March - April Newsletter
Critical Currents: The Other in our Midst
By Naomi Chazan
Jerusalem Post, 3rd April 2008
The single most important issue on Israel's agenda in its 60th year is the deteriorating relationship between its Jewish and Arab citizens. An atmosphere of acrimony, suspicion and unconscionable intolerance is being fueled daily by political forces bent on stripping 20% of the country's citizens of their basic rights - destroying not only our democracy but also our humanity in the process.
No challenge is more pressing or more fundamental than to come together to unite in thwarting this internal assault on the essence of Israel's being.
The leaders of the organized campaign against the Arab community are in ongoing contravention of the letter and spirit of the Declaration of Independence. In 1948, the leaders of the new state promised that "...it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture." Israelis of all walks of life cannot permit diehard zealots, for whatever reason, to defy this charge; if they do, they will be defiling their own heritage and squandering their destiny.
ISRAELI ARABS, Palestinian by identity and Israeli by citizenship, are tested at every turn. Over the years they have been subjected to systematic discrimination: Their cultural affinity has been belittled, their local authorities underfunded, their development prospects curtailed, their employment opportunities circumscribed and their collective and individual legitimacy consistently questioned. Recently, as an educated generation of Palestinian-Israelis has attempted to assert their national affinities and to demand full and equal rights as citizens, they have been subjected to relentless attacks both as individuals and as a group.
The easiest targets have been their elected representatives in the Knesset. They are the butt of constant verbal abuse - nary a session passes in which they are not referred to as "traitors," "fifth columnists," "enemies of the state." Their probity is questioned, their loyalty is doubted and their status is undermined. Any vigorous opposition to policies in the occupied territories is pounced on as evidence of subversion; any misstep is seen as proof of betrayal. They are reminded repeatedly that their very presence in the legislature is an act of undue generosity that can be revoked at any moment - as if equal representation for all citizens is not an unassailable right, but a gift that can be withdrawn at will.
Members of the National Union, the National Religious Party, Israel Beiteinu and their individual allies in other parties - hyperactive in their legislative initiatives to limit Arab representation - seem to have forgotten that Israel's founders were explicit on this point. In 1948 they pledged that the Arabs in Israel will participate "...on the basis of full and equal citizenship and due representation in all its provisional and permanent institutions."
Yet the Knesset itself, as the country's sovereign body, has done little to protect its own minority members from racist slurs. Knesset member Effi Eitam tells them with impunity that "there will come a day when we will expel you from this house and also from the national home of the Jewish people." Avigdor Lieberman taunts them with abandon ("you are temporary here") and devises plans for a wholesale transfer of Arab citizens. He is not even reprimanded.
This laxity in government circles inevitably gives license to the use of racist language and the proliferation of similar sentiments in society at large. Jewish youth are exhibiting increasingly exclusionary tendencies, the media is replete with anti-Arab diatribes, daily humiliations abound, hate crimes have increased and assaults on Arab population centers go unanswered (vide the Purim campaign of the National Union in mixed cities, organized "to keep the country Jewish").
Freedom of speech, however, does have its limits - it becomes incitement when it is aimed at a particular individual or group, suggests specific action and is reiterated constantly. Condoning these expressions may unleash a witch-hunt of uncontrollable proportions.
The anti-Arab climate prevalent today, rooted in a combustible mixture of paranoia and nationalist fervor, threatens to transform Israel into precisely the kind of society it was designed to prevent. All the diversity of Palestinian-Israelis notwithstanding (four political parties in the Knesset, rifts between secular and religious, nationalists and pragmatists, Marxists and capitalists, rural dwellers and urban residents), they are lumped together indiscriminately and attacked collectively.
Mercifully, these latest manifestations of gross prejudice have been met with a growing awareness of the Jewish obligation to correct the results of decades of discrimination and unequal treatment. Formal policies, coupled with massive civil society efforts (mostly funded by world Jewry), are now being devised to bring about substantive improvements in everything from education, infrastructure, housing, employment and health, to cultural freedoms, collective rights and the entrenchment of fundamental norms of human dignity and respect for the other. But these efforts, however sincere, will yield little if not accompanied by an equally vigorous clampdown on the purveyors of hatred and intolerance.
Herein lies Israel's most profound challenge. It must meet the ultimate test of any true democracy: the ability to safeguard the full civil rights of all its minorities. And it must stand up to its Jewish brief: to ensure that none of its citizens is treated in a way that was unacceptable to Jews in the past and would never be countenanced by Jews today.
Recognition of difference, respect for the dignity of the other and full equality for all citizens are the reasons for Israel's existence, and the keys to its survival.
Marriage is Not a Life Sentence
Dozens of Israelis March to the Knesset to Demand Justice for Women Refused a Divorce by the Rabbinical Courts
Havatzelet Tabib-Tzada, a 45 year-old mother of three from Beer Sheva, was both pleased and pained to discover that she is not alone after reading in the newspaper last week that New Israel Fund grantee International Coalition for Agunah Rights (ICAR) was planning a protest outside the Offices of the Chief Rabbinate in Jerusalem on behalf of the thousands of Israeli women unable to obtain a get (religious divorce).
A young protestor makes her point
at the ICAR demonstration in Jerusalem.
“We all have a lot of pain and anger,” said Tabib-Tzada. “But it is also encouraging to know that so many organisations exist to help. I was about to give up my battle with the rabbinical courts but now I can fight on.”
Dozens of demonstrators gathered in Jerusalem on the eve of International Agunah Day (Fast of Esther). The protest was organised by ICAR, which was set up and is supported by the New Israel Fund and SHATIL and encompasses 27 social change organisations working to promote solutions to this problem.
No longer alone, Havatzelet Tabib-Tzada (above)
marches to the Knesset.
Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, the Chief Rabbi of Efrat in the West Bank and one of Israel's best-known Orthodox rabbis, addressed the demonstrators. “The problem is not halacha,” he insisted. “Halacha allows a woman to be released from an unhappy marriage. Marriage is not a prison. The problem is the interpretation of halacha by the rabbinical courts. This interpretation shames the Jewish people.”
With SHATIL's guidance and networking, ICAR has created an educational package that is being sent to Jewish learning groups throughout the country. The kit contains traditional Jewish sources that present halachic solutions to the get refusal issue, delineating the abilities and responsibilities of the rabbinical courts to free chained women.
The demonstration attracted major media interest as Rena Rosenblum (above) is interviewed by a radio correspondent.
Robyn Shames, Executive Director of ICAR said, “The rabbinical courts in Israel tell us there are 360 agunot. But that’s ridiculous. We know about thousands of agunot and I’m sure there are thousands more we don’t know about. The rabbinical courts want to pretend there is no problem, but there is and we won’t rest until the problem is solved.”
New Initiatives Combat Sexual Crimes in Wake of Katsav Affair
Veteran New Israel Fund grantee Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel (ARCCI) is assisting one of Israel's leading trade unions in introducing a new programme to combat sexual harassment in the workplace.
ARCCI Spokesperson Einat Rubin told NIF News that the National Workers Histadrut recently approached her organisation and asked for advice in setting up a programme to fight against sexual harassment including legal support for victims.
"Following the publicity surrounding the President Katsav affair we see increased interest in combating sexual harassment and assault," she said. "As the country's main organisation fighting sexual crimes, we are being asked to provide more workshops on the subject by public and private companies as well as educational institutions, trade unions and the kibbutz movement."
Israeli Government Deepens Cooperation with Philanthropic Organisations like New Israel Fund
Prof. Benjamin Gidron says NIF has played a significant role in developing Israel's third sector.
The Israeli government has recognised the vital role that non-profit organisations play in Israeli society and has adopted a number of measures to formalise its relationship with philanthropic endeavours and enhance cooperation.
“The new policy signals a profound turning point in government thinking about non-profit organisations,” explained Raanan Dinur, Director-General of the Prime Minister’s Office. “
According to Prof. Benjamin Gidron, Director of the Israeli Center for Third Sector Research and School of Management at Ben Gurion University of the Negev, the Israeli government recognises the important contribution that non-profit organisations make to Israeli society and understands the need for dialogue and cooperation.
“There are more than 25,000 non-profit organisations operating in Israel,” he explains, “which are responsible for 13.5% of the economic activity in Israel and these numbers are increasing all the time, so it is difficult for the government to ignore the third sector.”
Prof. Gidron who serves on New Israel Fund’s International Council and SHATIL’S Advisory Committee says that most of Israel’s non-profit organisations provide services, while hundreds are social change organisations. “In developing the social change model which fights for improved rights through court petitions and lobbying for new legislation New Israel Fund played a significant pioneering role.”
Over 20 years ago there were only 2,500 active organisations in this sector, most related to political parties and public institutions. New Israel Fund has helped create a strong social movement which has consolidated the status of Israel's civil sector.
Rest in Peace in the Holy City: Jerusalem Municipality Agrees to Set Up Pluralistic Cemetery
The Jerusalem Municipality's Planning and Building Committee last week approved the establishment of the city's first-ever non-Orthodox Jewish cemetery.
The new cemetery will be run by veteran New Israel Fund grantee Association for Eternal Rest – Menucha Nechona, and will be within a 350 hectares section of a new extension of the Har Hamenuhot Cemetery in Givat Shaul.
Photo from Israel's first-ever funeral in 1999 in Israel's first-ever non-Orthodox Jewish cemetery in Beer Sheva
For many years the Association for Eternal Rest has campaigned successfully for pluralistic burial options throughout Israel. The absence of non-Orthodox Jewish cemeteries in Israeli cities means that married couples of whom one partner is non-Jewish must be buried apart, while Conservative and Reform Jews cannot conduct funerals according to their rites.
The decision by the Jerusalem Municipality follows a Supreme Court order of a decade ago to the Israeli government to provide pluralistic options, and many meetings with Miryam Kunda, General Director of the Association for Eternal Rest. Thanks to the efforts of the Association, which is funded solely by New Israel Fund, non-Orthodox cemeteries are already operating in Beer Sheva and Haifa and are in the process of being established in Kfar Saba and Petach Tikvah.
Following the decision in Jerusalem, the city's ultra-Orthodox mayor Uri Lupolianski said. "Jerusalem is a pluralistic city that has a duty to allow people to choose their way of life and their burial, with no coercion of any kind."
Message From Ellen Goldberg, New Israel Fund Executive Director
The first few months of 2008 have been very busy for us in the UK and for our colleagues in Israel.
We brought Israeli activists and analysts to Limmud in Scotland, to Leeds and to London, where they talked about topics such as: Bedouin women in higher education; environmental achievements in 2007; cooperation between Orthodox, Conservative, Reform and secular Jews in Israel on issues of agunah rights; the challenges facing organisations with multicultural staff and how SHATIL is helping them take advantage of this diversity; about how this is a surprisingly opportune time to make progress in the peace process; and many more issues.
Although our work seems to cover a huge range of “disconnected” issues and populations, there is a silver thread that connects them all – New Israel Fund works with Israelis to bring equality and opportunities within reach of all those who face obstacles of access. We provide professional and financial support to Israelis to help themselves and to help one another.
As Pesach/Passover approaches, we retell the story of the Jewish people’s emancipation from slavery and the challenges they faced as they travelled to the Promised Land. You will soon be receiving in the mail, our Haggadah Series 2008 cards. They connect the Pesach story to NIF’s work in Israel today – at her 60th anniversary. We hope you will find them enriching for your Seder, and that they will inspire you to join NIF and our family of organisations and activists for an even better next 60 years!
