JERUSALEM - July 20, 2010 - The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) and Bimkom – Planners for Planning Rights launched the blog “Action-a-Day” in order to connect the Palestinian village of Twaneh, located in the South Hebron Hills under full Israeli control, to running water. For two-and-half months, we encouraged activists volunteering for the projects to participate in one action a day via our blog and Facebook, each action taking only a few minutes. For each action, a new objective was chosen. The activists worked in complete coordination despite the fact that most of them had never met one another or the residents of Twaneh.

Last week, ACRI received a letter  from the Civil Administration, announcing the decision to connect Twaneh to running water.

Among the campaign actions, activists “bombarded” Knesset Members Haim Oron and Dov Khenin with letters, who accordingly sent a query to Defense Ministry; to Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilna’i, who investigated the matter; to and Communications Minister Moshe Kahlon, who also promised to check into the situation. The activists advised Deputy Foreign Minister Dani Ayalon to connect the village to running water for the sake of Israel’s international image.

In addition to the letters, activists were invited to take part in a number of innovative projects: they took pictures of their faucets at home as a sign of solidarity with the residents of the village, produced a short, satirical film in which Israeli youth “thanked”  the residents of the village for “giving up” water for them, created a Wikipedia entry on Twaneh as well as a computer game, both attempting to convey the tangible ramifications of the lack of building and planning infrastructure in the village.

The major turnaround came following our appeal to the Civil Administration. After Brigadier Yoav Mordechai, head of the Civil Administration, received a barrage of appeals from Action-a-Day activists, he personally contacted two of them, thanked them for their letters, and informed them of his intention to convene a special meeting to discuss the village’s access to water. Subsequently, ACRI received the welcome news.

“We are excited and happy about the Civil Administration’s decision to connect the village to running water after thirty years,” stated the activists. “However, it is important to remember that this is only part of a larger problem. In normal circumstances, running water and shelter constitute a basic matter, not a reason to launch an entire campaign. The important lesson here is that complaining about the situation does not suffice. We can change things through concrete action. We must engage through civic activism – and someone is listening.”

“Israel is responsible for about 150,000 Palestinian residents of Area C, many of them living in villages which are unrecognized by Israel and therefore lacking official plans, explained Alon Cohen-Lifshitz, architect at Bimkom. ”As a result, many residents are not allowed to build houses legally, making it difficult to provide entire villages with basic infrastructure connections to water and electricity”, he said.

“We decided that if we were not able to change things on a large scale, we would start small”, explained Ehud Uziel, a coordinator of ACRI’s public activities. “The challenge we set for ourselves was to provide the village of Twaneh with access to running water. Residents of the village use water which they buy in shipping containers and for which they pay seven times more than the average Israeli. Two hundred meters from the village a pipe from the Israeli water company “Mekorot” provides clean water to the settlements of Maon and Carmel and to the adjacent outpost of Chavat Maon.”

“We weren’t sure if we would succeed,” continued Uziel. “We told ourselves that even if it doesn’t happen, the project itself will raise awareness about the issues of water shortage and housing rights of the Palestinians who live under Israeli control in Area C. The ‘Action- a -Day’ Campaign offers a new kind of activism, for those who care and want to bring about change”.

Click here to view the embedded video.

In the last several years there has been a growing trend to separate boys and girls in religious elementary schools; sometimes as early as kindergarten.  This trend is another expression of religious Zionist education’s break with the modern world.  Gender segregation is becoming more and more common in religious educational settings; the process is currently occurring in many youth groups and is already complete in settings such as high schools, colleges, etc.

This segregation has educational, psychological and social implications which will be discussed during the conference.  Segregation is seen as a means of forcing conservative and modern orthodox families out of the religious education system.  Those in favor of segregation will point to the many studies showing its benefits, however, most of the studies relate only to older children and one cannot compare what is happening with second graders or pre-schoolers to tenth graders.  Nor do trends in other developed countries reflect the need or desire for gender segregation from such a young age.

In addition, the evening will look at how Jewish religious law views the need for gender segregation in education.

The conference in Hebrew will be held in Givat Shmuel

For more information: http://toravoda.org.il/he/node/2509

On Monday June 14, five Israeli NGOs published a unique position paper entitled “Working Today to Narrow the Gaps of Tomorrow”. The paper details the serious gaps in the health of various communities in Israeli society: between Arabs and Jews; between Ethiopian immigrants and the general population; between income support recipients, and others. The organizations found that the Arab and Ethiopian communities as well as recipients of income assistance suffer from various ailments to a much greater degree than the rest of the population.

The paper outlines the principles of a social policy designed to reduce the gaps in health status and in health services. In it, the organizations call on the Prime Minister to initiate a multi-dimensional national program to reduce health gaps. The organizations also propose quantitative goals and steps to realize the plan.

On June 14, participating organizations held a press conference in Tel Aviv to launch the paper. Photos of the press conference are available for free use on ACRI’s site (click on the links).

Barbara Swirski, Director of the Adva Center: “Israel must join developed states in working to reduce health disparities. Despite efforts by the Health Ministry and health funds to this end, Israel’s health policy does not include concrete steps to reduce the gaps. Israel must channel the information provided toward the formulation of a national health plan to reduce health gaps.”

Dr. Nadav Davidovitz, Chair of the Center for the Study of Health Policy in the Negev at Ben-Gurion University: “In contrast to the accepted perception, health services are not the most influential factor in people’s health; rather the most important factors are the environment and human behavior. As such, the Health Ministry must lead the process of reducing health disparities in cooperation with other ministries and authorities.”

Fekadu Gadamo, Executive Director of Tene-Briut for the Promotion of the health of Ethiopian Israelis, detailed the difficulties facing various minority populations and communities within Israel in terms of language and the lack of culturally appropriate health services. Tene-Briut attempts to reduce the discrepancies through translation services and by adapting services to the needs of Ethiopian Israelis. “The Health Ministry must adopt these programs,” Gadamo said.

Mohammed Khatib, Director of the Health Rights Center at the Galilee Society, detailed the connection between environment and economy, and health. “Arab citizens, most of whom reside in Israel’s geographic periphery, suffer from the inequality in health services, availability of medical equipment, and infrastructure,” he said. “A national program to reduce health disparities must include cultural adaptation to various communities as well as the provision of pre-conditions to good health.”

Read the full report in English online.

On Monday June 7^th, 2010, Ms. Lena Gurary, Supportive Community’s

The Bernice S. Tannenbaum Prize recognizes innovative contributions to advance the status of women and girls in Israel and the United States. It is named in honor of Bernice S. Tannenbaum’s lifetime of service to the Jewish People, the State of Israel, and Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America. The Prize carries forward the mission of The Hadassah Foundation to make a difference in the lives of women and girls. The issues women and girls face often are relegated to the margins. The Hadassah Foundation is dedicated to bringing these issues to the center of Jewish concern by forming partnerships with and providing support for other social change organizations and individuals who share our goals.

Born in Uzbekistan, the former Soviet Union, Lena Gurary immigrated to Israel in 1992, the first member of her family to do so.  In 2003 Lena and three business women from the former Soviet Union initiated Supportive Community Women’s Development Center, and the following year Lena was named Executive Director.

Supportive Community: Women’s Development Center [Sviva Tomehet in Hebrew] started operating in the Herzliya area by giving services to a few dozen women who were new immigrants from the former Soviet Union.  Today, a staff of 7 professionals and more than 20 counselors and moderators serves thousands of women across Israel — new immigrants from the FSU and Ethiopia, native born Israelis (Jews and Arabs) from low income neighborhoods, women from agricultural settlements, Orthodox Jewish women, and multicultural groups.

These three organizations are working together for the sake of the encouraging business and community female leadership.

In the last two years, due to the global economic recession, many non-profit organizations have added profit making and business achievements to their agenda and have created collaborations with business organizations. Alongside those collaborations, we have also seen business organizations adding social, political and ecological issues to their agenda.

Together, businesses and non-profit organizations are opening “coffee shops” with the goal of coexistence and mutual learning which comes from an equal place. These “coffee shops” provide • income to families • allow business organizations to incorporate workers with disabilities • empower womens’ micro-businesses coming from different ethnicities and colors and creates cooperation which indicates a financial need and provides solutions to multicultural communities.

These instances demonstrate that economics motivates social change and connects between men and women coming from diverse background.

Speakers at the conference include:

Safa Younes, Founder and CEO of Arus al-Bahar

sviva_invitationProf. Benny Gidron, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

Alisa Gutsman, Social investments Advisor

Panel participants include:

Esti Doron, National Supervisor of Community Work Service, Ministry of Social Affairs

Efrat Bekler-Kahana, CEO of Yoseftan Institute

Hagit Rubinstein, Manager of Micro-Businesses Area, Koret Foundation

Lena Gurary, Founder and CEO of Supportive Community

For more information regarding the conference contact:

office@svivatomehet.org.il

Ramit was married in 1993, after she and her future husband became religiously observant. The couple lived in a Charedi neighborhood.   Her husband’s violent behavior began soon after their marriage. After 12 years of continuous suffering, Ramit and her daughter were compelled to leave their home , and Ramit filed for divorce. As often happens, despite the fact that Ramit and her husband jointly purchased their apartment , the title to the apartment was in his name. He took advantage of the situation and claimed full ownership of the apartment. To make matters worse, the Beit Din demanded that Ramit should give up the apartment in exchange for a get and pressured her to transfer jurisdiction over the apartment’s ownership from the civil courts to the bet din. Ramit refused.

In all hearings relating to the apartment Ramit was represented, in both the rabbinical and the family court, by Gittit Nachliel, Mavoi Satum’s lawyer. Without giving up on her share of the apartment, the rabbinical court recommended that the husband give Ramit a get, though they did not compel him to do so.

In addition, through The Center for Women’s Justice, Ramit submitted a damages claim for divorce refusal. This move caused the judges in the rabbinical court to decree that until Ramit retracted her damages claim they would not arrange for her to receive a get. Luckily, the civil court ratified that Ramit was entitled to half of the apartment and to compensation from her husband for refusing her divorce. When her husband saw that he was fighting a losing battle and was going to lose on all counts, he agreed to give her a get. With our help, the two sides were able to arrive at a fair divorce agreement. As of today Ramit is a free woman.

To date Israel has not had a general immigration law. The Law of Return relates only to people who are Jewish, or are of Jewish descent, and leaves the question of immigration of non-Jews as a lacuna, which is covered by a plethora of sometimes conflicting administrative and judicial decisions. This leads both to confusion, bureaucratic arbitrariness as well as infringements of human rights.  The current state of affairs is detrimental to Israel’s vital interests, a situation which is intolerable for Israel as a state and as a nation. Israel needs an immigration policy. In this Position Paper, the authors, for the first time in Israel, propose a strategy for thought and action ahead of the formulation of an immigration policy that promotes Israel’s interests as a Jewish and democratic state.

Metzilah’s publications – mostly position papers – serve to explore the legitimacy and implications of Jewish national self-determination in the State of Israel, as well as of Jewish self-fulfillment around the world. Moreover our publications seek to shed light onto the compatibility of Zionism and Judaism with Human Rights and Liberalism in the context of a Jewish and democratic State of Israel.  The goal is to create a platform for ideological clarification of the presuppositions and validity of Zionism as well for informed public discourse and decision-making.

The papers are meant to serve as a basis of support for decision makers by framing complex issues and providing policy recommendations that will ensure a Jewish and democratic State of Israel, as well as the welfare of the Jewish people. They also seek to deepen the public discourse and sharpen its understanding on issues that are on the State of Israel’s agenda.

The combination of these two rationales contributes to consolidating a consensus among the public and decision makers, which calls for action on these issues.

Three years ago, Green Course formed a coalition of advocates, residents, the local municipality, the ISPNI and others, determined to restore Ein Zahav to its former glory. Thanks to the leadership of Green Course and the hard work of all those involved, the Water Authority has agreed to stop pumping mineral water and to give Ein Zahav back to the residents of Kiryat Shmona.

LOTEM, Integrated Nature Studies is a not-for-profit organization which offers educational activities in nature to people with special needs. LOTEM’s target population includes children and adults who are visually and hearing impaired, physically and intellectually challenged, and emotionally disturbed. It also includes women and children in danger of physical and emotional abuse.

Ruach Tova, or the Good Spirit Organization, was responsible for sending the volunteers to the farm as part of an initiative called Good Deeds Day. During the day, 70,000 participants took part in 1,000 different projects throughout the country. The 18 people working at LOTEM’s ecological farm consisted of a group of 9 special needs teenagers, 6 volunteers from QualiTest and 3 volunteers from Marvell Semiconductor Israel Ltd., which is located in Yokneam. In addition to its volunteer work, Marvell has been funding programs at LOTEM for the past three years.

Remaining in good spirits throughout the day, the volunteers planted flowers, painted buildings and helped to clean out hidden corners of the farm. All the necessary equipment was generously donated by Ruach Tova.

This was truly a day of special deeds – carried out by 18 very special people – for the benefit of thousands of children and adults with special needs.

Our thanks to all those who helped to make this day possible.