How Israel allows private US institutions to abuse and drug Israeli children

January 12th, 2018

Awake Goy

Marianne Azizi writes:

Private American institutions are abusing Israeli children for profit, causing irreparable emotional and psychological damage to them

It is a rare moment to capture on video: this brave young girl agreed to give her testimony. She was on the run from the authorities, escaping back to her family for the 50th time.

The emotional torture of losing a child to the authorities for profit cannot be understated, but through the eyes of the child one can see it is hell on earth. Once upon a time she was a happy child, home with her siblings, but with no idea of how fast she was about to have to grow up.

Now she’s exhausted – fighting her need to sleep. It could be the drugs she is forced to take, or the effort to fight them.

Aged only 13 years, her life can now be summed up in one word: survival.

Incarcerated since she was 10, this little girl has fought the authorities, running away time after time.

With a mixture of vulnerability and a streak of defiance, she is finally warm and safe. But not for long. She must be returned to the police very soon. It is a golden opportunity to film her testimony. Her short life in Israel has turned into a fight for her freedom.

… the perpetrators – social workers and a judiciary which has decided against all the facts that this child is better in the care of the private institutions who profit $5,000 a month for keeping her away from normality.

She talks of her dreams to see the outside world before it is too late, and they lock her in some closed place for years to come.

It was scary, she says, to run away at 10. But after almost 50 times, she is handling it better and managing easier. This time she was outside the institution for nearly six hours, and was found by a family member, freezing cold and hungry, but free.

The testimony is taken by an Israeli lawyer. Time is short. It is impossible to prepare her, and help her feel safe enough to get all the information he wants and needs. He knows the perpetrators – social workers and a judiciary which has decided against all the facts that this child is better in the care of the private institutions who profit $5,000 a month for keeping her away from normality. She is just a number – one out of more than 10,000 children forcibly taken from their parents in Israel annually.

All this child needs is love, and a hug. That is only a memory for her these days. She is not comfortable with men – and avoids questions of her being hurt or “tampered” with. She refuses to answer – yet her body language says otherwise.

She is asked questions regarding all the institutions that have tried to manage her.

“It hurt a lot when they held me down on the floor and stood on my back,” she recalls. “Once they made my face bleed when I was hit,” she adds.

She is cautious, but one senses she also knows this could be the first and last chance to speak to someone she doesn’t consider “the enemy”.

The girl describes how the Israeli police and social workers who snatched her from school filled her head with stories of how dangerous her family was.

To get to the root of the problem – why she hates being incarcerated – they filled her with more medication which may have long lasting effects.

The isolation room she describes is not the first time a child has talked about. In the short clip above, she talks of a room where she is locked up. Her food is passed through to her. Imagine a child of 10 locked away, terrified and without her native language. She is not an Israel-born girl. She barely understood what was being said to her. Banging on the door and screaming for help resulted in more “holdings” and punishments. There were no toilet facilities and she is embarrassed when asked how she handled her needs.

She has received little or no education. She is now able to speak Hebrew, but cannot read or write in her native language. At the tender age of just 10, she was medicated with various drugs. Three years later, the court decided the best option is to increase the drugs even more. To get to the root of the problem – why she hates being incarcerated – they filled her with more medication which may have long lasting effects.

She is streetwise now. She hides the pills under her tongue whenever possible and throws them away. She doesn’t know what they are, but instinctively knows they are bad for her.

Dreaming of life with her mother, father and siblings, she goes on to say she does not expect a normal life, as they want to lock her in a secure, closed facility.

Israel’s welfare authority takes over 10,000 children a year from their homes. At least 50 per cent of them do not need to be removed, says ex-chief executive of the welfare authority Yosi Silman. While child abuse by private institutions is well known to the legal community, lawyers fight every day to rescue children;

She explains in the extended video that she was strapped to beds, fed intravenously and physically abused.

The lawyer at times is overcome with emotion when filming her. He is powerless to help her. The evidence is overwhelming. She wants to go home. There was no reason to take her at all. Despite countless hearings and appeals, the welfare authority will not admit it was wrong. Its actions have thrust a young girl into an alternative reality.

Israel’s welfare authority takes over 10,000 children a year from their homes. At least 50 per cent of them do not need to be removed, says ex-chief executive of the welfare authority Yosi Silman.

She is among thousands and thousands who once were playing with dolls and toys – and then putting on make-up to prepare yet another escape from the cruelty of institution staff who appear to have no training in how to deal with children.

The money rolls in – over one million Israeli shekels (about $293,000) made on this poor girl. Has society lost the ability to stand in this child’s shoes and stop what is a preventable act of child snatching and abuse?

What have we become in 2018, that funding is given to these American Institutions who act with impunity against children?

The full video will be sent to law-enforcement agencies in the USA but there is little optimism that anything will be done in Israel or internationally to stop this daily abuse of children. Only the public can exert pressure.

Meir Givati, an Israeli lawyer specialising in juvenile matters, commented:

I handle cases like this every day, and it seems that once children have been taken, the authorities don’t know what to do afterwards. More often than not, the kids are drugged and we cannot get the data on the long-term damage it does to them. Once children are taken, the road back for return to parents is a long one, often taking many years. By then the bonds may have been broken in families who were loving and responsible. It is devastating what is happening here.

The Schusterman Foundation mentioned in this video was contacted for comment, but did not respond. However, coincidentally, after a sample of video was sent, the authorities in Israel claimed the girl did not mean what she said in the video. This is another common tactic used in hearings.