It's come to this... Israeli woman declared 'insane' for demanding to see minister
Whatever you do, do not get divorced in Israel. Marianne Azizi, who wrote this article, is a father's rights activist - her second husband has not been able to leave Israel for years because he cannot make the required deposit of thousands of dollars in future support payments. This is not about Marianne - it's about another woman who was declared 'insane' for asking to meet Israel's Justice Minister. It will be all over the mainstream media tomorrow or Sunday. And I am assured (by another source), it's 100% true.
This is an amazing story.
The woman, Joelle Ben Simon, says the rabbi who sat in her divorce case robbed her by appointing receivers to take her assets. She spent four days at the ministry compound in Jerusalem trying to reach Ms Shaked.
On the fourth day Ms Shaked, surrounded by her assistants, saw her for a few minutes. Joelle was then told to return home, take a shower and prepare to see Ms Shaked in Tel Aviv at 6pm.
But by the time she reached her caravan, a social worker, Hadass Weiss, and an ambulance had turned up to take her to a mental facility. After a 10-minute interview with one Dr Elizabeth Yuven, she was “diagnosed” as psychotic and immediately injected with 3mg of risperdal.1
The next day Joelle was allowed visitors who took a video mocking the minister of justice and “thanking her for her promise to help her”.
The video went viral with 26,000 views within a very short time. Viewers were outraged that Ms Shaked, who seems so pretty and gives the appearance of being civil, actually gets rid of people she deems pests by arranging for them a bed in a psychiatric hospital and a dose of medication.
On the day of Joelle’s committal, Friday 5 August, it was not possible to obtain any medical record or paperwork pertaining to her committal which could be used to petition the court for her release, because in Israel when a district psychiatrist signs a decree of committal the patient must wait for whenever a psychiatric committee can consider the case, which in this case was Monday 8 August.
The outrage on Facebook was so intense that reporter Lory Shemtov managed to assemble a team of three lawyers to volunteer for the defence.
On Sunday 7 August one of the lawyers, Zvi Zer, managed to obtain reports from social worker Weiss and Dr Yuven, both of whom clearly stated that the request to hospitalise Joelle had been initiated by the Ministry of Justice, in the person of Yael Kutik, the personal assistant of Ms Shaked. The reports said that Joelle was filled with false thoughts about corruption in the family and rabbinical courts, and that she had put herself in danger by choosing an Arab district for her abode.Then there was a hearing.
The hearing began with a mental examination by way of a question-and-answer session posed by the panel to Joelle, who answered that she had no idea why she had been committed; had never seen a psychiatrist before; was not known to the system in any way; had never been diagnosed, seen or treated by any psychiatrist; and had never been give treatment or needed medication.
She said the social worker and doctor had put words in her mouth and she had indeed been mistreated by the divorce and rabbinical courts. Therefore, her thoughts were not false.
Attorney Brand spoke about the right to protest and approach ministers in person, and the right to express criticism of the courts, adding that Joelle’s rights had been violated in this case.
She said that she herself had once approached the Ministry of Justice with a complaint about an official and that it had never occurred to her that such an act might result in her committal to a psychiatric institution.
Next, attorney Zer conducted a cross examination of Dr Yuven, and obtained an admission that there is no need for a committal because the drugs could actually be taken outside the hospital. The only reason she wants Joelle inside a mental facility was to ensure that she actually takes the drug.
Asked how a psychiatrist can determine in 10 minutes whether something that is said to have happened in a divorce to rabbinical court actually happened or was an instance of false memory, Dr Yuven replied that a combination of the patient’s appearance, the stubbornness of requesting to speak to Ms Shaked and the self-imposed risk of sleeping in an Arab district had led her to believe that Joelle was in a psychotic state.
Attorney Zer summarised the cross examination by stating that Joelle’s conduct at the hearing was 100 per cent coherent and that her allegations of being wronged by the family courts were not baseless. He presented several newspaper clips relating to the persons involved with the litigation and stated that there appears to have been behind-the-scenes meddling by powerful people whom the psychiatric personnel were trying to appease. He said it was time to acknowledge that a g[r]ave mistake had been made.Joelle Simon was lucky. She's been released. But that's not the whole story.
After 45 minutes of deliberations, the panel said that Joelle is to be released immediately, and that the respirdal had already worked its miracle. It also ruled that the initial order for the committal had been justified because it was abnormal to approach a minister instead of just sending a letter [emphasis mine. CiJ].
...
In Israel, it takes only a word to turn a person’s world upside down. In this case, the word was that of someone in a high position in the Ministry of Justice and it resulted in one of the quickest psychiatric committals of a harmless person.
How many other unfortunate people in Israel do not have the benefit of connections to activists and journalists, and suffer in silence?
It used to be common practice in the Soviet Union to commit dissidents to mental hospitals. It seems the practice continues to be used in Israel.
Read the whole thing. Simply disgraceful.
Labels: Ayelet Shaked, Israeli courts
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:56 PM
7 Comments:
Sounds to me, that Shaked didn't want people looking into corruption in the divorce courts and they decided to go after this woman. Yes, like in the Soviet Union.
Ms. Shaked will now strengthen the layers of security around herself. She will undoubtedly become paranoid of one-eyed military officers setting heavy briefcases beneath conference tables.
(not-so-subtle von Stauffenberg reference)
Israel is really making it hard for me to want to make aliyah.
If this story had not been posted here, I would not have believed it. This is frightening and despicable abuse of power. No reputable psychiatrist would sign off on such conduct or so-called treatment. Respirdol is a very potent anti-psychotic and 3mg injection of even a single dosage is a chemical restraint. I'm disgusted that such barbaric "treatment" occurred in Israel. My opinion of Shaked has been seriously modified.
I have to say that Website in which this story appears is a doozy. To call it anti-Zionist is and understatement. Indeed, I see that Gilad Atzmon is a welcome contributor there. So, take note of that.
I would dismiss this out-of-hand as an anti-Israel polemic if not for the fact that Israel's socialist roots make a story like this believable. However, usually it's the leftists that try to get away with this kind of conspiratorial behavior. Shaked is right-wing, and frankly I've considered her to be the most straight-shooting politician we had in Israel. If this story is true, I'll have to knock her down a few pegs in my personal list. The question is, is it true?
You say it's true according to a source you trust, and you say this will appear elsewhere in the media soon. Very good then; if so we'll see. For now, the apparent source is highly suspicious.
Carl, you said this story could be expected to appear in the mainstream news. It's been over two weeks; I have not seen this happen.
Do you have any update on this? The website that posted it is an obvious hotbed of anti-Israel bile. If it's the only source for the story, I'd be inclined to dismiss it.
This reminds me that Israel is an absolute joke. It is no safe place, it is no place to be. Every time I consider moving there, I look at various abuses of power and am reminded of the sheer irony that the country now stands for.
P.S. Protecting important people is one thing, but what is this bullshit about declaring people psychotic for wanting to see one when a simple "no" or "never going to happen" would suffice? How many of such exalted people ever asked a girl who was far out of their league for a date? The true psychosis here is seen in the actions taken in such situations.
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