It's one thing when I suffer injustices; it's another when a child of mine is victimized. I've suffered for decades from the viciousness of the Israeli government and people. However, when my son fell victim to that same viciousness, I had to get him out. So I did, and I came with him.

The story isn't an easy one to tell. It was documented twice in the Al Hasharon supplement of Yediot Aharonot, but that didn't mean that people were kind or understanding towards my son or his family. The reality was quite the contrary; we were regarded as outcasts, lepers, put into social quarrantine. I mean that people who saw us and knew us would hide or duck to avoid acknowledging us. Clearly nobody wanted to have anything to do with people in distress -- but is that surprising in a country like Israel, a country that doesn't hesitate to come running for handouts from the U.S. and anyone else who will dole out money but will show flagrant disregard for human rights?

To be sure, Israel isn't alone in its abuse of persons suffering from Asperger's Syndrome; the site /HotSprings/8999 tells a particularly poignant story of a person with Asperger's Syndrome who endured horrors that surpass anything my son endured. The difference, however, is that this person grew up when Asperger's Syndrome was unknown. My son, at age nine, has been the victim of repeated abuse, social rejection, and worse. I did everything in my power to protect him and to provide him with as much help as I possibly could, but my endeavours came at a high price, and when the money ran out, the Israeli creditors pounced upon me like predators. Ultimately, I had to run like a fugitive, both to give my son what he needs and to ensure myself that I would still be in a situation that would enable me to provide for him. For this, I cannot forgive the Israeli government.

Just for the record, the Education Department of the Ra'anana Municipality told us that if we did not want to bury our child in a class of slow learners, we would have to pay for the in-class assistance by ourselves. Our son has already skipped a grade; it is both cruel and inappropriate to sentence him to learning with slow learners just because he has a disorder, so as responsible parents, we took the responsibility upon ourselves, even though we could not afford to do so. We later discovered, when the article for the newspaper was being written, that by law, the Municipality was obligated to pay for the help -- AFTER we had been scammed, of course. We can forget about seeing that money again, and the Ra'anana Municipality is banging down the door to collect usurious amounts for the privilege of living in the same city that deceived us into bankruptcy. What is more, when we appealed to the Prime Minister, the President, the Ombudsman, and to other officials who could help us find assistance, they turned to the Ra'anana Municipality to investigate; the Ra'anana Municipality LIED about assistance that they claimed that they had sent us in the form of professionals who came to visit us and that we had refused to accept! Interesting it is that the Ra'anana Municipality could not give identifying details of even one professional sent to us -- probably because none exist!

It would be amiss if I did not mention one particular bit of "assistance" that we received from the Ra'anana Municipality, lest some other family fall into the same trap. When we appealed to social services to ask for help with our son, after his after-school program expelled him with no prior notice, he was referred to an after-school program for "special needs" children, or so it was known. As we discovered later, these "special needs" children were not children with disabilities but rather children from homes with socio-economic difficulties. Consequently, our son was badly out of place. The woman who ran the program could not cope with him; however, instead of informing us of her problem or asking social services to render assistance, she solved the problem by locking our son every day in a storage room without food or drink! When we discovered this practice -- our son had concealed it from us for fear that we would scold him "for being bad" -- our social worker replied, "So what? I do the same to my own children!" The outcome: our son was expelled from the program, and the woman who had locked him away kept her job for a full year later until reports of further cases of abuse caused her to lose her job! The message was clear enough: a child with a disability is fair game for abuse!

The Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel (AACI) , whose task it is to assist U.S. nationals residing in Israel, knew of our plight -- and turned a deaf ear. The English Speaking Residents Association went even further: they insisted that we seek professional help with one of their members at considerable cost, and when we made it known that we could not afford to do so, we were told that we could expect no help whatsoever!

My son did not deserve to be made into a victim. He is now in the U.S., where professionals are looking to help him. Meanwhile, Israeli creditors are looking to try to unearth pennies I might have left behind. My suggestion: let them approach the Ra'anana Municipality, which took all my money fraudulently. THEY certainly can afford to pay them.

Return to GeoCities Home Page | Return to Prisoners of Zion Home Page