SHATIL and Israel’s new awakening 1st September

 

It's been a long time coming.

"The People! Demand! Social Justice!!" The rhythmic and heartfelt cry is now reverberating among hundreds of thousands of Israelis from all walks of life and in every media outlet. On Saturday night, August 6, 300,000 people participated in mass protests throughout the country – with continuing rallies and new tent encampments erected daily. The Israeli public is standing up for its rights and asserting its longing for a more just and equitable society – something that NIF and SHATIL, its training arm, have supported for more than two decades.

"It feels like a dream," one SHATIL staffer said, echoing the sentiments of many. SHATIL staff members are working in tent camps throughout the country, from Naharia in the north to Ashdod in the South: listening, giving advice, helping with message focus and facilitating training sessions designed to meet specific needs raised by the protesters. We are networking and helping to form partnerships between the emerging activists and those in Israel's social change movement who have long been working for affordable housing, health and education rights and for re-establishing the state's responsibility for the welfare of its citizens. We are involved in the process of bringing together representatives of all the tent encampments for joint decision making. After surveying protesters' needs, we made distributed contact information for campaign, fundraising, media and advocacy specialists from SHATIL and our social-change allies and grantees.

 

Based on discussions with dozens of protesters throughout the country, SHATIL staff quickly mobilized to produce a comprehensive and user-friendly guide on everything related to the struggle, from how to establish and run a tent camp, to handling media coverage and much more.

As has been widely observed, the massive protest was launched by young adults of the middle class. A focus of our activities has been to connect additional constituents to the current efforts – particularly in underserved immigrant communities. We are likewise invested in connecting protestors with thought-leaders to help shape a shared agenda. Other efforts include:

·     SHATIL staff visit four to five encampments daily, consulting, distributing information and transferring materials between different tent cities.

·       Helping mobilise Ethiopian Israelis and Russian-speaking immigrants. For example 150 Russian-speaking immigrants, many of them pensioners and first time demonstrators, held a rally at the Knesset, with Tzipi Livni, head of the Kadima Party, and other Knesset members

·      Scheduled long before the current protest broke out, an NIF-funded SHATIL conference on affordable housing was held in Ashdod. The mayor, Likud MK Miri Regev, and an array of relevant professionals participated.

SHATIL has long sowed the seeds of committed protest against Israel’s growing social and economic gaps. We at SHATIL will continue to assist, encourage and support the growing numbers of Israelis who are determined to shape a more just and equitable Israel.