Ofira Ben-Shalom from Amutat Alon, who is our partner at the Lev Hadera center, accompanied this week two participants in the Wisconsin program to the appeal committee. Ofira is not an attorney, therefore she can not speak to the members of the committee, but she can talk to the participant.

Here is Ofira’s testimony on what happened at the appeal committees:

This Tuesday I was present at the appeal of two participants. The committees were horrible. I left with a heavy feeling and with several questions about the committees’ functioning. The first case was an appeal over the cancellation of one-month pension. During the meeting the Agens representatives played a recording of the participant as backing for their version.

This was the first time I have heard such a recording of a discussion between a participant and his program counselor. It makes awful injustice to the participants. Their anger is taken out of context, and when only a part of the tape is played his saying that he will not go back there does sound as a threat, but we do not know what he was told a second before. The second case was even worse. The pension was canceled for two months under the claim that the participant misbehaved and lacks motivation. The committee urged Agens to find a solution. They came up with a creative one – the participant has to prove her motivation by going herself to 6 manpower companies and trying to find a job. She has to bring confirmations she is registered as a job seeker at these companies and also go to all interviews she is sent by Agens. If she will find a job she will have a salary, and if she makes all the efforts, her pension will be returned. Literally re-socialization.

I received only shouts from the committee members. In the first case, as I managed to calm down the participant, they allowed me to ask two questions. In the second case I had my mouth shut. And when the participant tried to say loudly what I recommended her to ask, they answered her promptly that it’s irrelevant.

It’s not such a big issue to go to a manpower company and register as a job seeker (and I accompanied the participant to two of them, and there really is no work). But the question is what does the government pay Agens for? Not for doing the job seeking process for the participants?

That’s it, only to show who we work with. When I left the committee with the participants, the Agens employment coordinator passed by and said towards us ‘This will teach you how to behave at an interview’. I have no words”.

To sum things up, these things represent most of the feelings people who work and volunteer in helping participants in the Wisconsin Program. Regretfully not all participants are represented by an attorney, and when a lawyer is involved, usually the participant wins the case or a more convenient compromise is achieved.

More than that, instead of helping a participant to learn how to find work, or as the law puts it “to remove the obstacles that stand before her in finding a job”, she was sent to seek jobs by herself, with no assistance. Ofira’s question is most appropriate – why does the government pay millions of shekels to Agens, if they send her to find work by herself?

The creative decision of the appeal committee was to send the participant to 6 manpower offices, to show her commitment to finding a job.

The participant came back to me with new information: It is not enough to go to manpower offices, register and interview once for a job and wait for a second interview. “Agens” say that it’s up to them to decide when they will erase her “refusal” and it will be only after she starts working in a place they will provide or she will find a job. Opposing the appeal committee’s decision, the participant is completely depended on the good will of the company.

The participant was sent to an elderly citizens’ home in Ramat Gan, but was not accepted due to medical problems. Her candidancy was also rejected in another an elderly citizens’ home and an additional “refusal” was written down in her file. The woman will not receive her allowance now for three months although the appeal committee wondered bout Agens attitude toward the participant after a whole year of co-operation.

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, calm, compromise, human rights, palestinians, settlers