This week was a very busy week and it was difficult to decide on which case from all the cases to write. I chose a case that shows in the best way all the injustice that happen every day in the Wisconsin Plan.

Two weeks ago came to us a participant who lives in one of the villages in Wadi Ara and told us that he has been participating in the plan since December. On February he had a back operation. He was on sick leave before and after the operation, but while waiting for his sick note, he participated a few days in a personal plan. The participant showed me a sick note and I, checking that he did not have any problems with the plan, told him to call if he faces any difficulties. He came back on Wednesday. On July 1^st he brought in his sick note and was told that it has to be approved. While waiting for the approval, despite the doctor’s order to participate in no more than a 2 hour personal plan, he had to participate in a course of 6 hours. The man could not sit on a regular chair, so he had to stand during the course. After an hour of standing, the head of the course told him to go to “Agens” and ask for a proper chair. After standing there an hour he was promised that in 15 minutes a chair will be brought to him, but the chair did not arrive. The participant went to Agens for the second time and after waiting there another hour he was told to go home. He was also standing in our office for half an hour waiting for the appeal to be written. I hope it will be taken care of on Thursday.

I can not understand how can people be so hard hearted, how we, as a society lost our ability to accord people the dignity that should be accorded to all created in the image of G-d, and how can we start to treat people with dignity. It seems that we forgot the first part of Genesis 1:26:

“And God said: ‘Let us make man in Our Image, after Our Likeness. They shall rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the cattle, the whole earth, and all the creeping things that creep on earth’”.

We forgot that we all have been created in the image of God but remembered the part about ruling. Only now we rule each other.

Let us wish that we return to Genesis 1:27:

“And God created man in His Image, in the Image of God He created him; male and female He created them”

and not forget that everyone was created in the Image of God

Recent Articles by Rabbi Idit Lev

• Rabbis for Human Rights protests against the expansion of the Wisconsin plan - September 26th, 2008
• Rabbis for Human Rights calls on Government not to expand the Wisconsin Plan - September 19th, 2008
• RHR protests against procedural irregularities of Wisconsin Plan - August 28th, 2008
• Volunteers Needed for Wisconsin Plan - August 28th, 2008
• RHR supports Empowerment Group for Women - August 21st, 2008
• RHR fights budget cuts that increases social inequalities - August 14th, 2008
• RHR promotes user friendly forms for Wisconsin Plan participants - August 14th, 2008
• RHR and the iniquities of the welfare to work program - July 18th, 2008
• From Welfare to Nowhere: Promoting Human Dignity for victims of the Wisconsin Plan - July 3rd, 2008
• Demonstration against the Economic Arrangements Law - December 13th, 2007
• Victory in the Regional Labor Court - November 4th, 2006
• Conference of local mayors opposed to the Wisconsin Plan - November 4th, 2006
• Ensure Economic Justice: Help the victims of the Wisconsin Plan - September 29th, 2006
• Re'e: Human Rights and ignorance and abandonment by the government - August 17th, 2006
• The Wisconsin Program: What really happens - August 11th, 2006
• Rabbis for Human Rights activists succeed in influencing changes to the Israeli Wisconsin Program - August 4th, 2006
• Rabbis for Human Rights seeks to secure Social security allowances for all Wisconsin Program Participants - July 21st, 2006
• Rabbis For Human Rights protects the rights of the unemployed - July 13th, 2006
• RHR succeeds in modifying the the Omnibus Law of Arrangements (Economic Arrangements Bill) - June 29th, 2006
• RHR demonstrates for Social Justice - June 23rd, 2006
• Rabbis For Human Rights Opposes the Omnibus Law of Arrangements (Economic Arrangements Bill) - May 22nd, 2006
• Omnibus Law of Arrangements: Background Information - May 22nd, 2006
• Rabbi Idit Lev - May 22nd, 2006
• Finance Minister Abraham Hirchson's Speech to the Knesset Plenum – State Budget and Arrangements Law for 2006 - May 8th, 2006
• Vaethannan: Acceptance of the land, and forgetting God - August 19th, 2005

Categories: Economic Justice
Tags: Bo, Features, human rights, order, palestinians, settlers