The expanded course on the Negev includes elements such as the relationship between the center and the periphery, employment and lack of employment opportunities, culture, sectarianism, Bedouins, education, development of the Negev, environment, the new army training city and more.

As the activists who initiated the course have a background in education and social change, the clearly stated goal of the course is to provide knowledge and to examine critically what is going on in the Negev, so that participants will be encouraged to get involve and to take the initiative.  Many of the lecturers, aside from being volunteers are also Negev residents and the organizers believe that interesting relationships and partnerships for change will be developed as the course progresses.

The second course deals with urban issues in Tel Aviv.  The course takes a critical look at issues facing Tel Aviv and the surrounding metropolitan area.  By examining decisions that Tel Aviv has faced in the past as well as possible solutions to current issues, the course hope to give participants an understanding of the complexity involved in urban issues such as transportation; is a subway or light rail feasible, will it solve parking problems, etc.  Other issues to be addressed include green space, involving the public in decision making, and what makes Tel Aviv so special and can other cities learn from the Tel Aviv experience.

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In Israel today there is a lack of critical and coherent public social economic discourse. Such discourse scarcely exists in academia and is unattainable beyond academia to the public at large. This lack of discourse has created a social-economic policy in Israel which we believe has led over the past 20 years to a growing rate of poverty. Working people in Israel living under the poverty line rose from 21% in 1989 to 34.5% in 2005.

The Social Economic Academy (SEA) is the only organization that offers a popular platform for such discourse. Our activities expand the knowledge to the public at large and social activists in particular. SEA offers people both the theory and critical tools needed to promote economic alternatives, as well as creating an opportunity for these people to engage in dialogue and to encounter different members of Israeli society. Furthermore, SEA encourages its students to become involved in actions that will lead to changes in social-economic policy.

Over the last 5 years since its inception, SEA has directly reached more than 15,000 people of all ages, from all ethnicities and from all walks of life through our activities all over Israel. In addition, SEA reaches hundreds of thousands of people annually through it s lectures and articles that are published weekly on popular internet sites; daily radio columns that address issues at critical junctures, as well as other media related activities. More than 1000 entries to SEA’s web-site are counted daily.

SEA holds activities in four branches across Israel: Beer Sheva, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa. In addition SEA holds classes in different locations in the periphery such as the Arab Village of Arara (2006), the Bedouin city Rahat, the city of Sderot, the city of Beit-Shemesh, Kibutz Mishmar Haemek, Acre and many more. All of the teachers (now more then 470) donate their time, and the symbolic tuition is used to cover rental expenses of the classrooms. SEA had been creating a network of cooperation with different organizations – some (sixteen) provide facilities, some (ten) assist in networking and publication and some (twelve) offer support to deal with shared concerns.

Our activities focus around three areas:
1. Knowledge – we offer short and full semester series of courses providing theoretical information and practical tools.

2. Agents of Change – we offer courses to activists in organizations for social change such as Community Advocacy, Ahoti, the Scout Youth Movement, Hashomer Hatza’ir, Hanoar Ha’Oved, the Ma’ase Center, and the Training School for Social Services’ Workers.

3. Public Debate – the Social Economic Academy uses different public platform to spread its message: major internet media outlets such as YNet and Walla, critical economic public debates in different political cross points, A Movie and Lecture series in major cities’ Cinematheque.

The current transportation policy favors private cars over public transportation. MK Pines Paz, who attended the event, noted that the public expects that the Mayor and Minister of Transportation will advance efficient public transportation. MK Dov Henin, who also attended, remarked that it not possible that Tel Aviv will wait another 30 years for appropriate public transportation. “The time has come that Tel Aviv align itself with the transportation ideas that have proven themselves in similar cities in the world,” say Henin.

Yael Sril Mohliver, Green Course campaigner for public transport, “The large number of people who turned out today highlights that the public expects appropriate public transportation. The 9% raise in public transportation costs, as part of the national budget, proves that the decision makers are disconnected from the public and forget that public transportation is a basic right…”

Green Course is demanding:
* Planning and budgeting priority be given to public transportation at the cost of reducing the infrastructure for private vehicles.
* Immediate and significant improvement in public transportation in the Tel Aviv metropolitan area
* Implementation of the bus line reorganization plan for the Tel Aviv metropolitan area
* Creation of a metropolitan authority for transportation in the Tel Aviv metropolitan area
* Planning and enforcement of public transportation lanes
* Establishment of bike lanes which are contiguous
* Freezing of plans for additional parking lots and interchanges in Tel Aviv