The Israeli organization Lotem, which provides nature experiences for over 100,000 people with disabilities annually, faces an NIS 800,000 budget shortfall on its NIS 10 million annual budget, while Israeli banks contribute "very little." This financial precarity forces the organization to rely on foreign contributions, which are undermined by a low dollar-shekel exchange rate, and to solicit individuals and businesses to "adopt" activities, privatizing the responsibility for essential social services.
Lotem, established 35 years ago in 1991, organizes nature trips, workshops, and activity groups for individuals of all ages with physical, cognitive, emotional, and sensory disabilities. Director Amos Ziv stated that the organization promotes empowerment, life skills development, motor skills, and familiarization with nature, alongside education for tolerance. Ziv emphasized that experiencing nature is "a necessity, not a luxury," operating nationwide from offices in Yokne’am, Jerusalem, and Beersheba. During times of crisis, its teams expand to over 25 locations, including hotels and kibbutzim hosting evacuees.
Who Pays for Social Welfare
The organization's 60 workers include paid employees and volunteers, alongside young women fulfilling national service, a system that relies on unpaid labor to supplement underfunded social provisions. Jacob Milstein, a fifth-generation farmer, found work as a maintenance manager at Lotem's Emek Hashalom farm after seeking employment outside his family farm. Following a stroke that left him paralyzed, Milstein was offered his job back, eventually returning as an instructor. His experience highlights the precariousness of labor and the reliance on charitable organizations for employment and support in the absence of robust state-provided social safety nets for workers with disabilities.
Raz, a participant who was seriously injured in a road accident at eight years old and lived in a rehabilitation center for two years, joined Lotem for national service at 18. He later became a licensed guide, stating, "Nature does not judge you. You can be whoever you are and whatever you want. That is why Lotem is so important!" Such individual triumphs occur within a system that often fails to provide universal access and support.
The State's Role and Capital's Neglect
Einav Blum, Lotem’s deputy director-general for education, noted significant bureaucracy when working with state entities like the Nature and Park Authority and the Antiquities Authority. Blum also pointed out that some organizations claim budget constraints or are "just lazy" when it comes to meeting accessibility standards, revealing a systemic failure in public provision. The organization also operates an in-service training center for professionals from the government and the private sector, indicating that even state and corporate entities are not adequately equipped to integrate people with special needs without external, non-profit assistance.
Since Oct. 7, Lotem has experienced a dramatic increase in demand for its services due to heightened emotional distress, underscoring the human cost of conflict that disproportionately burdens charitable organizations while the state prioritizes other expenditures. The chairman of Lotem’s board, Sorin Hershko, a paratrooper severely wounded 50 years ago during the 1976 Operation Entebbe hostage rescue mission, connects the organization's leadership to the military apparatus, further illustrating the state's selective care for its "heroes" while broader social needs are left to private charity.
Lotem's "Integra-Teva" program, which brings together diverse groups including Jews and Arabs to learn ancient agricultural techniques, and its support for survivors of trauma, terrorism, soldiers with PTSD, children at risk, and women in battered women’s shelters, demonstrate the breadth of social needs that the current economic and political system fails to address. The organization’s reliance on Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund (KKL-JNF) for assistance in creating an accessible trail also points to the involvement of quasi-governmental entities in filling gaps that should be universally provided. The call for "organizations, businesses and individuals to 'adopt' a disabled child or an activity" further solidifies the privatization of collective responsibility, allowing capital to avoid its social obligations.