Aseel soldier - Jerusalem
In vain, Jerusalem's Enas al-Junidi tries to silence her autistic child, wandering around the bedrooms, sitting and kitchen to think of options that would please her child, and then return to sit with her guests in a state of extreme tension.
The youngest of her three-and-a-half-year-old son, Tawfiq, suffered the disorder last April. Inas and her husband Khalid have since embarked on a journey of torment and injustice described as hell.
Tawfiq joined Al-Sanabel therapeutic kindergarten in the town of Beit Hanina (north of Jerusalem) at the beginning of the current school year. Since his enrollment, the parents have noticed a decline in his condition. His father Khalid Al-Junaidi said: "The characteristics of autism were apparent to Tawfiq, By turning another person hit his sisters very violently, and recently began to carry out the movements known to this class. "
| Three families with children with autism during their conversation with Al Jazeera Net (Al Jazeera) |
Service difference
From the very first moment, Khaled and his wife realized that the kindergarten building under the jurisdiction of the municipality was unsuitable for the children of autism, and with their daily follow-up with the parents of 62 other children in the medical kindergarten, Tafda was treated for poor services compared to what was offered to children in the Jewish therapeutic kindergartens located in the section West of occupied Jerusalem.
"I feel numb from the moment my son is diagnosed; on the kindergarten's website, the information states that children receive functional, behavioral and psychological treatment, communication and communication therapy, movement therapy, music and parenting sessions, but our children actually receive speech therapy and functional treatment only in public rooms, , According to Inas.
Her husband, Ramadi Jaber, his wife Salma, Mahmoud Abu Farha and his wife Ghadeer received their children with autism Fred and Yusuf to speak collectively to Al-Jazeera Net about the suffering of the people of this marginalized group.
| Rami Jaber and his wife Salma with their autistic child Fred (Al Jazeera) |
With the three children, it was difficult to connect parents who were unable to control the behavior of their autistic children, raising questions about how the kindergarten staff could succeed in individual therapy sessions if the children were receiving them in the same room.
A bitter experience
Ghadir Abu Farha explained at length about her bitter experience at the kindergarten. She said she lacked the minimum needs of this group and addressed the main demands they made to the municipality a week ago during a sit-in organized in front of her headquarters.
One of the problems faced by children's parents, which was raised in a petition to the municipality of the occupation, which is the responsibility of: the lack of the building for security and safety procedures, and the lack of treatment rooms, and the lack of therapeutic games, and children not receive the sessions announced, , And the absence of monitoring the Ministry of Health to sterilize the games and clean the place.
| Mahmoud Abu Farha and his wife Ghadir with their autistic child Yusuf (Al Jazeera) |
The response was made by the Director of the Department of Arab Knowledge in the municipality Lara Mbarki to address some problems immediately, and postponement of others, which require more time and planning ahead, as she put it.
"There are annual budgets for each school, but it does not reach our children, and there is the existence of embezzlement, so we demand accountability of all those responsible," said Mahmoud Abu Farha, the mayor of Balahat who does not meet 20 percent of their demands. Because we will step up our protest steps to refrain from sending our children in the end if not bow to our demands, "he said.
| Khaled al-Junaidi and his wife Inas with their autistic child Tawfiq (al-Jazeera) |
Preference for Jews
In the midst of the angry talk about the state of autistic children in East Jerusalem, one of the mothers' tears burst through her expression of daily challenges that her husband and her child face. "The therapeutic nurseries for the Jews have all the comforts of the parents and the child, Psychological burden on them. "
The need for "rapid intervention" words heard by parents of neurologists when diagnosing their children, but they agree that the therapeutic kindergartens contributed to the decline in the state of their children, and the development of symptoms of autism in the absence of development and provide appropriate treatment for them.
The rights of autistic children under Israeli law are the same for Jews and Palestinians. These include financial allocations and a long free day of education and transportation. However, racial discrimination is manifested in the most extreme form in the therapeutic kindergartens, which have the most modern facilities and facilities west of Jerusalem, in contrast to dilapidated buildings For the children of autism in the east of the city, and do not get within them the minimum educational and therapeutic rights, according to parents.