"And honor the face of the elder": The battle of assisted living residents for the right to vote

Schlesinger speaks not only as an elderly woman, she speaks from an Israeli and Jewish life story full of pain. As the daughter of a family of Holocaust survivors, during the war her family hid with a priest in Poland and lived under a Christian identity.

"We went through very difficult experiences during that time," she says. "But they never took our dignity away from us. We lived as respected Christians. What my country is doing to me today is the most terrible thing that can be done to me."

Her pain is not directed only at one decision; from her point of view, the cancellation of the polling stations symbolizes a broader process of erasing elderly citizens from the public space.

"I grew up and was educated on respect for the elderly, it was one of the most basic things, and today it is simply erased from the lexicon. Where is our Judaism? Where is 'V'hadarta pnei zaken' (honor the face of the elder)? You are burying the face of the elder." She stops, struggling to continue, and then adds: "We participated in building the country. We lived here, we fought here. Why are we being thrown to the dogs when we are old?".

The words are harsh, but Schlesinger does not take them back. She wants to clarify that for her, denying the possibility of voting within the assisted living facility is not just a temporary difficulty, but a message from the state to its elderly citizens: your time has passed.

"Do you know what helplessness is? When a paper falls on the floor and I cannot pick it up, I need help. I manage with that. For pain I have pills, for diseases there are treatments. But for the loss of dignity I have no pill. This is the most painful disease I have."

Hundreds of polling stations for tens of thousands of residents

Representatives of the Assisted Living Residents Association claim that the solution is relatively simple: to place several hundred polling stations in assisted living facilities and nursing homes across the country, as was done in the past. According to them, there are more than 12,000 polling stations operating in Israel, while the number of polling stations required to provide a response to the 35,000 to 37,000 people living in these institutions stands at only a few hundred.

"There are more than 12,000 polling stations in the State of Israel," says Hagai Shefer, a resident and activist in the struggle. "So what is the problem with placing another 200 or 300 polling stations for tens of thousands of elderly people, a significant portion of whom cannot move on their own?". According to him, the decision to ignore such a large concentration of citizens who have difficulty with mobility is incomprehensible, neither from a practical nor from a value-based perspective.

"Instead of letting us vote comfortably in the place where we live, we have to be shaken, harmed, our dignity damaged, and we have to look for children and grandchildren to drive us - and then we will still have to sit in lines at regular polling stations. What for?". Hagai reminds that many of the residents are not people who have given up on participating in society, but citizens who took a central part in building it: "Most of the people who are with us in the assisted living facilities and nursing homes participated in the establishment of the state from the right and the left, fought in wars, worked and paid taxes. There are Holocaust survivors here, bereaved families, people who contributed all their lives. And suddenly the state tells them: 'Manage on your own'. This is a punch in the gut."

One of the arguments that particularly angers the residents is the referral to accessible polling stations outside the institutions. According to them, the term "accessible polling station" does not refer to the entire journey, but only to the end point: even when the polling station structure itself is wheelchair-accessible, the way to it is not necessarily accessible. The way includes leaving the room, going down to the lobby, getting into a vehicle, folding or lifting a walker, putting a wheelchair into the trunk, driving, finding parking, getting out of the vehicle, and ensuring there are no stairs, sharp slopes, or narrow passages on the way.

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Hagai adds that even help from within the community is limited. Residents who are still able to drive sometimes offer to drive their neighbors, but they too are elderly and are not necessarily able to lift walkers or assist a person with a significant physical disability. "A resident told me: 'I will volunteer and drive others'. I told her: 'That's great, but when a resident with a walker comes, will you have the strength to lift it and put it in the trunk, and then take it out and accompany her to the polling station?'. We want to help our friends, but we are also no longer the heroes we once were."

"People think that if it is written that the polling station is accessible, then the problem is solved," says Lea Schatz-Sofer, chair of the Assisted Living Residents Association. "The way to the polling station also needs to be accessible." According to her, in many places accessibility exists mainly in declarations: "On paper everything is accessible, and then you arrive and discover a step, a narrow entrance, a large distance from the vehicle, or something else that does not allow passing with a wheelchair."

Residents emphasize that people from all parts of the political spectrum live in assisted living facilities: right, left, ultra-Orthodox, religious, Arabs, and secular, and they claim that the attempt to present the polling stations in institutions as a sectoral or political matter does not correspond to reality. "We have people from all possible parties," says Schatz-Sofer. "We don't even know who votes for what and we don't deal with it. We have enough body and soul pains."

Schatz-Sofer, who was present at the Constitution Committee discussions in the Knesset, claims that the option to place polling stations in nursing homes and assisted living facilities was initially included in the version brought before the committee, but was later removed: "I saw the bill lying before the committee. There was a clause there about nursing homes and assisted living facilities of all kinds, and every time it was skipped. In the end, when it was time to vote, it was discussed quickly and removed from the law."

According to her, in the past the arrangement was operated as a temporary order, but the permanent and expanding nature of the assisted living population requires making it a permanent arrangement. "Assisted living facilities and nursing homes are not going to disappear - on the contrary, they are going to multiply," she says. "And therefore, the possibility of placing polling stations in them should be made a permanent order, not a temporary one."

She finds it difficult to understand why a proposal that received professional support was not ultimately promoted: "For all logical reasons it could have been done. If simple logic does not work here, people start asking what other considerations are behind the decision." The residents are careful not to determine that this is a deliberate political move, but some of them admit that they fear an attempt to reduce the voting rate of certain groups.

"There are too many groups here that are being made difficult to vote," says Schatz-Sofer, "and then a suspicion begins to arise that perhaps there is an unpleasant trend here. I hope I am wrong." One of the arguments given to them, they claim, is that it is not possible to provide a solution for every elderly or disabled citizen who lives in their own home, and therefore there is no justification for granting a unique solution to residents concentrated in nursing homes and assisted living facilities. Lea rejects this argument outright.

"True, there are thousands of elderly citizens who live in private apartments, one in this building and one in another - and we understand that it is impossible to place a polling station in every house," she says. "But here there are tens of thousands of people who live in clusters, and they can be helped. So in the name of equality they tell us: 'If it is impossible to help everyone, we will not help anyone'." According to her, this is a distorted interpretation of the principle of equality: "It is like saying: 'If I am hungry, you will also remain hungry. If it is hard for me, it will also be hard for you'. This is not equality."

From the residents' point of view, the concentration of the elderly population in one place creates an efficient opportunity for accessibility, as one polling station can provide a response to dozens and even hundreds of residents - and sometimes also to disabled residents from the surroundings.

"As long as there is a soul in our breath, we will go to vote," the residents cry out. Despite the anger, Schlesinger and her friends emphasize that they do not intend to give up their right. "We will use everything we have: the children will come, the grandchildren will come, we will help each other. But why trample our souls along the way?" wonders Schlesinger. "I am not stupid. I am an old woman, but I know what is happening. Do not spit in my face and tell me it is rain, I still know how to distinguish between the two. The right to choose is both a right and a duty, and instead of making it easier for those who want to fulfill it, they make it difficult."

She says that the association receives inquiries from residents across the country who want to know how they can organize on election day: "People are asking what will be. We are trying to think about transportation, about volunteers, about help between residents, but this responsibility should not have fallen on us."

Schlesinger concludes: "Even at age 90 there are pleasures. I still enjoy life, I love this country and it will be an honor for me to be buried in it - but do not bury me while I am alive. My parents fought all their lives for dignity, and they died at age 95 as dignified people. I cannot say that I will die with dignity, because my dignity is being taken from me even before death. A nation that does not respect its past is confused in the present. I received from my parents a better country than the one I am leaving behind, and it scares me."

Schlesinger, Schatz-Sofer, and their friends do not know if the petition to the Supreme Court, public pressure, or the appeal to the Central Elections Committee will bring about a change, and they also do not know how many of their friends will be able to reach the polling station if the decision remains in place. But their message to the state is sharp and clear: "Give us a polling station in the place where we live. Let us choose without being dependent, without standing humiliated in line, without feeling that we are a nuisance. Let us live our last years with dignity, that is all we ask."