Activism 3.0: Without leaving the comfort of an air-conditioned room or even missing a day of work, hundreds of Israeli activists succeeded in connecting a Palestinian village to running water

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”.

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.

Sponsored by the Association of Civil Rights (ACRI) in Israel, the Human Rights March will begin at 11am on Friday at Rabin Square and finish in the courtyard of the Tel Aviv Museum.  Thousands of participants are expected and more than 100 civil organizations including those dealing with human rights, worker rights, Ethiopian immigrants, women, refugees, the Arab minority, social justice, special needs, environmental issues and more are sending representatives.

At the end of the march, Sami Michael, the President of ACRI, will present an award to Ruth and Paul Keidar, among the founders of the human rights organization “Yesh Din”, and a posthumous award to Nir Katz, the counselor who was killed at the “Youth Bar”.  The award will be accepted by Nir’s family.

The march has developed an extensive internet following – thousands have joined the cause on Facebook, and the march’s blog www.noway.org.il has had broad exposure.

The ceremony itself will have simultaneous signing.

Hagai Elad, Director of Acri: “Over the last year, we are witness to two conflicting trends: on the one hand the dangerous deterioration to human rights being carried out by the government and its officials, and on the other the personal activism and voluntary civil organizing being carried out to protect the civil rights of us all; people are coming out to defend our democracy and human rights. These are our rights and our future. There is no way we can allow ourselves to fail. On December 11th we begin to change direction. We will not wait for the next elections. We will not continue to grumble in the privacy of our homes. We will no longer rely on “someone” to do “something”. We remind all those who perhaps have forgotten: We are here. And there is no way we will surrender our rights.”

Israel’s State Comptroller report from 2004 revealed that although every child is entitled to the national dental health basket, only 25% of school students in grades 1 to 9 receive state-sponsored dental checkups. The reason for this is that Health Ministry regulations stipulate that local authorities be the providers of dental treatment. As this decision is left in their hands, only affluent local authorities have take on this mission, while more than half (58%) do not provide any such services.

Bolstered by this victory, ACRI intends to continue our struggle to ensure equal access to healthcare for all members of Israeli society.

Respect for human rights enables different people to live together, serves as the basis for a healthy and stable democracy, and is the key for realizing the freedoms, dignity, and equality to which all people are inherently entitled. In Israel, a country embroiled in ongoing conflict, composed of many diverse groups, and lacking a written constitution, the struggle to ensure human rights for all presents significant and ever changing challenges.

Since its establishment in 1972, the mandate of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) has been to protect and promote human rights and civil liberties, wherever they are violated by Israel or on its behalf. To this end, ACRI conducts legal, educational, and public programs including precedent-setting litigation, a public hotline, innovative educational workshops, advocacy, high-profile media and internet campaigns, and much more.

ACRI is the only organization that deals with the entire spectrum of human rights issues in Israel and the occupied territories. Thanks to our groundbreaking achievements we have earned a reputation as Israel’s leading human rights and social change organization. With your help, we will continue to lead the struggle for a just and democratic society that respects the human rights of all persons.