Mum & 6 young kids from Jaffa, no eviction (yet)
S is married with 6 young children, all students or in (pre) kindergarden. Her kids are good students; one of her girls is about to begin an academic program for gifted kids, while still in high school.
Yet all isn't rosy. S lost her social insurance payments for several months (yes, the usual burocratic flunks) and couldn't afford the rent as a result.
And once you stop receiving social security, you also stop receiving rent support....
The house owner evicted her and as she and her children had nowhere to go, she squatted a nearby 2 bedroom appartment belonging to a social housing company, now almost three months ago. The flat had been empty for a very long time and was in a terrible condition: no sinks, no kitchen, the bathroom barely functional.
It had become a hang-out place for local drug addicts.
S carried out the most necessary repairs and started living there.
Last week the police informed her she is baout to be evicted. In addition a criminal procedure was started against her, as squatting is a "crime" from a legal point of view.
S went to see her social worker who told her she could not help her and that S and her kids should leave the flat.
"If you have nowhere to go", so the social worker added, "the social services can take the kids away from you and place them in forster care." (which incidentally would cost a lot more than renting an appartment for the family).
S got very upset and said she "would never agree to this and does not intend to leave the flat, as she has nowhere to go. I might as well kill myself", she added. She said this in an angry tone and left.
A little while later she receive a call from the police, informing her the social worker had filed a complaint against her stating S had "threatened her".
S explained the situation to the police woman by phone and hopes that will be the end of the case.
She then went to the Popular Committee against Home Demolitions and received a court order that allows her to stay in the flat for the time being.
In spite of the order, the police and Halamish reps turned up this morning to evict her. People from the committee showed up to support her.
After S showed them the court order, they left. Shaken she and the kids are still in their home.
For the time being.
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3 comments:
A. Where is her husband?
B. Why doesn't she get a job? Even if she is unskilled, cleaners in private homes can earn 30 shekels an hour. And people are dying for Israeli cleaners, and not foreign illegals, they'll snap her up.
C. If she's worried because she's an Arab she won't get a job, a lot of the workers in our supermarket in North Tel Aviv are Arabs, some of them women working on the till. One of them wears a hijab, so that shouldn't be a problem either.
a in jail
b amusing how you immediately assume the only thing she can do is cleaning. Also, where does it say she is Arab? Aren't you a little Arab and woman hater?
Is that truly the only job woman can do, cleaning?
She happens to be well educated, but she is also the breast feeding mum of a young baby. And has five other kids.
She is waiting for a pre kinder garden program for her 3 year old daughter who's on a waiting list.
that makes it kind of difficult to work right now.
Perhaps you may have read it: this week it was published that 61% of Israeli employers do not want to employ mothers of young children....
Awful story, Yudit. I hope she'll find a livable place to be able to stay at with peace of mind soon. If not for her than at least for her children who's future are being formed by experiences from their youth.
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