A report published last week, by the special public committee established to examine the management and operation of hostles and housing institution for people with disabilities, stunned many activists working in that field. For years, they have been ringing the alarm bell and trying to shake up the Ministry of Welfare and Social Affairs, on the living conditions of people with disabilities in welfare institutions in Israel, to little avail. Untill this latest report. 

“This is an incredible report. The committee comfirmed every word we said. I am delighted to hear Welfare Minister Ya’akov Margi announced that he would adopt the report in its entirety. There are no words to describe how pleased we are with this report,” was the ebullient response from Na’ama Lerner, Director of the Movement for Independence, an NGO working to promote independent living in the community for people with disabilities, to the publication of the committee’s recomandations 

The report was the culmination of many months of work by the committee, appointed by previous welfare minister, Meir Cohen. It was headed by Shulamit Dotan, the former president of the Magistrate’s Court. The committee was set up in light of several serious incidents which occurred at institutions for people with disabilities operating under the supervision of the Ministry of Welfare and Social Affairs. Among the incidents exposed were revelations of severe abuse at the Bnei Zion special-needs care center in Rosh Ha’ayin and the deaths of three residents of the Beit Daphna shelter in Holon.

In July 2022, Shomrim – in collaborationwith public television’s “Zman Emet” investigation program – published a four-part series of investigations into what was happening inside Israel’s welfare institutions. The investigation uncovered the massive profit-making apparatus that welfare institutions create for the private operators to win tenders issued by the Ministry of Welfare and Social Affairs, as well as many cases of severe physical, sexual, and emotional abuse and neglect in a long list of institutions. Many experts and activists interviewed for the series later give testimony before the special committee.

The committee’s report details several severe incidents. One such case, the report states, was that of two residents of a facility for people with disabilities, one of whom had raped the other. The two residents remained living at the same facility for several months after the assault, sometimes in very close proximity. Another incident detailed in the report is the the case of a female resident who was put in a dorm with only male residents and was subject to them exposing themselves to her and masturbating. When staff members saw what was going on, the report noted, they did nothing. The committee also found that in some facilities and hostels, children as young as 10, sometimes even younger, were living alongside adults and the elderly.

The committee also wrote at length about the various techniques used daily in these facilities, such as making residents sleep in closed cots at night and sometimes for many hours during the day, and the widespread and unsupervised placement of residents in solitary confinement. 

The committee noted that residents often share clothes and even underwear, and that many were housed in rooms with no doors or windows. Similarly, the committee also wrote about cases where caregivers did not speak the same language as the residents, where drugs were given to residents without psychiatric consultation and the many instances of residents sustaining unexplained bruises and injuries.

“In the framework of residential care facilities, especially in dormitories and hostels, we have found unprecedentedly shocking phenomena, which are intolerable, unacceptable and deplorable,” authors of the report wrote [Hebrew]. “This impossible systemic situation, which fluctuates between an unacceptable quality of life and abuse, includes substandard treatment that can often involve violence and abuse, medical neglect, the widespread and unsupervised use of restraints, inadequate sanitation and hygiene conditions, unworthy living conditions, buildings and infrastructure that are in poor repair (such as exercise yards surrounded by fences that resemble penitentiaries, crumbling walls and broken closets), extremely limited and inadequate treatment options, limited opportunities for residents to exercise free choice or any kind of autonomy, and residents who spend most of their days inactive.” The report continues: “The committee examined hundreds of pages of evidence, including some heartbreaking descriptions [of abuse], heard testimony and visited various institutions…” 

In the recommendations section of the 150-page report, members of the committee determined that “the primary causal factor behind this shocking situation is the widespread employment of an institutional approach, and that the horrific living conditions of residents of these facilities will not change without the complete closure of these institutions and the supervised relocation of their residents to sheltered community housing or independent living facilities in the community. A process known in professional circles as deinstitutionalization. Therefore, the committee recommends the closure of all privately operating institutions and facilities within five years, and that welfare authorities will act to implement a plan to transfer the residents to housing in the community.”

“We have been working without any success for so many years to try and bring about a change and now it is finally happening,” says Lerner, who added that the series of investigations by Shomrim and “Zman Emet” was a catalyst for members of the committee. “Some of them told me they couldn’t sleep at night after watching the report,” Lerner says.

Welfare and Social Affairs Minister Ya’akov Margi, as already mentioned, said he will adopt the recommendations of the committee. Since the implementation of the key recommendations will need additional funding by the ministrey, it remains to be seen how and when they will be implemented. The establishment of the special public committee was one of the most significant activities of the previous director general of the Welfare and Social Affairs Minister, Sigal Moran, who welcomed the recommendations in the report.