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February 2009
News in this Month’s Newsletter:
Op-Ed: The Erosion of Democracy in Israel,
By Larry Garber – 9 February 2009 Jewish Telegraphic Agency
WASHINGTON (JTA) -- The big story likely to emerge from this week’s Israeli elections is the success of Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel is our home) party. Public opinion surveys predict that the party may win as many as 20 seats, making Yisrael Beiteinu the third largest party in the Knesset and a power broker in the formation of a new government coalition.
Yet Lieberman’s success and his potential presence in a new Israeli government should be a cause of concern for those who care about Israel’s democratic future and who worry about Israel’s growing international isolation.
Lieberman has never disguised his belief that Israel’s Arab citizens are a potential fifth column threatening Israel’s security and well-being. He advocates a policy of “transfer,” whereby areas of Israel that are heavily populated by Arabs would eventually become part of a Palestinian state. Those Arabs living within the transferred areas would have the choice of moving to other parts of Israel or automatically forfeiting their Israeli citizenship.
Proposing such a policy sends an explicit message to 20 percent of Israel’s citizens that they are unwanted in the country in which they work, live, pay taxes and attempt to find some path to equality in the designated Jewish homeland.
Even more pernicious is the party’s slogan -- “Without loyalty there is no citizenship.” This notion, reminiscent of America’s dark days of McCarthyism, patently defies a central value of democracy: namely that human and civil rights are not dependent on how a government classifies the nonviolent expression of opinions.
Lieberman’s formulation presents a recipe for the legal disenfranchisement of any Israeli, Jew or Arab, who fails to meet some government standard of “loyalty.”
Unfortunately, the increase in Lieberman’s popularity is not the only indicator of the rise of anti-democratic sentiment in Israel. The Israeli Central Election Commission’s attempt to disqualify two Arab parties from participating in the Feb. 10 election was supported by a large majority of political parties represented on the commission, even as they knew that such disqualifications flew in the face of prevailing High Court decisions. Thankfully the High Court reversed the commission decision, but not before Lieberman and his allies sought to provoke further divisions between Jews and Arabs in Israel.
The situation was already tense. The Gaza conflict, like the 2006 Lebanon War and the outbreak of the second intifada, had placed particular pressures on Israel’s Arab minority. Watching their kith and kin suffer in Gaza, not surprisingly, triggered emotional reactions among large segments of this population.
Still, their advocacy against Israeli government actions for the most part was conducted within the norms of democratic societies: They relied on rallies, ads, letters to government officials and petitions to the High Court to place their concerns before the Israeli public and officialdom.
Yet most Israeli media coverage, and Jewish media coverage outside Israel, focused on the violence initiated by a few people in a few communities and some repugnant expressions of anti-Semitism by a few Arab leaders.
On one level, despite continuing security challenges, Israel remains a vibrant democracy with a multi-party parliament, an independent judiciary, a free media and an active social change movement. However, the degree to which dissent is permitted when least popular is the most accurate barometer of the strength of a democracy. Thus, recent trends toward repression of dissent, demonizing of the indigenous minority, and out-and-out racism on the part of a significantly popular party are deeply disturbing.
Lieberman’s likely political ascension will transform the question of the quality of Israeli democracy from an exclusively domestic concern to a subject of discussion among Western democracies.
Israel has long promoted international isolation for governments that include parties with views abhorrent to democratic discourse, whether in Austria or Palestine. The international community will not fail to ask about the potential inclusion in an Israeli government of a party that is deemed by many to fall outside the acceptable political pale. Likewise, the organised Jewish communities outside Israel, who appropriately view Israeli elections as domestic matters, must now confront the question of whether to declare a leading Israeli political actor persona non grata for his grotesque political views.
The Lieberman phenomenon provides a major test to the Israeli body politic, international advocates of democratic norms and Jewish communities outside Israel. Ignoring his presence or treating his views as just extreme is no longer acceptable. In this vein, the clear voice of Israeli human rights organisations condemning Lieberman’s provocations against the country’s Arab minority deserves recognition and support.
Yet at the end of the day, the international community, and particularly the United States, must focus on the broader goal of facilitating a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Taking the principled stand of not dealing with a government that includes individuals whose views are distasteful will not serve our broader national interests. The foreign policy challenge requires engaging all relevant actors without legitimising their offensive perspectives.
(Larry Garber is the CEO of the New Israel Fund and is a leading expert on the right of political participation under international law.)
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New Hotline Provides Alternative Marriage Proposals
Lilia Itzkovich, who is a volunteer with NIF grantee Association for the Protection of Mixed Family Rights, was born to a Jewish father and Russian mother. “I am typical of hundreds of thousands who are not halachically Jewish but came to Israel because we feel part of the Jewish people.”
“In Russia I felt like a Jew, a foreigner,” she recalls. “At school they told me Lilia you are a good girl, it’s just a shame that you are a Jew. For Russian anti-Semites it made no difference if you were a Jew halachically. So we came to Israel and here I am told that Lilia you are a good woman, it’s a shame that you are a goy.”
A divorcee and single mother, Lilia is one of 300,000 immigrants from the former Soviet Union who are unable to marry in Israel and have that marriage recognised by the State. To ease their plight NIF and SHATIL this week launched a hotline to assist these immigrants who are not considered halachically Jewish because they do not have the documentation to prove that they are Jewish, or are only Jewish on their father’s side. With the Orthodox rabbinate having a monopoly on Jewish weddings in Israel, they are thus denied the right to marry in the country.
“The State of Israel prevents many couples from expressing their love in a formal way by not recognizing civil weddings as the basis of marriage,” explains Yuval Yavneh, Head of NIF’s Pluralism Pool who is Director of the Hotline. “There is a lack of information regarding the options available and this is where we come in and help.”
Activists from a range of NIF supported organisations undergo a final training session in how to manage calls to the hotline.
With assistance in Russian and Hebrew, the hotline provides information on the wide range of alternative wedding ceremonies available in Israel including Reform, Conservative, Secular Humanist and more. Many of these organisations are NIF grantees including Havaya, New Family and The Masorti (Conservative) Movement, which offer a range of custom-made wedding ceremonies.
However, the State does not recognise these ceremonies and couples are still required to travel abroad for a civil ceremony in order to be recognised as married for legal purposes. For this reason, the NIF family is still lobbying for legislative change that will allow ceremonies to be constructed by all streams of Judaism as well as civil marriage.
Rabbi Kobi Winner, a Secular Humanist rabbi, who recently attended a training session for the new hotline said. “Our ceremonies give the new couples a sense of Jewish legitimacy and the feeling that they are part of Jewish culture. These people don’t need to change their identity or undergo Orthodox conversion to feel part of the Jewish people.”
After answering phone calls on the hotline during its inaugural session on Sunday Itzkovich said, “I was busy answering questions the entire time. There was enormous interest in the alternative wedding options available.”
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Economic Empowerment for Women Wins Knesset Prize
NIF grantee Economic Empowerment for Women has been awarded the Knesset’s Prize for Quality of Life. The organisation raises the socio-economic status and self-esteem of women by enabling them to become economically independent by setting up their own business.
Established in Haifa in 1997, the organisation has given its “Your Business” courses to 2,800 women around the country, while 600 graduates have also received funding for their businesses from Economic Empowerment for Women.
“There are 1,100 new businesses operating today in Israel by women thanks to our organisation,” explained Limor Butnaru, the project coordinator. “Many of these businesswomen were previously dependent on welfare payments.”
Natalie Rubin (right) one of the founders of Economic Empowerment for Women and one of the graduates of "Your Business" course, holding the award in the Knesset.
Typically the businesses are in the arts and crafts, education, catering, hairdressing and manicure, and health and nature, while many of the women are single mothers and divorcees who were finding it difficult to support their families.
For example, Nirit Ofer undertook a “Your Business” course in Rishon Lezion several years ago. A single mother with three children, she was referred to Economic Empowerment for Women by the municipal welfare services because she was struggling to financially support her family.
“I now own the kindergarten where I previously worked as an assistant,” says Ofer proudly. “This is something I always wanted but I was scared to do. The course gave me so much confidence and so many ideas, and if I have questions I have somebody to turn to.”
Over the next few years Ofer plans increasing the number of children in the kindergarten from 15 to 23 and opening a day care centre for babies.
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IWN Pressures Prime Ministerial Candidates to Increase Gender Legislation
Two weeks ago, former New Israel Fund grantee Israel Women's Network (IWN) held a conference to present a report on the lack of gender-equality legislation in the outgoing Knesset. The conference participants included the three principle prime ministerial candidates – Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni (Kadima), Defense Minister Ehud Barak (Labour) and opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu (Likud).
"This report is our way of leading social change," said IWN Executive Director Nurit Tzur. "A vision of equality must be translated into action, legislation, the allocation of appropriate budgets and the appointment of women to public positions."
The IWN report showed that only 27 of the 223 laws initiated by private members or lobbying groups in the 17th Knesset addressed gender issues. "Considering the amount of gender discrimination in Israel," said IWN Spokesperson Yael Edelist, “this number is not nearly enough."
One of the election ads that Jerusalem buses refused to display because it contained images of women.
The three party leaders promised to improve the situation in the coming Knesset.
However, with the very real possibility that Israel will elect a woman prime minister for the first time since Golda Meir more than 35 years ago, much of the talk revolved around the de-legitimisation of Livni as a prime ministerial candidate because she is a woman.
Concern was voiced at the conference that, despite the recent success of NIF grantee Israel Religious Action Centre (IRAC) for Progressive Judaism (Reform) prior to last November's municipal elections ordering the Egged bus company in Jerusalem to display posters of women candidates, some extreme elements are defying the court by defacing posters of Livni.
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Israeli Government Approves Assistance for NGOs
Two weeks ago, the Israeli government approved a package of measures that will assist the country’s NGOs. In recent weeks, as a result of the economic crisis, New Israel Fund/SHATIL has positioned itself as one of the leading organisations fighting to minimise the damage to NGOs by reduced donations. Many of the measures now approved were submitted to the government in December as part of the NIF/SHATIL Emergency Plan.
Ra’anan Dinur, Director-General of the Prime Minister’s Office unveiled the assistance package, which will cost the government an estimated $1.5 million, and will be channelled through a newly established Centre for Nurturing Social Entrepreneurship.
To encourage small Israeli donors, the threshold for tax rebates has been lowered from $100 per year to $75, while salaried employees will also receive tax incentives for the first time. To encourage major philanthropists the ceiling for tax deductions will rise from $1 million to $1.875 million. Raising the salary tax exemption threshold from $21,250 to $40,000 per year will assist smaller NGOs, and there will also be tax breaks for NGOs employing volunteers.
In addition, a committee has been established to investigate ways of removing government bureaucracy for NGOs and enhancing coordination between government and NGOs.
Eran Klein, Project Manager at Shatil said, "The programme is much less than we expected and what is needed. The sector is in a dangerous situation and if it does not receive the necessary help, the entire country will pay the price."
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SPNI Report Sees Israel’s Open Spaces under Threat
As Israel and the Jewish people celebrate Tu B’Shvat, the New Year for Trees, The Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI) has issued a report revealing that 81 areas of open space are threatened by development projects. SPNI is supported by New Israel Fund through the Green Environment Fund (GEF).
According to the report, in 20 years time Israel will be the most crowded developed country in the world and Nir Papai, Head of Preservation for SPNI, said that the government was becoming more aware of the need to protect the dwindling number of open spaces.
“Three years ago, the Interior Ministry passed the National Outline Plan for Development until 2020,” said Papai, “which actually recognised the need to protect open spaces. However, the problem is that the other ministries, government agencies and local authorities actually plan developments which contravene the national plan."
SPNI’s chief planner Itamar Ben-David observed that, "There's a strong element of private wealth from special interests influencing the government to approve plans at the expense of the general public.”
SPNI says that the biggest threats to the 81 open spaces are 16 planned new villages and 15 transport projects. SPNI is attempting save these open spaces by lobbying for alternatives – different routes for the transport projects and the enlargement of existing cities rather than building new villages.
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New MRI Machines for Hospitals in Periphery
Israel's Ministry of Health has bowed to pressure from flagship New Israel Fund grantee Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) and Physicians for Human Rights and has agreed to allocate five MRI Imaging machines to hospitals in the north and south of the country.
At a meeting of the Knesset Labour and Welfare Committee in July 2008, the Health Ministry announced its intention of allocating five new MRI machines to hospitals in Israel. ACRI and Physicians for Human Rights demanded that these machines be given to hospitals in Israel's periphery, where health services are inferior to the centre of the country.
Last month the government issued a contract for the machines, which said "priority will be given to a hospital from the northern and southern district." The New Israel Fund family strives to reduce gaps in access to healthcare between the centre and the periphery of the country.
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Message From Ellen Goldberg, NIF Executive Director
I’ve recently returned to the UK from New Israel Fund’s international board meeting, held in Washington DC. Many of the discussions focused on how NIF and our family of grantees – in fact how the entire Third Sector in Israel – will be able to continue its work in advocacy, activism and service provision to Israeli society, in the current economic crisis. More than £1M was cut from the budget, including salary reductions throughout the organisation, minimising cuts from programmes and grants that are in demand more than ever, as needs have risen significantly. We all are working on ways to do more with fewer resources, so that more funds reach those who need them most in Israel.
Several recent changes were made in government policy to encourage philanthropy and support the vital role that social change organisations play within Israel as providers of service to the needy and as partners in improving public services. They were included in an Emergency Plan submitted by NIF and Shatil to the government, and we are proud that they were adopted and quickly implemented.
This is one more success story in New Israel Fund’s 30-year history of achievement in strengthening Israel’s democracy and advancing greater equality and social justice for all Israelis.
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