URGENT REQUEST FOR INVESTIGATION OF THE SOS KINDERDORF
"NERADIM" IN
I. MY ORIGINAL
COMMUNICATION: URGENT REQUEST FOR INVESTIGATION OF "NERADIM" IN
Doreen
Ellen Bell-Dotan
Telephone:
972-4-692-5590
To: Helmut
Kutin, President of SOS Kinderdorf International
Dear Mr. Kutin:
With the
assistance of colleagues in various countries in
The
information that I am receiving, and have been receiving for some years, about
"Kfar Neradim" in
the town of Arad is all the more inscrutable. I will
herein provide an overview of what I know about "Neradim",
having been a resident of
I lived at
the very end of
Recently,
I have been receiving reports about "Neradim"
that are anything but vague. They are so disturbing that I am beholden to
report them and request an urgent inquiry.
I write
you with the knowledge and permission of the parties mentioned herein. They do
not communicate well enough in English to be able to provide this information
themselves.
First, In
August, 2008, "Neradim" was the subject of
a most distressing televised news report on the "Mabat
LaChadashot" (A Look at the News) program of
Israeli Channel 1. The program discusses the fact that the child "L"
says that they are not only hit by the house mother and counselors and that
there is violence among the children, but far more distressing, is the report
of the child that she was forced to witness sex being performed openly by the
children interred in "Neradim" and that
they were being filmed.
I've
translated the script of the news clip and video into English below. This is
the original news clip and video in Hebrew, for verification of my translation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1dtW0gLfNE&feature=channel_page
"MY FAMILY
THOUGHTS
August
2008, Channel 1, "A Look at the News"
An 8-year-old girl was
kidnapped from her parent by Social Services in the Emek
Chefer area.
The Welfare
authorities falsely accused the Mother of "hitting" her Daughter to
the purpose of having an excuse to remove her from her home.
Why do Child
Protection Officers make up stories and take children out of their homes?
The answer is at
the end of the video clip.
Male
Newscaster: What is going on in a boarding school in the South of the country?
A child claims that she was forced to witness sexual activity while it was
being filmed. The Welfare authorities claim this is false testimony on the part
of the parents who want the child returned home.
Mother: They put a
restraining order on me. I'm going to turn to the police in Be'er
Sheva.
Female
Newscaster voice-over: It's hard to know which version to believe. The
parents claim that the child is undergoing abuse and the Welfare authorities
claim this is a fabrication on the part of interested parties.
Sign Reads:
DISTRICT COURT
(in Be'er Sheva)
Mother: The girl is 9-years-old.
She is coming home with stories of sexual activity and sexual relations
involving a child of 8-years-old which is filmed and distributed.
Voice over: What
do you have to say about the boarding school?
Girl: They have sex together
and they do things that aren't nice.
and they hit here.
Voiceover: They also hit?
Girl: Yes, the house
mothers, the counselors, the children.
Voiceover: The story
sounds horrendous but the Welfare authorities deny it emphatically. They say
that the family is problematic. They just made it up to get their child back.
Those who will determine who is right are the District Court in Be'er Sheva, who will consider
the matter tomorrow.
Mother: We
tried to visit her and they wouldn't let us in. The children are in the
boarding school month after month and no one checks what's happening to them.
Voiceover: The
family served a Complaint with the police asking them to investigate the
Manager of the boarding school.
Child: It's not
fun to be here.
I don't want to
be in a boarding school.
Every child has
only two parents.
Father:
Every day that she spends in the boarding school is a pity. She's going lost
there.
Voiceover: If the
story is true, it's a very severe case. But only the authorities can reveal the
truth.
This child was taken
out of her family home by force, and against her will, by Social Workers.
During the course
of a few months she was shifted around 4 boarding schools throughout the
country.
Welfare
Officer Michal Milstein even hit the girl
and pushed her in sight of security personnel in the Court
house in Netanya.
Michal Milstein is Judge Shmuel Bukovsky's wife.
That judge
put children up for adoption from normative families.
Notice how
a Family Court Judge who is married to a Social Worker continues in his
capacity and the Ombudsman does not open his mouth.
The child
is held today as a hostage in the "Neradim"
institution in
The institution
is surrounded by cameras that face outward, in the direction of those who might
see into the institution
and warn the public not to photograph this closed
institution.
So, why do
Social Services make up fictitious stories about parents in order to remove
children from the home?
A social worker
is remunerated for every file that s/he opens at the Welfare authorities.
There are
designated quotas of children to be removed from the home that the Child
Protection Officers must fulfill.
Social Workers actually
invent statistics, which are the basis of the according budgets they receive.
The Ministry of
Welfare is even beholden to these orphanages to fulfill the quotas so that
they, in turn, can fulfill the bids they put out to contractors.
Some 5% of
Israeli children live outside their homes.
while the world average is 0.5%.
10 times that of
the Western World!
We are hopeful
that this time the Court will do justice
and, in contradistinction to other judges, won't be just the
rubber stamp of Social Services.
and will return the child L. home.
FAMILY
THOUGHTS"
Let it be said
that L's Mother was never charged with hitting her Daughter, the excuse of the
Social Workers to remove L from her home. Most parents whose children are
placed in institutions in
The
District Court Judge in Be'er Sheva
subsequently ordered an investigation of "Kfar Neradim". The order goes summarily ignored.
L. has,
for some time now, been incontinent. She is a perfectly normal child. Yet she
has lost control of her bladder and bowels. She says that there are other
children in "Neradim" who likewise smell of
urine at times.
A taped
conversation between L and her mother reveals a loving relationship. The child
desperately wants to go home. This remains true despite the fact that L has
been in "Neradim" for two years and has not
been allowed to see her parents for some thirteen months. When that phone call
was taped they hadn't seen one another in 11 months. Their only contact is
supervised minutes-long phone calls once a month.
L was
subjected to a psychiatric evaluation without her parents' approval.
Like most
children in institutions in
L's Mother
has a tape of the Director of "Neradim", Matti Rose, threatening her after she went on television.
The term that he uses for what he can do to her in Hebrew can mean both destroy
someone in various ways and it can even mean kill.
L's Mother
is also in possession of a number of Court documents that lend credence to her
claims, but nothing is done.
L reports
that most of the children at "Neradim" want
very much to leave that place.
As you can
see in the video clip, L's Mother is a religious woman. She is most distressed
by the fact that the girls at "Neradim",
many of whom are just pubescent, routinely wear
little tank tops and short shorts that do not entirely cover their posteriors.
In
addition to what this woman claims: I am very closely associated with someone
who spent much of her childhood in various institutions. Though she was not in
"Kfar Neradim",
she knows a number of young adults who were there as children. She has told me
that they all say the same thing about "Neradim".
The line they repeat is: "You know what goes on in "Neradim". When she tells them that she does not know
what goes on in "Neradim", they refuse to
answer.
Also, as I
wrote above: some of the residents of the town of Arad
who lived close to "Neradim" also got the
impression that something is wrong there, as did some of the children who went
to school with children from "Neradim".
In a
separate e-mail I will send you a Report, Complaint and Petition that I sent to
the UN and various personages in EU. It is to the purpose of giving you
background so that you may understand in what context what is transpiring at
"Neradim" is being tolerated by the Israeli
authorities.
I am
entirely certain that you will understand this matter as seriously as do
concerned individuals in Israel, as well as in various countries in Europe, who
have been made aware of this matter and will see to it that the goings on in "Neradim" are investigated immediately and, if the
allegations of the Mother prove true, see to it that the perpetrators are
swiftly brought to justice.
Doreen
Ellen Bell-Dotan,
II.
FIRST RESPONSE FROM SOS KINDERDORF INTERNATIONAL
From:
"Sandbrook Jeremy"
<Jeremy.Sandbrook@sos-kd.org>View contact detailsTo:
"'
On behalf
of President Kutin, I would like to acknowledge
receipt of your e-mails of
As soon as
I have more information on this matter I will be on touch with you. In the meantime, should you have any concerns
or queries on this, please do not hesitate in contacting me further.
Kind
Regards
Jeremy Sandbrook
_______________________________
Mr Jeremy Sandbrook
Deputy
Continental Director
Continental
Office W.Europe & N.America
SOS-Kinderdorf International
Hermann-Gmeiner-Strasse 51
A - 6010
Tel.
+43/512/3310-5382
jeremy.sandbrook@sos-kd.org
III. MY
FIRST RESPONSE TO MR. SANDBROOK'S FIRST RESPONSE
From:
"
Thank you
from the bottom of my heart for this prompt response.
There are
parents awaiting assistance on baited breath, who are suffering the emotional
tortures of the damned, who are helpless to save their children, because they
themselves have been accused, some rightly, some wrongly, of child abuse that
does not begin to approach the level of abuse they are convinced their children
are undergoing in "Neradim".
I am
sending this message to those to whom you sent a Cc because I am not afraid to
say this to anyone's face: Do not trust *anyone* who is working within the
Israeli system. Even if they are basically well-meaning people, they are
working in a system so crooked and so corrupt, at all levels, that they cannot
possibly maintain the moral standards necessary to rehabilitate children at
risk. In order to keep working within the Israeli system, and with Israeli
colleagues; it is well-nigh impossible that they have not had to compromise the
requisite standards of child care.
Please do
not rely solely on your representatives in
Yours
truly,
Doreen
Ellen Bell-Dotan,
IV. MR.
SANDBROOK'S SECOND RESPONSE TO ME
RE: Re
Allegations of Suspected Child Abuse - SOS CV Arad NeradimFriday,
From:
"Sandbrook Jeremy"
<Jeremy.Sandbrook@sos-kd.org>View contact detailsTo:
"'
Further to
my e-mail of 31 July, please find attached the detailed response from SOS
Children’s Villages Israel, regarding the allegations of child abuse alleged to
have taken place at SOS Children’s Village Arad Neradim. In addition
to the report itself, I have also had a number of conversations with Mr Ahituv Gershinsky
the National Director responsible for
As an organisation, allegations such as these are taken extremely
seriously, with clear processes and procedures put in place as to how they
should be dealt with. In this case, I am
pleased to confirm that the alleged allegations were investigated in accordance
with the SOS Child Protection Policy, and that no evidence was found to substantiate
them. Notwithstanding the comments made in your e-mail regarding the various
child protection services within
On this
basis, SOS-Kinderdorf International is satisfied that
the matter has been appropriately managed and investigated, and as such no
further action is warranted by us. That
being said, should you have any additional information supporting your claims,
I would ask that you forward it direct to Mr Gershinsky, who will assess it further. His contact details are as follows:
Mr. Ahituv Gershinsky
National
Director
Israeli
Society for SOS Children's Villages
Tel Aviv
Tel
+972/3/613 2438
Fax
+972/3/575 4931
e-mail: info@sosisr.co.il
For sake
of good order, Mr Kutin,
the President of SOS-Kinderdorf International has
also been advised of the outcome of this matter.
I hope
that the above response addresses the concerns raised by you. If further
details are required, I am sure that Mr Gershinsky would only be to happy to provide them to you,
or even arrange a face-to-face meeting if need
be. Once again thank you for bringing
this to our attention. Should you feel that I can be of any more assistance,
please do not hesitate in contacting me further-
Kind
Regards
Jeremy Sandbrook
_______________________________
Mr Jeremy Sandbrook
Deputy
Continental Director
Continental
Office W.Europe & N.America
SOS-Kinderdorf International
Hermann-Gmeiner-Strasse 51
A - 6010
Tel.
+43/512/3310-5382
V. MR.
AHITUV GERSHINSKY'S ATTACHED REPLY TO MY URGENT REQUEST FOR INVESTIGATION OF
"NERADIM" IN
Attachment:
Israeli Society for SOS
Children`s Villages
Board of
Directors Non-Profit Association, Society No. 3
–58-003-096 Member of SOS Kinderdorf
International ,
Agassi Yitzhak-Chairman
Eshel Aharon
Dr. Ish-Shalom
Alexander
Beginski Bella
Zaga Moshe
Nehamma Shimon
Segev Shlomo
Voelker Peter
Honorary Presidents
Jacob Markovitz
Yehudith Huebner
Treasurer
Acct. Hornstein Eitan
Mr. Jeremy
Sandbrook
Deputy
Continental Director
Continental
Office W.Europe &
SOS-Kinderdorf International
Hermann Gmeiner Strasse 51
A – 6010
Dear Mr. Sandbrook,
Allow me
to thank you for the opportunity to respond to the disturbing communications
received regarding CV Neradim,
from Ms. Bell-Dotan, who is unknown to us
nationally and locally. I want to assure you that this response is being sent
with the full support of my Board of Directors and Chairman.
We are
well aware of a concerted campaign that has been going on for over a year, to
sully the name of CV Neradim, and SOS Israel by persons
who are motivated by their own personal pain and anger over their dealings with
the welfare authorities here in
Almost immediately after her
arrival, the attacks began, with small demonstrations, phone calls to the
village, to the NO and to the chairman regarding the "crime"
committed by accepting her into our care and other forms of harassment. With
the assistance of a Mr. Ben-Yissacher, who ran a
website called "The Movement to protect the children of Israel" the
internet began to be filled with hearsay, invented allegations and outright
lies regarding the so termed "Concentration Camp Neradim".
The stories were an attempt to destroy the good name of our staff, our village
director and eventually our organization. Mr. Ben-Yissacher
described himself as a victim of the welfare system and claims to be the savior
who will tear it down. We have sought legal and professional internet advice
regarding the best route of action to take. As much of the campaign is being
conducted in cyberspace, we are aware of the expenses and efforts that would
need to be invested without any guarantee that the courts here in
Our
chairman was in contact with the Minister of Social Welfare in August 2008
regarding this campaign and its effect on the village staff and children. He
contacted the Chief of Special investigations and the Director of the Southern
District of the Israeli Police as well. In September 2008 he wrote to the
Assistant Attorney General in regards to this campaign. All these letters are
on record (in Hebrew) here in the NO. The general response was that this issue
is in the realm of civil suits and not criminal. We have decided to ignore his
attacks rather than respond and "fuel the fire". At the same time we
are working on updating our local website to help counteract his campaign.
In August
2008, the mother of "L" petitioned the Beer Sheba District Court with
a demand to rescind the order issued by the Ashdod Family Court to remove "L" from her
biological family and allow her to be placed at the discretion of the Child
Welfare Officer, in CV Neradim. Her complaints then
centered around two issues: acts of violence towards "L" and the
allegation of sexual activity that she had "witnessed". The judge heard statements from the legal
counsel of the Social Welfare Ministry and from the court appointed guardian of
"L" after Mr. Ben Yissacher was removed
from the court and the mother stormed out. The judge concluded that there were
no grounds for taking any action regarding the previously issued order or for
removing "L" from CV Neradim. The next day
Mr. Ben-Yissacher attacked the judge on his website
and suggested that she did not remove "L" from our village, as perhaps
in her home sexual activity between children was acceptable. During 2009 Mr.
Ben Yissacher was convicted in court of libel against
a civil servant (the National Child Welfare Officer) and fined 200,000
Regarding
the allegations put forth in Ms. Bell - Dotan's two
letters of complaint, let me set the record straight. CV Neradim
does not accept violent behavior from any of the children nor staff. In spite
of this, there are cases of inappropriate behavior amongst the children and as the village is
home for all the children, we see such behavior as demanding treatment and
educational responses. We will not give up on any of our children without
making supreme efforts to change and improve their behavior. As per the
allegation regarding sexual activity our policy is clear. Sexual activity of
children in the village is not permissible and certainly not condoned. As per the report on
As per the
allegations in her letter to the UN and her comments regarding the lack of
trustworthiness of the staff of SOS Israel in the villages and the NO, I see no
reason to respond. I believe that we do our best for the sake of our children
and we are licensed, supervised and subsidized by the Social Welfare Ministry. All that speaks for itself.
I thank
you for the opportunity to set the record straight.
I am at
your service should there be any need for further information.
Sincerely
Yours,
Ahituv Gershinsky
National
Director
VI. MY
REQUEST THAT MR. GERSHINSKY PRODUCE WHAT HE CONSIDERS TO BE THE ORIGINAL
VERSION OF THE TELEVISION BROADCAST CONCERNING "NERADIM", IN
From:
"
Mr. Gershinsky wrote:
"As per the report on
Please ask
Mr. Gershinky to be so kind as to provide me with the
orginal broadcast so that I might compare the version
as it appears on the internet with what he claims is a divergent original
script.
Doreen
Ellen Bell-Dotan,
DoreenDotan@gmail.com