Monday, August 11, 2008

Wohl Rose Garden (Avram's final prodject)

Wohl Rose Garden
The final project that I decided to work on was the Wohl Rose Garden after my first spark of interest occurred when I saw some handicapped protestors on my first study abroad program, right before this one. During this program, we arrived at the Rose Garden on our Capital tour and I noticed them again along with all the other protesters. After seeing them again, I confirmed my decision that my final project would be on this garden’s history and the current protestors. During that second visit, we had a lunch, we gave our extra food to the handicapped protesters, and I learned that these people are very friendly and excellent candidates for an interview.
When I finally obtained an opportunity to make my return back to the Rose Garden, I went directly to the handicapped protestors to discover what their goals were. This task didn’t happen until I took several buses just trying to locate this place. The final bus took several detours because of the protests blocking the streets. They announced the reasoning for the detours and I could see the annoyance with the handicapped on many of the faces on the bus. When I finally arrived, it was so amazing, at least in my opinion, how this protest had enough strength with their rights to close off the main street of the capital without to many problems with the cops. At the handicapped protesting station, I found many people eagerly waiting to discuss their situation with me. The first person named Benny talked to me and explained how grateful he is to live in this democracy where people can strike and protest when the people see injustices within the society. After expressing his extreme gratitude for his government’s political structure, he started using his rights to show frustrations upon the injustices he perceives.
As Benny began expressing his frustrations he told me what was at the root of these injustices in the first place. The main cause is that the government pay actually decreased in the past seven years by nearly half. This pay cut causes a huge issue because these people cannot live off this pay when trying to pay for food, housing, and petrol to fuel their cars. This has become an increasing concern especially since these products’ prices have drastically increased during the past seven years. On top of this, many of the handicap people require twenty-four hour care giving and this funding is not enough for them to pay their workers. In many cases, if the extremely disabled people devoted all of their funding for care giving they would still fall short of being able to pay them.
In the recent days, the government has focused on just one of the issues over which the handicap people have expressed concern. The resolution is to increase the ability for disabled people to work while still getting funding. Currently, he describes that the law holds that if someone who is handicapped makes 1,060 ₪ or more per month, they will no longer obtain any governmental funding. To many, this would discourage them from working because at they might receive less total money or about the same and they would have to spend time working. The new bill, if passed, would encourage disabled members of society to work because the 1,060₪ mark will only be the point where governmental funding will just start to reduce. Once the people make 5,400 ₪, then their funding will be eliminated. Another important change with this would allow the disabled person to receive their full government payment immediately when they cannot work for any reason and not have to wait to receive their funding as they do now.
Since the recent cuts in funding, the most severe disability can only receive government funding of 2,100₪ per month. This amount of money is roughly 600 United States Dollars and almost any American would agree that it is difficult to live off this amount even without considering the expenditures of having a disability. This amount varies drastically depending upon the severity of the disability, obviously. For example, if a person can still work, then they would receive much less than someone who cannot participate in society because of their individual disability. He kept bringing up the point that this money does not even come close to the cost of living especially if someone needs a caregiver around the clock.
Then I had a chance to talk to a woman whose husband is disabled and she supports him by helping him organize this protest he wanted to start. She decided to take a few moments to explain answers to any other questions I still had. I was quick to discover that Benny did a good job, but I still obtained a few more minor details about the protest. One of which was the reasoning behind the police officers blocking of the street. It is completely for the safety of the disabled protestors so they do not have to be at risk of being hit accidentally by a vehicle that normally passes through. Then she went on to tell me what would ultimately satisfy the protesters. They would be satisfied with the government completely paying for the petrol for their cars, and caregivers for those who require one. Another interesting fact is that there are approximately 180,000 Israelis currently eligible for funding. Her last remark was that anyone could become disabled by just crossing the street so it is very important to support every handicapped person because it can be you one day. This got me thinking about how many of these people were in perfect shape at birth and some accident in their life caused them to have the need for assistance from the state.
Then I talked to David Sinai who is a Jew originally from Morocco before he moved to Israel in 1962. When I approached him, he was interested to see who I was and what I wanted to know. With great curiosity, I asked him what he was protesting about and he was quick to respond and say that he is conducting a personal, private protest in regards to a civil case but he wanted to refrain from any details. Then he explained how this is his first time protesting and he had to get permission from to Knesset to stay for a long period in a tent at this particular location. If that was not enough, he then had to get the police to approve his request. He finally was able to begin his protest on 7 May, 2007. Several of the other people who have been protesting arrived in their tents over three years ago. His protest is very silent so the media never once has visited him nor any member of the Knesset. Most people would find this very discouraging, but David is very committed to his protest so much so that he has not returned to his home in the Golan Heights since he began to protest. Since he has been here he has seen several groups of protestors that have included the people from Darfur who stayed about a year ago for two or three weeks, and the other group he saw was the Bedouins who also stayed for a few weeks. Other than that, it has been quiet by him except for the new group of disabled protestors, tourist groups that pass through and ask question, some people protesting by the Supreme Court to leave Gaza, and teacher strikes there for only a few days.
For at least thirty-five years, this place has served as a protest location as he remembers people protesting after the Yom Kippur War. He is not sure if this location was used for protest immediately after the building of the Knesset, which was completed in 1966. This location has served similar purposes to the Washington D.C. “Mall”.
To me, it is important that the government looks out for every individual to have their representation with the right of a protest. I also learned through the discussions with various people there that the Knesset does a great job representing the people because the country has many political parties and each has direct representation upon how the country votes in its elections. This experience has given me a good outlook on how the country allows you to express your issues publicly as long as you receive permission and keep them relatively peaceful.

No comments: