burdened with prevents them from fulfilling even those tasks clearly defined within their job description. After people are made aware of their rights, they are more likely to claim them. From our experience as an organisation that operates rights centers assisting in exactly these areas, people who have succeeded in claiming what they deserve come back when they encounter further difficulties. Recommendation: Establishment of a government entity to be responsible for claiming benefits, to be entrusted with the distribution of information, providing access to the information and operating rights centers. •
Language barriers – When there is no one who speaks Spanish at a branch of the Ministry of Aliyah and Immigrant Absorption in Haifa, obviously the rights of a Spanish-speaking immigrant will not be realized, because s/he has no idea how to receive the relevant information. Many Amharic speakers are not aware of their rights for the same reason. G. is a woman who speaks only Spanish and is being assisted by a social worker who speaks only Hebrew. G. does not understand what her rights are and what she must do in order to claim them. When her son was taken from home for forced psychiatric care, G. did not understand what they were explaining to her in Hebrew, and turned to the rights center with the desperate cry: "They kidnapped my son." Clearly in such a situation, rights are not exercised. Recommendation: All government and public entities are to be obligated to provide translation services.
•
Legal barriers – "Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly." (Leviticus 19:15). A lack of access to justice systems primarily affects those who live in poverty. Often people are not aware of their right to pro bono assistance from the Ministry of Justice’s Legal Aid or from the Israel Bar Association’s Schar Mitzvah program, and not every legal issue is included in the service – notably negotiations prior to a lawsuit or debt consolidation. Even after the application, the lawyers are burdened with such an overload that a long time passes until the person is interviewed and until a lawyer is appointed. Even after a lawyer is appointed, the service is not always accessible. A. applied to Legal Aid to appoint her a lawyer. She sent the forms, and when time passed without her receiving an answer, we helped her call the legal aid support center to clarify the matter. There she was told that there were forms missing from the materials that she sent. We helped her send the missing forms, and we called to verify that they had arrived. Again a great deal of time passed and no answer was received. A. called Legal Aid again, and again she was told that documents were missing, the same documents that were sent previously and that we verified had arrived. The same thing happened again, until we inquired in writing to legal aid. This kind of conduct limits access to the service to many population groups.