Alex Fridman

Alex Fridman
Born	(1988-04-05) April 5, 1988 Pinsk, Belarus
Citizenship	Israel
Occupation	Screenwriter
Known for	The struggle to raise the disability pension in Israel
Notable work	Establishing the "Disabled, Not Half a Human Being" Association

Alex Fridman (Hebrew: אלכס פרידמן; born April 5, 1988) is a screenwriter, social activist, founder and chairman of "Disabled, Not Half a Human Being". For his activities to raise the Disability pension in Israel and to promote the rights of people with disabilities in Israel, Fridman was one of the people of the year 2016, as well as in 2017 and 2018.

Early life

Fridman was born and raised in Pinsk, Belarus. In 1990, at the age of two, he immigrated to Israel with his family. As a child, he had serious health problems, and in 1996 was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy which was SMA type 2. Over the years, it has led to the paralysis of almost his full body. In 2000, due to further deterioration in the medical situation, he was forced to leave the regular educational framework and began to take lessons in his home. In those years, when he was bedridden, he began to study screen writing. In 2011, after two successful works which were published, he was invited to work with the Israeli Viva channel and created the blogosphere The Final Trap. Thanks to his writing and social networking activities, Fridman became a well-known name in the field.

Social activity

In 2015, Fridman began a viral campaign under the slogan Disabled, Not Half a Human Being to raise the disability pension in Israel, one of the lowest in OECD countries. The campaign swept many people, including celebrities, and led Fridman to initiate a rally in Rabin Square with the participation of dozens of different artists.

In December 2015, MK Ilan Gilon proposed a bill for a disability pension at the Minimum Wage level, but the proposal fell to the point of a vote. Due to the disappointment, Fridman addressed the chairman of the Knesset, Yuli Edelstein and asked him to promote direct negotiations with the Israeli government. Edelstein accepted the request and mediated between Fridman and his team and Welfare Minister, Haim Katz, CEO of the Ministry of Finance, Shai Babad, CEO of the National Insurance Institute, Prof. Shlomo Mor-Yosef, and the Commissioner for Equal Rights for People with Disabilities, Achiya Kamara.

In April 2016, Fridman founded the Disabled, Not Half a Human Being association, which championed a nonpolitical struggle to equalize disability benefits to the Minimum Wage level, and to promote additional rights for people with disabilities in Israel, including accessibility, housing, nursing, proper medical treatment and integrating people with disabilities into society and employment.

In August 2016, following the negotiations with the Finance Ministry and the protracted struggle that he and various disabled groups conducted in the streets and social networks, the government decided to allocate 300 million ILS for the purpose of increasing disability allowances and amending the Laron Law. The move drew criticism among the disabled, who claimed that the discrimination discriminates between those with different degrees of disability and is not significant. Fridman welcomed the move, saying that this was an important move by the government, which indicated a change in its approach to the handicaps of the disabled, but expressed reservations about the decision to allocate significantly lower amounts than expected. As a protest, Fridman initiated the Millionaires' Parade, a protest march that took place inside the Azrieli Mall in Tel Aviv, and then blocked the nearby Menachem Begin Junction with other activists.

In addition to the information and communication activities on the subject of raising disability and disability benefits, the cooperation between Fridman and Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon and his team continued in order to promote the establishment of a professional committee to discuss the situation of the disabled in Israel. In December 2016, Fridman met with Prof. Yaron Zelekha and convinced him to volunteer for his organization and to help in the struggle with a professional economic advice. A month later, in January 2017, Fridman met with Kahlon, and suggested that Zelekha, who was familiar with the issue of allowances from his past position as the Accountant General, would submit conclusions on the subject.

After publishing the report of Zelekha Committee, which determined that 4.5 billion ILS should be assigned to recipients of disability pensions in three stages, the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided to shelve the commission's conclusions, and to establish another professional committee headed by the chairman of the National Economic Council, Avi Simhon, which would decide on the issue of raising Disability pensions. The Simhon Committee's conclusions would have been a negative reference to the government's struggle against the disabled, and they would have been condemned by Fridman and his organization. Responding to the condemnation initiated coalition chairman, David Bitan, a press conference to present the outline of a compromise agreed upon by all factions, including the MK Ilan Gilon. Two weeks later, this initiative was shelved, and Netanyahu announced that he intends to advance the initial recommendations of the Simhon Committee as soon as possible. The publication caused an immediate aggravation of the struggle for the disabled.

On August 2, 2017, Fridman and his organization together with other disabled people demonstrated outside the home of Bitan, claiming that he had not kept his promise. As part of the intensification of the protest, Fridman's organization decided to go to demonstrations of blocking roads throughout the country. In one of them, the demonstrators were prevented from demonstrating at a political conference organized by the prime minister in Ashdod, five protesters arrested, and police reported that demonstrators had taken violence against the police and threatened to set themselves on fire. On the other hand, the demonstrators claimed that the police used unreasonable force. Fridman expressed his condemnation of all violence, especially against the disabled demonstrators.

Meanwhile, Fridman is also struggling to raise disability allowances in the legal arena through a petition to the High Court of Justice against the Knesset and the government, which was submitted in cooperation with the Roof Organization of the disabled (which included some 30 organizations), and the retired judges of the District Court, Tzipora Baron and Bracha Ofir-Tom By attorney Yehuda Ressler. In response, the Knesset's legal department asked the court to reject the petition because "the disabled did not prove that it was impossible to live off their pension, which stands at 2342 ILS". The Knesset's response caused a public outcry and a series of condemnations by MKs, public figures and Fridman himself. On August 29, 2017, the government also responded to the petition and argued that the procedures for resolving the disability of the disabled were being promoted, and that the Supreme Court should not intervene. On June 18, 2018, the chief justice Esther Hayut cancelled the petition in the High Court. She adjudicated that the disability pension has already been raised by legislation, and the petition should be corrected due to this raise.

A film about Alex Fridman, displaying the headline: "100% Disability = 2,342 ILS in a month" upon Moshe Kahlon's face, 2018.

On September 5, 2017, the chairman of the Histadrut, Avi Nissenkorn, summoned Fridman and representatives of other disability organizations to a meeting, and announced that the Histadrut mobilized to the struggle. At the meeting attended also the heads of the factions and of the big unions, and declared their support in the outline of Professor Zelikha with a budget of 4 billion ILS. Fridman informed all the interviews that the struggle will continue until the start of direct negotiations with the government. Nissenkorn announced he was starting a campaign "will not abandon the disabled", support the struggle of people with disabilities, and that the issue should be solved in the coming month, otherwise the Histadrut would start sanctions. A day later, on September 28, 2017, Nissenkorn, MKs Ilan Gilon and David Bitan, Prof. Avi Simhon, Alex Fridman and several other Disabled representatives gathered for a marathon meeting that lasted more than 12 hours, and presented an outline, which was based on Zelekha's outline, with two significant changes: an addition of 150 million ILS to 50,000 disabled children and a linkage to the average wage in the economy. At the end of the meeting, a compromise agreement was reached within the framework of a budget of 4.2 billion ILS.

After months in which the government delayed the enactment of the agreement, Fridman announced on January 11, 2018, to renew the protest and left in the campaign billboards' abandoning the disabled – will not agree to half agreement. Further Fridman signed 34 leading social organizations upon a letter to Kahlon whose title was "Expect net actions", with a requirement to pass the law.

On February 12, 2018, the law passed second and third readings in a budgetary framework of 4.34 billion ILS and entered the law book in the State of Israel. At the end of March 2018, after many protests, the disability pension was raised from 2,342 to 3,272 ILS a month.

In June 2018, three students of "Ort Shapira" high school in Kfar Saba made a documentary film about Fridman as their matriculation work. The film was directed by May Moran, one of the three, and described Fridman childhood, diagnosing him when he was eight years old, and being paralysed when he reached twelve. Fridman learned individually a screenplay, and on January 13, 2015, he made the struggle of the Disabled people, after watching Shlomit Anzio in channel one. In the Knesset, Fridman said that he did not accept 3,700 ILS instead of 4,000 ILS, and aborted the session. The film was ended showing the vote in the Knesset in February 2018, while 84 MKs accepted the legislation, and made 3,272 ILS instead of 2,350 ILS. Moran was shown towards the end of the film, sitting alongside Fridman in a group photo.

On December 31, 2018, Fridman said that he would run to the Israeli Twenty-first Knesset.

Social initiatives

In addition to the struggle to raise the disability pension, Alex Fridman is involved in information activities among children and youth in lectures throughout the country. Together with Miri Or, she initiated the "Artists Create Artists" project, which promotes awareness of people with disabilities by artists with and without disabilities. The project was launched on March 19, 2017. In addition, Fridman was one of the founders of the Adif Consumer Club for People with Disabilities together with Bank Hapoalim, the credit card company Isracard and the Investment Fund "2B Community".

Awards

• Fridman was chosen as one of the people of the year in the social sphere of Yediot Aharonot (2016).

• One of the heroes of the year of Israel Today (2016).

• One of the influential in the economics magazine Liberal (2017).

• Man of the Year in the television program Paula and Leon (2017).

• One of the torchlighters of the Jerusalem Festival of people with Special Needs ("Tzamid") on the occasion of Israel's 70th Independence Day (2018).

• In September 2018, Calcalist chose Fridman among the hundred people who most influenced the world in 2018, stating: "Fridman stood out not only because of his sense of purpose, but because he made the most powerful media of the disabled people – his Facebook page, from which his organization has increased" (2018).

• In October 2018, Fridman was chosen as one of the most ten influential immigrants from the Soviet Union upon the Israeli society, by the newspaper Vesti (2018).

• On November 1, 2018, in a "Man of the Year 2018" ceremony, which was made by Channel Nine at Gesher Theater in Jaffa, Fridman, who was a candidate of the community benefit, won the prize (2018).

• On December 3, 2018, the United Nations' International Day of Persons with Disabilities, Fridman got a certificate of appreciation from Zvi Gov-Ari, the mayor of Yavne, his city (2018).

• On December 25, 2018, Shlomit Len from Globes chose Fridman as the man of the year (2018).

See also

• Disability in Israel

External links

• Alex Fridman on Facebook