Disability rights in Israel are based among the rest upon disability pensions, accessibility regulations, therapy, special education, sheltered workshop and assisted living.
Since the beginning of the 21st century, the disabled people in Israel, with a population of 250,000, have managed to equalize the disability pension from the Bituah Leumi (National Insurance Institute of Israel) to the minimum wage level in Israel. As of 2017, the struggle was made by demonstrations, blocking main roads, highways and industries, activity in social networking services, petitions to the High Court of Justice, negotiations with the Government of Israel and bills in the Knesset.
In 2017, a full disability pension was 2,342 ILS. The minimum wage in this year was 5,000 ILS, and in December 2017 it went up to 5,300 ILS per month.
Background The General Disability Pension was linked to the national average salary in Israel, as it was determined in the National Insurance Law [combined version], 1995,the National Insurance Law in the Hebrew Wikisource. but in an amendment from 2003, it was determined in article 110 of the Law, that the pension will be linked to the Consumer Price Index.
In January 2000, the minimum wage was 2,797.75 ILS, and the disability pension in Israel was 2,239 ILS, 80 percent of the minimum wage. However, even in 2000 the disabled people demanded to equalize their pension to the minimum wage.
Most of the disabled Israelis who are entitled to a full disability pension and are permanently dependent on it for work incapacity, do not receive any other allowance. Those who receive an additional special allowance, receive it for special needs such as nursing or mobility, and it does not cover the costs to which it is intended. In addition, the designated allowances are not for basic subsistence needs.
The disability pension in Israel was one of the lowest in the OECD countries: In 2007, Israel was ranked 26th out of 31 countries. An examination conducted by OECD in 2007 also found that the disability benefit per capita in Israel was approximately 80 percent lower than the average allowance per capita in the OECD countries. In 2004, Israel raised the threshold of the sole Medical Disability from 40 percent to 60 percent, as the eligibility for Disability pension. On 10 June 2018, the National Insurance Institute advertised an extensive research which found that the allowances in Israel were one of the lowest in the Western world, and wrote: "Israel's Social Security System is characterized by a very low level of generosity".
Legislative initiatives On 7 December 2016, the Knesset approved in a preliminary reading, by a majority of 42 to 39, a law proposal, which had been submitted by MK Ilan Gilon to equalize the basic disability pension to the minimum wage. Some months earlier, MK Nava Boker also submitted on 28 February 2016, a bill to link the disability pension to the minimum wage. The difference between her bill and Gilon's bill was that by Boker's bill, payments to disabled people from private insurances would be reduced from the disability allowance. Boker's bill which received 82 signatures of Knesset members, was transferred to the Ministerial Committee on Legislation, but was postponed several times.
The Zelekha Committee Following the discussion in the Ministerial Committee on Legislation, in mid-February 2017 the Minister of Finance Moshe Kahlon appointed Professor Yaron Zelekha, in cooperation with the "Necheh, Lo Hetzi Ben Adam" (Disabled, Not Half a Human Being) Association led by Alex Fridman, to the head of a special commission to examine raising disability payments. In May 2017, Zelekha recommended an increase in the disability pension to 4,000 ILS per month in three stages, linkage of the pension to the Consumer Price Index plus one percent, raising the disregard (the amount which is allowed to earn) to the Minimum Wage level, equalizing payment of a nursing worker to the minimum wage, pension under a work disability and not only a physical disability, increasing pension of elderly disabled, and broadening the range of the mobility allowance.
The Simhon Committee In May 2017 the Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu appointed Professor Avi Simhon, chairman of the National Economic Council in the Prime Minister's Office, as a chairman of another committee with representatives from the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Social Affairs and Social Services, Ministry of Health and the National Insurance Institute. The commission's recommendations were submitted after about a month. The allowance for a disabled person under this scheme would be 3,200 ILS and would be given to people with disabilities at the rate of 75% or more who were defined as poor, while the disregard of a salary would be decreased from 5,300 ILS (the minimum wage) to 4,200 ILS.
On 22 June 2017, MK David Bitan, Coalition chairman, convened a News conference and said that he rejected the recommendation of Simhon Committee to 3,200 ILS, and agreed with the Opposition to accept 4,000 ILS recommended by Zelekha Committee.
With the establishment of the Simhon Committee, the disabled people reacted by repeated blockings of major roads in Israel such as the entrance to Ben Gurion International Airport from Highway 1, the Ayalon Highway, Highway 4, Ra'anana Junction, the Coastal Road and the entrance to Jerusalem, near the Chords Bridge.
The demonstrators claimed that for decades they had demonstrated in front of the Knesset, the Ministry of Finance and the roads, but the government and the public ignored their demands. Therefore, they had to turn to roadblocks. Initially, the Israel Police did not take proactive enforcement action against roadblocks, but with increasing traffic disturbances, The police began to take a more severe hand, and some of the obstructions included clashes between the police and disabled people. As a result, several disabled people were arrested. In September 2017, the police issued a statement saying that it would no longer allow roadblocks in demonstrations, and that it would begin to fine the demonstrators who blocked roads. The police added that it "will continue to allow freedom of expression and protest by law, but will not allow a public order to be violated and such a significant violation of the normal fabric of life of Israeli citizens".
A week before the submission of the conclusions of the Simhon Committee, disabled representatives appealed to the High Court following the postponement of allowances increasing. In its response to the petition, the state claimed that the petitioners did not prove that the disability allowance of 2,342 ILS a month would not allow the right to live with dignity. On 18 June 2018, the chief justice Esther Hayut cancelled the petition in the High Court. She adjudicated that the disability pension has already been raised by legislation in February 2018, and the petition should be corrected due to this raise.
On 4 September 2017, the Disabled people demonstrated outside the Histadrut offices in Tel Aviv. On 5 September 2017, the Histadrut chairman Avi Nissenkorn met with the Disabled people's organizations, and told them that the Histadrut would be a full partner in their struggle.
On 18 September 2017, there was a special plenum session in the Knesset, due to the delay in legislation, which resulted a submission of tens of MKs signatures to Yuli Edelstein, the Speaker of the Knesset. The subject of the session was the government's maltreatment in the disabled people. Some MKs, as the former Minister of Finance Yair Lapid, attacked the government. The session ended with a vote of 49 votes, with no opposition, to pass the issue to one of the Knesset committees.
Negotiation in the Histadrut Toward the end of September 2017, Naomi Moravia, chairwoman of the "Israeli Human Rights Organization of People with Disabilities", which was located in the Histadrut building in Tel Aviv, asked for Nissenkorn assistance in opposition to the government. Following her request, Nissenkorn convened on the night of 29 September 2017, a night meeting at the Histadrut of representatives of disabled people with him, with MK Ilan Gilon and MK David Bitan, and with Avi Simhon. After 12 hours of negotiations until the morning hours, during which Yehuda Doron, a representative of the Polio Handicapped Association, retired from the discussion, and Dr. Amichai Tamir of the Disabled Organization remained in the discussion, but opposed the outline, it was agreed to supplement the disability pension in four stages until 2021, so that the final allowance would be 3,800 up to 4,000 ILS for disabled people and 4,050 ILS for 30 thousand individuals with above 80% disability. The sum of the disregard would be raised in two stages to 4,000 ILS in January 2018 and to 4,300 ILS in January 2019. The budgetary cost of the outline was 4.2 billion ILS, and it was agreed that the addition of 340 to 540 ILS for Disabled people, would start in January 2018. On 1 October 2017, Simhon claimed that the government could only commit to an addition of 1.3 billion ILS for 2018, and would not commit itself to the coming years. Simhon explained that a computer program (a software agent) which was called Numerator, limited the government's commitment without an appropriate budget clause, and therefore the inability to commit to 4.2 billion ILS.
Responses of disability organizations Simhon's remarks about the inability to commit to 4.2 billion ILS, along with the expected addition in January 2018 of 340 ILS to disabled people and the four stages up to 2021, caused most disabled people to deny the outline which had been reached between the organizations "Israeli Human Rights Organization of People with Disabilities" and "Necheh Lo Hetzi Ben Adam" and the Government, with the assistance of Nissenkorn.
The organizations "The Disabled Panthers" led by Eyal Cohen, "The A-team Disabled" under the leadership of Ofer Sofer, the organization of disabled people, led by Tamir, and the Polio organization led by Doron, announced that they would continue to block roads until the disability pension would be equal to the minimum wage and would be paid with one stage.
Oren Helman, a Vice President of the Israel Electric Corporation, a father of a daughter with a disability, and a former advisor to Netanyahu for a year when Netanyahu was the Finance Minister, also published an article in the newspaper Globes after advertising the Histadrut outline, and demanded to increase the amount of the disregard to 15,000 ILS.
Intensification of protests
On 3 October 2017, the members of "The Disabled Panthers" and "The A-team" blocked two entrances to the Port of Ashdod from six in the morning for five hours, causing heavy financial damage. The demonstrators agreed to evacuate the entrances to the port after the police agreed to void the traffic tickets which it recorded on their vehicles. On 9 October 2017, during the Sukkot holiday, representatives of disabled people were hosted by the President Reuven Rivlin at the president's succah (tabernacle), which was opened to the general public. The president asked disabled people to hold a dignified dialogue with all the professional bodies. Then disabled people went and demonstrated outside the house of the Interior Minister Aryeh Deri in the rain. From Deri, they went to the Prime Minister's residence on Balfour street, and blocked Gaza Street. From there they moved to , and blocked the traffic. On 15 October, for the first time in cooperation with representatives of disabled IDF veterans, disabled people disrupted the southern traffic on the Coastal Road near Netanya by driving slowly on the road, with the approval and in coordination with the police.