But there is no despair, we will continue to fight for the truth and the desire for love and hugs," he concluded.
Ron Feder Amit claimed in response that the things are not true.
"I am very surprised by these things. Just last night I had contact with Micah and he explained to me how much he dragged and didn't mean to," Lavala said.
"And regarding the content: When I was 24 years old, my husband, my father Feder and I, decided to take a child to a foster family. We were both students. The success with the child surprised us and we took another child. Then the Yom Kippur War broke out and my father was drafted for many months. During the war, life with two The children created a dream for me, about a boy from a destroyed home who breaks the glass ceiling of the Ashkenazim and becomes a pilot and a doctor. This is a quote from the book 'To Myself' which was published in sequels in the Haaretz HaNa newspaper with the encouragement and support of the editor at the time, Jacob Ashman. Jacob Ashman died in June 1974 and the book was dedicated to his memory. After The war, my father and I decided to expand the foster family into a family home. We took ten children. Micah was among the last. The claim that the book was published in 1976 is false. There is someone who frequently accesses the entry bearing my name on Wikipedia and changes the facts."
"In 1980, two years after the family daycare was closed, because the children had grown up, the fifth book in the 'To Myself' series was published - 'Family Daycare.' His inspiration, if not from his own life? What detail in Micah's life is similar to Zion?" claimed Ron Feder Amit.
"People should understand what a foster family is. It is a temporary arrangement for children. It is not an adoption. The foster mother has no rights over the children. The one who decides where they will go and when is the social worker. I loved Micah very much. I could not be his mother. He had a wonderful mother who took care of him and took good care of him."
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