Shatil News

Last week, SHATIL participated in the UN Department of Information's (DPI) human rights conference for NGO's in Paris. Our representative, Dr. Nurit Hashimshoni Yaffe, director of Community Organizing at SHATIL, was one of thousands of NGO representatives from more than 100 countries who gathered to give a renewed push to the UN Declaration of Human rights. SHATIL participated in its capacity as an NGO with Special Consultative Status with the Economic & Social Council, Associated with the Department of Public Information of the United Nations.

"The opportunity for SHATIL to represent Israel in such a gathering is very meaningful," Yaffe said. "It allows us to present another face of Israel to the world - the face that works for human, women's and minority rights, education, equality, the side of Israel that is not often expressed. Our UN status gives us a chance to do so."

Yaffe said that listening to presenters from all over the world confirmed that SHATIL is "doing things right -- and perhaps even better" than NGOs in many other countries.

"It's a good place for us to be," she concluded.

And next week, SHATIL lobby consultant Shmulik David will represent SHATIL at the second annual international conference of the Palestinian-Israeli Peace NGO Forum in Pisa, Italy entitled, Europe's Role in the Resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict. He will present Shatil's joint work with the British-based Responding to Conflict (RTC) with Arab and Jewish civil society leadership in Israel. The conference will be addressed by Israel Education Minister Yuli Tamir and Dr. Riad al-Malki, Palestinian Minister of Foreign Affairs; NIF Board and SHATIL Committee member Dr. Sarah Ozacky-Lazar and Al-Quds University President, Dr. Sari Nusseibeh among other dignitaries. The conference will address the role of civil society in peace building, cooperation between Isareli, Palestinian and European NGOs, the EU as a model for a Middle East Community, insights from other conflicts, and more.

Says David: "Shatil sees the importance of continuing work for peace even when circumstances don't look favorable. Participating in this conference will help me in my work to develop the capacity of Israeli peace groups to work in a more coordinated fashion and to strategically contend with our complex and challenging reality."

The conference will feature Live on "live.in toscana.it"

Under this banner, SHATIL's Ethiopian Youth at Risk Forum in Haifa protested in front of Haifa's City Council about an untenable situation facing a group of Ethiopian city residents. The presence of the residents in the demonstration, including babies, children and old people, moved passersby and City Council members alike.

In surveying the problems of Ethiopian youth at risk in Haifa, the Forum, Andenet Chail No (Together we are Strong,) came across a building housing 12 Ethiopian families who poured their hearts out to the group. As happens too often with new Ethiopian immigrants, the families had bought their apartments through underhanded agents who showed them one apartment but sold them another. The immigrants found themselves in a neglected neighborhood rife with crime and drugs - a neighborhood in which it is difficult to live and even harder to raise children.

Now, the Haifa municipality is throwing oil on these flames by paving a highway a mere meter from the entrance to the building in clear deviation of planning laws, expropriating the building's courtyard and garden without consulting the residents, without taking even elementary safety precautions. The grassy area the kids used as a playground is gone as is the tree in whose shade residents regularly gathered. The activists found a dangerous situation with no cross walk, no sidewalk, noise that began at 5 a.m. and lasted till midnight and residents living in constant fear and anxiety for their children's and their own safety.

But believing that "together we are strong," the activists immediately organized the residents and began a campaign to get the city to take responsibility for the situation. They gained the support of a city councilwoman who visited the building, was shocked by what she saw and submitted an urgent question to the mayor that stated "the residents are in a state of siege. Children are locked in their homes. Families are afraid. A catastrophe is waiting to happen...Did the fact that building residents are from weakened groups (Ethiopian immigrants and some Arabs) make possible this outrageous contempt for human life?"

Forum representatives attended the City Council meeting at which the issue was discussed, gained the support of additional members and the attention of Yefei Nof, the company paving the road, which asked to meet the group. At an on-site meeting, the company promised to build a railing, a crosswalk and, once the street is finished, a playground, lawn, flowers and insulated windows. The group repeated the residents' demand: compensation and evacuation from the building until the work is completed and the danger is past. The group is awaiting a meeting with Haifa Mayor Yona Yahav, mandated by the City Council.

The campaign is being covered in local and internet media.

In the past few weeks, SHATIL marked several successes on the national, regional and local levels:

• The Supreme Court rejected Ramle Mayor Yoel Lavi's appeal of the Attorney General's decision that Lavi could not be appointed as director of the Israel Lands Administration. The Attorney General's decision followed intensive lobbying by SHATIL and its Mixed Cities project after Lavi made violently racist public statements when a SHATIL Mixed Cities staffer approached him about changing street names in Arab neighborhoods in Ramle to reflect Arab culture. (Some street names have since been changed - See NIF News April 29 2008.) Both the Supreme Court's and Attorney General's decisions reflect the position that an official displaying such utter disrespect for his constituency could not carry out the directorship of such an important body as the Israel Lands Administration in a just and equitable manner.
• SHATIL's Guide to Local Elections has been translated into Russian for the use of FSU immigrant organizations in Israel. The Guide offers concrete tools and suggestions for advocating for a social agenda among candidates for Israel's local elections in November. The new guide can be downloaded gratis from SHATIL's web site: http://SHATIL.org.il/services/publications
• SHATIL has added another new booklet to its library of social change tools: Resource Development from the Community, a guide that helps Israeli social change organizations turn to the local population and not rely solely on contributions from foreign foundations and individuals of means. The guide also demonstrates how fundraising from the community empowers volunteers, increases commitment on the part of the organization's target population and helps position the organization in the community.
• In cooperation with SHATIL, Bar Ilan University is offering a new M.A. in Gender in the Field. The program combines theoretical studies with social practice. And in November, Tel Aviv University, in cooperation with SHATIL, will launch the second cycle of its unique Master's program in social change for activists in social change organizations.

On September 3 and 4, SHATIL held an invitational two-day study seminar on Incorporation into Domestic Israeli Law of the International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD.)

The seminar aimed to promote the ratification of the convention (which Israel signed in 2006 but has not yet ratified) in Israel and promote civil society supervision and implementation mechanisms regarding this convention. The seminar strongly emphasized individuals with disabilities as advocates on their own behalf.

Said Abbas Abbas, director of Almanarah - Association for the Advancement of the Blind in Arab Society in Israel: "The seminar was an exceptional experience for me, sharpening my knowledge in many areas. Especially important were the practical ideas of the participants about how to implement the CRPD. The unique mosaic of academics, people from the establishment and from the field at the seminar points to wall-to-wall interest in the CRPD, in advancing the rights of people with disabilities and in government, academic and civil society responsibility for its implementation."

Guest lecturers included international law experts from the United States, including Prof. Michael Stein of Harvard University, who spoke about the implementation of CRPD and Prof. Michael Waterstone of Loyola University who described the ‘American experience.' Participants represented civil society organizations and government ministries. Also in attendance was the Commissioner of Equal Opportunities for People of Disabilities.

Based on the outcomes of the seminar, SHATIL will provide assistance to civil society organizations in promoting the ratification and implementation of the convention.

The seminar was held in cooperation with the Minerva Center for Human Rights of the Faculty of Law at the Hebrew University, the Equal Rights Commission for Persons with Disabilities of the Ministry of Justice, the
Harvard Project on Disability of Harvard Law School and Survivor Corps. NIF Grantee B'zchut, which had input into the formulation of the CRPD, also presented at the seminar.

On August 18, 70 concerned citizens gathered in Be'er Sheva's Youth Center for a conference sponsored by Shatil's Umbrella Forum for Bedouin Education in the Negev. The conference was called following the tragic deaths of four Bedouin children who were killed on the way to school in substandard transport on unpaved, hazardous roads in unrecognized Bedouin villages.

Said Dr. Awad Abu Freih, coordinator of the Forum: "Children get off their school busses surrounded by dust on narrow, unpaved roads and are trampled by oncoming drivers who can't see them." According to Abu Freih, the lives of at least 10,000 children are in danger.

"We demand that the government pave roads between the unrecognized villages and the schools," Abu Freih told several media outlets.

The Forum has been fighting for safer roads for 10 years and the Supreme Court twice backed its demands. The conference, which featured Knesset Members, academics, lawyers, government officials, representatives of parents' organizations from Negev Bedouin villages and other activists, aimed at creating a multi-sector discourse about the situation and at garnering additional support for the struggle.

Among the topics covered: "It's hard to get to school and it's hard once you get to school - an update on the situation;" "From dangerous roads to safe roads: How?"; "The right to accessible and safe education" and more.

During the conference, which was dedicated to the four children who were killed on the roads, participants stood for a moment of silence in memory of Salman AlAtras, 11, Iman Abu Asa, 8, Ahmad AlKasasi, 12 and Abed Naim AlSayad, 5. May their memories be for a blessing.

The conference received wide coverage in Israeli newspapers, radio, television and internet news sites and was co sponsored by the High Follow Up Committee for Arab Education, the Israel Religious Action Center and the Regional Council of Unrecognized Arab Villages in the Negev.

On August 19, 11 students, all immigrants from the Former Soviet Union (FSU), graduated from the second cycle of a Shatil training course for social entrepreneurs co-sponsored by Ben Gurion University of the Negev. In attendance was Bella Savran, a new Israel-based donor to Shatil's Assistance to Immigrants from the FSU Project. We felt her insights as a social worker and her excitement about the project would inspire our readers.

The course - now preparing for its third cycle -- trains participants in both the theoretical and practical aspects of social change work. Each chooses a project to work on from strengthening immigrant youth at risk to difficulty in repaying loans, to working with the elderly. The students also had a chance to meet with Knesset members and to speak on the radio.

The cadre of 15 students which participated in the first such course in 2007 went on to form a Graduates' Forum which mentored this year's participants, including presenting an overview of the pertinent social issues affecting the FSU community in southern Israel.

"I identify with this population because my parents were immigrants (to the US from Europe,)" said Savran. "They were lucky because they were in business which is a portable profession, but when I heard these students' family stories - about highly educated professionals who weren't able to integrate into the Israeli world of work -- I realized this could have been my story.

"I asked them what it was like for them - educated young people with good Hebrew - to work with at risk kids. They told me, ‘The gap between us and them is not big at all. When we meet with them, we remember we felt the same way: it was hard for us to get the language, to feel part of Israeli society. For us, it's a like a healing of the wounds we felt when we immigrated to Israel with our families.'

"When they spoke about their projects, I was very moved to see what it meant to them to learn about social change and to become social change agents," Savran continued. "The fact that the course combines learning and work gives it a kind of intensity that really grabs them. Several of them said, ‘I didn't really know what I was getting into, but the more I got into it, the more moved I became by the issues we worked on.'

"One participant who worked on a project helping older people living in protected housing fight for their right to not have cellular antenna placed on their buildings, said it was like helping her grandparents. She and the others said it was interesting for them to have something very different from their studies - none were social or community work students, they were studying accounting, the arts, engineering. They said going through this experience had a profound impact on them and made them realize they would always want to be involved in social change work.

"That's what makes a good civil society - when people from all walks of life get involved in working to change the society."

"I saw that a one-year course, if it's good and meaningful, can have an effect on the kind of person you become, on the way you live your life.

"Part of what was fun for the kids was a chance to be with other Russian immigrants, to bond with their own group. I could see that part of the energy of the group came from the fact that they did group work for themsevles as well as in their projects. This created a great atmosphere and is critical in terms of consciousness raising. They weren't just going out and working with teens, they were coming back to the group, processing what they were doing and learning and getting a broader perspective from Shatil on the issues.

"I was impressed that the graduates of last year's course founded their own NGO, giving them a context in which they could continue their social change work. This is their own initiative, part of the ripple effect I see in Shatil's work. I thought that was beautiful."

Said Felix, one of the course participants: "I learned that anyone can effect change. If all immigrants were united like this, we would all succeed."

At the age of 11, Miriam Yosef left home and began the treacherous trek to Sudan in order to get to the land of her dreams. In the refugee camps, she watched her close friend, Tezeta, perish from malnutrition. Although she made it to Israel, young Miriam was separated from her parents for nine long and lonely years.

"As children, we had to see things we shouldn't have seen," says Miriam. She went on to feel things no woman should have to feel: she married a man who abused her.

"When I look back, I think, How did I cope?" Miriam asks. "It's a miracle. I tell my kids, It's possible to overcome every obstacle that we meet on our path. I've always had to fight and I survived. And now I fight for others."

Like many abused women, Miriam stayed in a bad marriage for years. "But now that's behind me," she says with finality. Miriam was helped by women's organizations and she found herself wanting to give back.

Along with other Ethiopian women activists and potential activists, Miriam attended Ethiopian women's empowerment workshops led by Shatil. "With Shatil's help, we tried to advance women's issues like rights, occupation, parenting," says Miriam. "Until the day one of our friends was killed by her husband. That's when we decided the issue we have to work on is family violence and we founded Yachdav - for the Prevention of Violence in the Ethiopian Family, a coalition of women activists from the Ethiopian community. With Shatil's support, we have advanced many processes. Shatil gives us guidance, consulting and a coordinator. It gives us knowledge and tools: how do we influence the decision makers? How do we express problems to Knesset members?"

Today, Miriam is one of the Shatil-led Coalition's most active members and participates in its advocacy sub group which has succeeded in getting the issue on the government's agenda. The Coalition has also succeeded in raising awareness of the problem in the Ethiopian and general communities and has gotten the government and other bodies to allocate resources to solving the problem at its roots. Miriam has three daughters, ages 11, 12 and 16. She is social worker at the Center for the Prevention of Family Violence in Haifa and leads parenting groups.

"Shatil," she says, "gives us the belief in our own ability to make change."

The wheels started turning on August 3rd, as five wheelchair-bound activists left Kiryat Shmona for Jerusalem on a mission to raise public awareness about the plight of the disabled in Israel. Each day, another dozen or so disabled people joined them for the day. The 10-day journey was organized to raise public awareness about the distress of Israel's disabled population - especially those living in the periphery who see themselves as doubly disabled - and to strengthen the disabled protesters who have been camped out in front of the Welfare Ministry for the past two months. These protesters aim to spur the government to acknowledge their situation, hear their demands and give them urgent assistance.

SHATIL guided the campaign with other assistance provided by the Kibbutz Movement, the Hashomer Hatza'ir youth movement and the Association of Polio Victims in Israel. The SHATIL Galil office arranged a rotation by which one of them constantly accompanied the journey.

The Shatil-advised protesters in Jerusalem, which the wheelchair contingent joined when they arrived in Jerusalem August 13, are demanding:

• The provision of caregivers: While a person with 100% disability receives NIS 2,200 ($617) per month from the government for special services, he or she must pay NIS 3850 ($1,080) minimum wage plus benefits to a caregiver. The disabled are demanding that the government halt this allowance and take responsibility for providing the caregivers.

• Updating of mobility allowance: The government allowance to the disabled who need a car in order to leave the house is NIS 2,150 ($535) while the actual cost of maintaining such a car is approximately NIS 3,500 ($982.) As a result, many disabled people are confined to their homes.

• Raising the general disability allowance which is NIS 2,200 ($614.)

• Government help to the disabled in the periphery to obtain medical services in the center of the country which cannot be obtained in their areas.

"We succeeded in traveling in our wheelchairs, 350 kilometers during the hottest days of summer, and attained our goal of reaching Jerusalem," said Albert Maimoni, a 52-year-old father of four from Kiryat Shmona who worked as a chef until eight years ago, when he contracted osteomalacia. "This campaign gave us back our self respect."

Yesterday (August 17) representatives of the disabled who have been striking in the tent encampment for 68 days met with the Minister of Welfare and the director of the Social Security administration, a meeting that resulted in progress in their ongoing negotiations.

When the largest Russian library outside of the Former Soviet Union, which is also the most used of Jerusalem's 25 public libraries faced the danger of closing, SHATIL's Assistance to Immigrant from the FSU staff went into high gear. Recruiting assistance from SHATIL lobby and media experts, the staff partnered with FSU immigrant organizations to convince the municipality to keep the library open. The building behind the Central Bus Station that had housed the four-story library was sold and a suitable alternative had not been found. After an intensive campaign that made headlines and unrelenting pressure by organizations, activists, and Knesset and Jerusalem city council members including mayoral hopeful Nir Barkat, the municipality found the library an alternative home in the center of town.

The group of organizations and activists that worked tirelessly to keep this cultural treasure alive demonstrated to themselves and to the establishment that the Russian-speaking community in Israel is able to successfully apply pressure. SHATIL sees this successful campaign as the opening salvo of a wider struggle for the cultural rights of the Russian speaking population in the country as a whole.

"Russian Jewry didn't bring out gold when it left Russia," Dina Kazhdan, of SHATIL's' Assistance of Immigrants from the FSU project said in an article in the Jerusalem Post. "It brought its libraries."

Inda Kriksunov, the project's coordinator, explained SHATIL's involvement in the campaign: "People who became involved wanted to say that the library and the books in it are a central value in immigrant life. Books are our entire childhood. Throughout childhood, we read. Books shaped our personalities. They are at the heart of our lives as immigrants. To take away our books is to take away our meaning. Our books are a source of pride. Literature unites us... Even people who don't use the library got involved. They rose up because they understand that life is impossible without valuing books and libraries. The library is our symbol. The library is our face."

Just before a major NIF-sponsored demonstration replete with public figures was about to take place, the municipality announced it had found an alternative space for the library in Jerusalem's Clal Center downtown. SHATIL FSU staff viewed the signing of the contract and called off the demonstration.

"The success of this campaign and the widespread participation in it demonstrated that the "right to culture" is important not only to the Russian-speaking population in Jerusalem but to Israeli society as a whole," said Ilana Litvak, a SHATIL FSU project staffer.

To launch the book, The Sea is Free -- on Environmental Justice and Public Participation in Planning, SHATIL organized an environmental happening in Tel Aviv July 31. The collection of essays is published by SHATIL, the NIF, the Green Environment Fund and the Heschel Center for Environmental Learning and Leadership, in memory of Alona Vardi, founder of SHATIL's' environmental justice project. The idea for the book was born when a group of Alona's colleagues from Israel's environmental movement met soon after her premature death last year to think about how to preserve and cherish her memory and to widen the reach of her special message.

From the book's preface: "Alona was given a special gift with her birth - a sense of natural justice. With the years, this sense turned into a compass that guided her life as an environmental activist who worked to promote environmental justice through participatory democratic processes that are alive, active, involving and formative."

Each of the book's contributors - including MK Dov Hanin, Prof. Avner de Shalit, Dr. Eilon Schwartz and leaders of Israelis' environmental movement --held many conversations with Alona and her world view is echoed in their writings.

The happening, held at the Kibbutzim Seminary in Tel Aviv, included eight workshops on a variety of environmental issues, a Hyde Park with 10 speakers and a plenary with a panel on the growth and development of the environmental movement in Israel and remarks on the book by MK Dov Hanin. The event was covered on TV and radio.

The Sea is Free is available in Hebrew from SHATIL for $16 including shipping by contacting hilac@shatil.nif.org.il.

The day provided participants with a chance to brush up on their environmental skills at workshops such as: an analysis of the successful collaborative campaign to eliminate the fish cages in Eilat by Green Course; how to tell if a factory is polluting the environment by the Public Health Coalition, how to prepare compost, an arts workshop for children using recycled materials and more.

More than 150 Israelis of Ethiopian origin from throughout the country gathered in Kiryat Moshe, Rehovot -- a neighborhood heavily populated by Ethiopian immigrants which often appears negatively in the media -- on July 28 for a day long seminar on preventing domestic violence in the Ethiopian community. The seminar was organized by Yachdav (Together), the SHATIL-led Ethiopian Women's Coalition to Address Domestic Violence.

The gathering was conducted in Amharic so it could be accessible to new immigrants. As they entered the Kiryat Moshe Community Center, which the Rehovot municipality donated to the event, women and men of all ages donned blue and white T-shirts specially made for the occasion with the message, "No to Violence, Yes to Peace" in Hebrew and Amharic.

In the past 10 years, 22 Ethiopian immigrant women have been killed by their frustrated husbands, many of whom then committed suicide. The Coalition works on many levels and with many partners to address the roots of the violence and to reduce it. The conference was part of the Coalition's public education efforts.

Coalition Coordinator Shulamit Sahalo launched the day by saying, "This is a difficult day. But we'll overcome the difficulties for the goal of peace in the home."

Introducing Absorption Ministry Director Erez Halfon, Shulamit said: "This is what we want you to say: Next year we'll increase the budget to address violence in the Ethiopian family. We have seen that if we invest in parents, we have to invest less in children later."

Halfon welcomed the participants and agreed to Shulamit's demand. The Prime Minister's Authority for the Advancement of the Status of Women head, Mirit Danon, praised the Coalition's collaborative effort to reduce domestic violence and Rehovot City Councilman Abeye Zewada dubbed the Coalition's efforts a "sacred project."

The entire audience rose to its feet as a group of kessim (highly respected spiritual leaders) chanted a prayer for peace in the home especially composed at the Coalitions' urging. The audience, most of whom arrived by busses chartered by the Ministry of Absorption, also heard talks from Coalition members and others about the nature of domestic violence in general and in the Ethiopian community, police handing of the issue and means of treatment and prevention.

"This is an important event and I hope it helps," said Ahuva Wanda, who arrived from Ashdod, where she works with Ethiopian immigrants. "One day isn't enough; I hope it's duplicated around the country. We need more awareness, more information campaigns. Every man and woman needs to know about his/her rights and responsibilities in the home and not to forget our tradition, but to blend it with the new reality."

The cultural sensitivity of the organizers was evident in all aspects of the day - including the fact that lunch (sponsored by the Ministry of Health) consisted of injara and wot - traditional Ethiopian foods.

The event was co-sponsored by the above mentioned government bodies as well as the Ethiopian National Project and Bahalachin, which works for Ethiopian cultural preservation.

Shatil financial management consultant Liora Asa recently served as a panelist for the Charlie Awards 2008 program, which brings outstanding Taglit-Birthright graduates from throughout the world to Israel for a week of intensive leadership development.  Liora’s presentation highlighted the important role of sound fiscal management and budgeting as a basis for effective and sustainable management of non-profit organizations throughout the world. She stressed to these young, dynamic leaders the importance of budgeting in good management as they build their local initiatives back home. The participants saw that budgeting reflects the values and beliefs of an organization and that the numbers tell a story all their own that reflects priorities, transparency, resources, partners and community involvement. The Charlies, who came from 13 countries, then engaged in an interactive exercise in which they analyzed a budget of a case organization.  Shatil’s new focus on financial management for social change organizations is in its pilot year. The program aims to expand NGO’s toolkit to integrate financial management tools without compromising creativity and ideology in NGO’s goal of promoting the public good. It includes an emphasis on the four building blocks of financial management:  record Keeping, internal control, budgeting; and financial reporting.  The Charlie Award is a joint initiative of the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation and the Center for Leadership Initiatives and recognizes the achievements and visions of exceptional Taglit-Birthright Israel alumni from around the world.   

A well-attended day-long conference in Acco brought together students who have been working for the rights of Acco's Old City Arab residents with the residents themselves, housing rights activists, NGO leaders, lawyers, other academics and representatives of the planning authorities (such as the Israel Antiquities Authority and the Old Acco Development Society.)

"We believe the time has come for students to contribute in their academic capacity to the good of vulnerable population groups," said Sami Hawari, SHATIL's Mixed Cities Field Coordinator for Acco, referring to the proactive role played by students from Haifa University's Human Rights in the Community Legal Clinic and the Haifa Technion's Faculty of Urban Planning in developing and presenting projects on preservation and gentrification of Acco's Old City and the rights of residents.

In the audience were women from the south Acco neighborhood of Basateen El Raml, which, in the framework of the Mixed Cities project, has fought a successful struggle for recognition and inclusion in Acco Municipality and the Ministry of Housing's development plans.

Participating Technion students and public planning officials clarified visions for the future of Acco's Old City and addressed the concerns and fears of residents. Legal Clinic members discussed differences between the public housing and protected tenancy laws and under what circumstances the law can support unfortunate eviction processes. Students' presentations included interviews with residents indicating that the latter's intent is not to block preservation and renovation plans but to be included as partners who are consulted and kept informed throughout the planning process. This reflects the main objective of the Mixed Cities project since its inception - the participation of Arab residents in the development of planning and building policies that affect their lives.

"We hope this conference will increase cooperation between students and authorities and open new and positive channels between residents and the planning authorities - for the good of the city and all its residents," concluded Sami Hawari.

As a finale to its 25th anniversary, Shatil last week released a unique, multi-language CD collection of social protest/social change songs featuring top Israeli artists such as David Broza, Hadag Nachash, Chava Alberstein, Amal Murkus, Dan Toren, Aviv Geffen, Peter Paul and Mary and Phil Ochs.

The collection marks a fresh approach to advancing NIF and Shatil's agenda. Each set of lyrics tackles a different aspect of Israeli's social reality and inspires listeners to action: the link between politics and big money; ambivalent attitudes toward new immigrants, migrant workers, minorities and other "strangers;" indifference toward environmental degradation; the rise of consumer culture; the effects of occupation and war and women's inequality all receive their due in this collection. The disc includes songs in Hebrew, Arabic and English as well as immigrants artists from the Former Soviet Union and Ethiopia.

The featured artists - the mainstream performers affiliated with major record companies and the lesser known musicians who funded their own recordings - contributed their songs gratis to this collection. All proceeds from sales of the CD will go directly to the New Israel Fund.

"Music, like other forms of art, has enormous power to shed light on important issues and create sparks of positive change," says Hadas Eytan, the Shatil staffer who produced the CD. "Songs of protest like these also carry the seeds of hope for a better future."

Reviews and items about the CD appeared in the mass circulation daily, Yediot Achronot, Globes, Walla and other outlets.

The CD is available in local music stores in Israel for NIS39.90 (about $12) and will soon be available in the U.S.

SHATIL staff and other social activists handed out "checks" from the government of Israel to Negev education (NIS 400,000,000,) health (NIS 400,000,000,) and development in the Negev (NIS 17,000,000,000) at the government initiated Negev Conference, held in the presence of the Prime Minister and other dignitaries, last week.

"We distributed the checks like the government distributes promises that have no backing," said Tzvika Gottlieb, the SHATIL lobby consultant. The move was part of a protest spearheaded by SHATIL in collaboration with other NGO's.

The Conference was dominated by business and government interests with little or no representation for immigrants, Bedouin, small business owners and farmers, the disabled, social organizations and others.

SHATIL in the South organized a protest tent, busses to the protest, distribution of the checks to the hundreds of conference participants and a letter signed by 40 NGO's to Minister for Negev Development, Yaakov Edri.

The letter began: "We, representatives of social and environmental organizations, protest the fact that the government initiated Negev Conference, called to discuss issues critical to the development of the region, ignores organizations that represent the local population and does not give expression to central groups that live in the south and to the issues that concern them. The Conference program does not reflect or represent whatsoever the population mosaic of the Negev nor the issues that concern us and we demand a change."

The protest as well as the letter was covered in local media and on radio.

In an effort to strengthen local environmental and social leadership in the Negev, which suffers from some of Israel's worst environmental problems, SHATIL last week launched the Negev Environmental Fellows Program. Fourteen fellows are initially participating in a pilot course aimed at increasing their effectiveness in dealing with environmental issues related to health, occupation and public awareness.

Participants include staff from the Ministries of the Environment, Interior, Agriculture and Health as well as the Jewish Agency; Negev NGO's; academics and businesspeople.

SHATIL launched an internet site for the program which will enable fellows to discuss issues, share information and advertise events.

At its best, a SHATIL workshop can be a life-changing event, affecting not only the activist-participant, but ever widening circles of people throughout the country. This spring, for example, Hanin Majdala's views of people with disabilities were transformed during the Social Change Course for Persons with Disabilities. Although not disabled herself, Hanin works with disabled people at the Alyn Hospital. Hanin allowed NIF News a peek into her diary:

"When I began the course, I knew I'd be faced with a different reality, one I wasn't accustomed to, without a desk I could hide behind, without files to create a border between me and my clients, and without a big sign explicitly stating my profession: social worker.

My place is so clear. What I do at Alyn is so clear. But when I got to this forum, all my assumptions were called into question. I was unaware of the strength these people have. That thought led me to ponder how anchored I am in pathology, in which we view people living with disabilities via those disabilities and forget to ask ourselves if they have anything to offer beyond their wheelchairs. I felt, suddenly and oppressively, that I was the disabled one - mentally, not physically. I thought about the many clients I'd received in my office who may have suffered from my attitude. I also discovered that I needed their permission to enter their world-another world that, until now, as I discovered in these meetings, was separated from my own by a fence that I didn't even know existed. The sessions led me to change a lot of things in the language I use with clients who come to me at work. I stopped calling them "patients" and stopped writing that sentence I realized was so irritating: ‘The aforementioned suffers from...'

"Alongside these changes, I felt I was experiencing something wonderful, something I'd never before experienced - not at work and not in my studies: I learned about creating initiatives and translating ideas and dreams into a written reality and an actual project. Now, I want to have a part in influencing and changing, to be an agent of change - not on behalf of persons with disabilities but together with them." Hanin is already planning to lead a similar course for Arabs in East Jerusalem next year. The course was conducted in cooperation with David Yellin College, Shekel Community Services for People with Special Needs and the Center for Independent Living.

Sometimes a course leads to action even before it ends. While Hanin was having her eyes opened in her course, Dina Kozak was taking part in a SHATIL organized course in Jerusalem, "Sprouting Change: Community Gardening as a Focus for Building Local Power."

"The course gave me the idea of connecting Holocaust survivors with our community garden," Dina write., "And the project began in June."

In addition to Hanin and Dina, hundreds of other activists throughout the country upgraded their skills in dozens of SHATIL courses. A sampling of course names will give you an idea of the critical areas in which SHATIL is making a difference: Monitoring and Tracking Government Decisions and Actions, the Arab Press's Treatment of People with Disabilities, Citizen Involvement in the Municipal Budget Process, Community Organizing, Developing Local Sustainable Economies (with the Heschel Center), Branding and Positioning Strategies, Microfinance and many more.

The first annual Other Voices Film Festival screened socially oriented films for free in Sderot, Ramle, Kfar Qara and Jerusalem's Kiryat Menachem neighborhood for eight days in June.

The Festival was the fruit of a year-long effort involving local residents in each of the four communities. It is part of the development of a model of multicultural discourse that uses culture and media to generate social change. The Festival gave expression to a variety of voices and groups not necessarily part of the mainstream. SHATIL staff introduced the events at each location and helped with outreach to the media. Musical performances and discussions with the artists followed the screenings.

"The Festival gave us the opportunity to meet not just ourselves as we are but as who we would like to be and also created a meaningful, open meeting with the ‘others' who are our neighbors...not necessarily in order to accept or agree, but to listen and to acknowledge, in the hope of creating a more tolerant reality," said Sharon Ben Arie, the festival's initiator and organizer.

The Festival was sponsored by Other Voices -- the Association for the Advancement and Empowerment of the Individual through Media, SHATIL, Eretz Acheret Magazine and other social organizations.

The plight of 22,000 Arab Israeli families, in which one spouse is a Palestinian resident of the West Bank, was addressed at a national SHATIL conference last week, Families in Waiting: Between the Reality of Israeli Law and International Human Rights Conventions. Two hundred people gathered at the Al-Qassimi College in Baqa Algharbiya to address the separation of families caused by a 2003 change in Israeli law which prohibits granting citizenship to Palestinian spouses of Israeli citizens.

"We wanted to expose the issue and to show the human faces behind it," said Aber Grayem, a community organizer in SHATIL's Baqa Algharbiya satellite office. "Our SHATIL branch is in the Triangle and most of the families who suffer from this issue live in this area. It's one of the most severe social problems here. Most of these marriages involve a woman in Israel and a man in the territories; they are young families with many small children. Some of the children don't have Israeli identity cards, which affects their rights to educational, health and social services. The women live as if they are single mothers, raising their children without the presence of a father in the house. We want to expose this problem to both the Jewish and Arab populations and to work with the social services to address the severe economic and social hardships these families face. This conference was a beginning."

The conference included sessions on the law and its influence on family reunification, the effect on children of split families, and case studies of the social an economic effects of enforced separation on families in the Arab villages of Baqa Algharbiya and Jat.

Speaking at the conference, former Knesset Chair Avraham Burg suggested that the solution to the problem of divided families is pressure on elected officials.

"The issue must be led by Jewish Knesset member and not Arab ones," he said. "This shouldn't be perceived as a cry of the Arab minority...but as a humane responsibility of the majority."

Articles about the conference received an unusually high number (more than 200) of talkbacks on Ha'aretz and Ma'ariv's internet sites.

The conference was held in collaboration with local welfare authorities, Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, Bat Shalom, and other NGOs.

On the seventh anniversary of the first Qassam attack on Sderot, residents gathered for the first ever public hearing in the town in one of its only protected public buildings. The hearing culminated a year of SHATIL field work in the embattled town and presented testimonies of residents to a public committee and the media. Aimed at giving Sderot residents a voice and strengthening their influence on decision makers, the hearing highlighted the continuing social and economic problems of Sderot and called on the government to take responsibility for its citizens.

"The social Qassam is more dangerous than the military one," testified Sderot resident Mark Ifraimov, who immigrated from the Former Soviet Union in 1996 and helped initiate a community center for Kavkazi immigrants, or Mountain Jews as they like to be called. "The rockets only worsened an already dire situation. The Kavkazi community, of which I am a part, suffers from discrimination and under-representation at every level. My parents, who are educated people, work in factories and are treated poorly. This isn't the 1950's. This is happening here and now."

In an evening of moving testimony and fruitful dialogue, residents' love for Sderot and its people and their desire to stay even under difficult circumstances was a recurring theme. Elise Gigi, who has been living in Sderot for 44 years and whose house was destroyed by rocket fire: "This is a great town. How come nobody is doing anything? I lost everything and nobody took heed of us..." And Michal Lavi, who directed the movie Mediterranean Fever, said, "I'm worn down, many of my friends are no longer here, but we can't abandon this place."

The residents' testimonies will be added to others collected throughout the town and included in a report SHATIL will prepare on citizens' views of government failures on the home front to be sent to government officials and the media.

The hearing ended with a decision to form a task force of Sderot residents, public representatives such as Israel Prize winner Prof. Yona Rosenfeld, Ha'aretz's Lily Galili, NGO heads and SHATIL. The task force will work to find systemic solutions to specific social and economic problems and lobby the government to fulfill its obligations.

The public hearing was organized by SHATIL in cooperation with local activists and NGO's with the support of the Hanns Seidel Fund and the Sderot Cinematheque and was widely covered in local and national media.

For the second year, SHATIL joined other organizations for social change in sponsoring an alternative to the Jerusalem Book Fair, one that encourages a critical view of society through art, literature and music.

The two-day festival held June 5 and 6 in Jerusalem’s Nachlaot neighborhood featured more than 60 stalls of small and independent presses and social change organizations, creative and ecological activities for children, lectures, concerts, ethnic story telling, literary encounters, street theater, a fair trade café featuring food by Women Cook Up a Business, music, story telling and the sale and exchange of second hand books.

The event was co-sponsored by the Jerusalem Municipality, the Jerusalem Foundation and local social organizations such as Bikurim, which promotes critical children’s literature, Barbur, a social art gallery and Bimat Kedem, which promotes Mizrachi literature. It introduced hundreds of people to initiatives such as these and provided a welcome opportunity for networking and collaborations.

Evaluation might sound like a ho-hum subject, but more than 100 people were alternately glued to their seats in fascination and rolling on the floor from laughter at a June 11the seminar sponsored by SHATIL, One to One Israel and the Israel Association for Program Evaluation.

The Evaluation Triangle: The Funder, the NGO and the Evaluator, was organized as part of SHATIL's deepening focus on evaluation, an important but charged issue. It was called to address the power of evaluation for improving organizations' work and to deal with tensions around questions such as ethics vs. interest, funders' demands vs. organizations' priorities, evaluation models and more. Guest speaker Prof. Jane King, a world renowned evaluation expert from the University of Minnesota, regaled and challenged the audience. Evaluation means different things to different people, she said. Instead of each side of the triangle feeling defensive and fearful (or as she quoted her fellow Minnesotan Bob Dylan, "It Ain't Me Babe,) trust and openness in the process are crucial. The purpose of evaluation, she comforted nervous NGO staffs, is to improve their organization's practice and achieve better outcomes. A panel representing the three sides of the evaluation triangle featuring Stephen Donshik Israel director of the New York Federation, Chaya Amzaleg-Bahar, co-director of Mitveh Consulting, Evaluation and Selection, Risa Zoll of B'Tselem and Dr. Eilon Schwartz, director of the Heschel Center, held a needed and honest dialogue about often painful issues: organizations' fear of and frustration around evaluation, funders' demands, and the professional evaluator's dilemmas. The audience, which included many foundation as well as organizational representatives, responded with lively, thoughtful questions.

The complexities of trying to evaluate work for social change were highlighted by the speakers. SHATIL Director Rachel Liel gave an example from the work of the Israeli Committee Against Torture. "If their work had been evaluated after one year or even two or three, they would have been considered a failure," she said. Nine years later, however, the organization was responsible for the passage of new legislation against torture.

During the second half of the day, participants had an opportunity to deepen their knowledge and thinking about different aspects of evaluation in small groups led by Dr. King and the Moriah Fund's Don Futterman.

The seminar was translated into sign language.

More than 120 activists, neighborhood residents, lawyers, professionals and government representatives gathered on June 4 in Ramle to mark five years of SHATIL’s Mixed Cities Project and to reflect on the activity, achievements, challenges and lessons derived from its work. The joining together of these forces on stage and in the audience of the conference, Leading Change in the Mixed Cities, is a reflection of the success of SHATIL’s effort to empower minority communities in the mixed cities of Ramle, Lod, Acre and Jaffa and to effect changes in discriminatory policies.

 NIF Board and SHATIL Committee member and Fellow of the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, Dr. Sarah Ozacky-Lazar and Gianmatteo Arena, head of the Operations Section of the European Commission’s Delegation to the State of Israel, greeted the attendees. Arena described SHATIL’s Mixed Cities Project as “extraordinary” in its aspirations and contribution. Three panels featuring residents and professionals brought to light the successes and challenges of the Project during the past five years in promoting alternative planning for the development and revitalization of the mixed cities. They addressed the issues challenging Arab residents and their neighborhoods in these cities: preservation and renovation; demolitions and evictions; and the state’s recognition and incorporation of neighborhoods into state plans.  In the panel, The Preservation and Restoration of City Centers in the Mixed Cities, architect Doron Druckman, the Interior Ministry’s Director of Planning, and chair of the National Preservation Team, praised the Mixed Cities Project as providing “threads of hope” for its initiatives in cultivating local leaders, who he said were a vital partner with the planning authorities in creating new frameworks for change. In the panel, Unrecognized Neighborhoods in the Mixed Cities, Dr. Yosef Jabareen, senior lecturer in the architecture faculty at the Technion, spoke about the alternative planning processes he carried out for the Project in cooperation with the residents for two neighborhoods: Basatin el-Raml (Barbur) in Acre and El Mahta, or the Train neighborhood in Ramle. Several speakers argued about whether politics could be divorced from planning and whether preservation is not as much about people as it is about buildings.                                                       in the panel on Home Demolitions and Evictions, Durgham Seif, a lawyer for Karame accused the government of not only refusing to plan for the unrecognized neighborhoods, but placing obstacles in the path of those who try to initiate such planning. He said the fact that the unrecognized neighborhoods aren’t on any map means that thousands of people aren’t on a map and planning for them must be initiated. He emphasized that the Mixed Cities Project’s strategy of combining legal and planning initiatives to get these neighborhoods recognized is on the right track.  

Architect Buthayna Dabit, head of SHATIL’s Mixed Cities Project, said: “The city centers are like a living organism. If we harm them, it’s akin to harming the heart of the organism. We hope this conference will inspire the continued building of models to promote the planning and housing rights in the Arab neighborhoods and to true cooperation and respectful and respectable neighborly relations between the Jewish and Arab populations in the mixed cities. This is a necessary condition for the social and economic advancement of the people living in Israel’s mixed cities.”

SHATIL initiated the Mixed Cities Project, with the support of the European Commission, five years ago, in response to long term neglect and discrimination leading to growing distress in the field. Home demolitions and evictions of Arab citizens in the cities of Ramle, Lod, Acre and Jaffa were rising sharply and residents had no voice in policies determining their lives. The Mixed Cities staff works to bring about a paradigm shift among local residents, decision makers and the general public in order to promote a new reality of equality in housing, infrastructure and planning  as well as social justice for Arab residents of Israel’s mixed cities. The Project’s Arab and Jewish staff does this by activating residents, strengthening local civil society, raising awareness and creating and commissioning and promoting alternatives to discriminatory planning and building policies and practices.

World Environment Day (June 5) was created by the United Nations to encourage awareness about and action on the critical environmental issues all of us now face. But for Shatil's Environmental Justice Project, every day is Environment Day. As the Earth heats up, so does the Project's work. Begun 13 years ago by the late Alona Vardi in response to unrestrained development and explosive population growth that severely strain Israel's natural resources and public health, the Project now employs five organizers and consultants who work throughout the country to increase government responsiveness and empower citizens to promote greater environmental justice.

Alona Vardi was a pioneer in Israel's environmental movement and the founder of Shatil's Environmental Justice Project. She was instrumental in moving the movement from one which addressed itself solely to fixing environmental problems to one whose actions were based on a deeper analysis and understanding of the social and economic causes of those problems. She stood at the forefront of the struggle for the rights of citizens - especially those on the social and geographic periphery -- to influence environmental policy. (See previous article.)

As part of the day, laws on which Shatil worked -- including one to encourage use of bicycles, another protecting weak local authorities from having their water cut off when they can't pay their bills, and laws that enable enforcement of environmental statutes - are meant to be passed.

On Thursday, Life and Environment will present the 2008 Green Globe Award, initiated five years ago by Alona Vardi, to environmental organizations that have made outstanding contributions to the environment. Winners include Shomera, a Jerusalem organization that works to protect the Jerusalem forest and educates and initiates projects in many sectors - including the ultra Orthodox and at-risk youth -- in recycling, urban gardens, and more.

The past month has seen a flurry of Shatil activity on environmental issues including successes and new beginnings. In a testament to Shatil's environmental leadership, the Finance Ministry and the Knesset Environment Lobby asked Shatil to coordinate the creation of a five-year operating plan for the environment, An Environmental Agenda for Israel. Shatil has finished the first draft of its recommendations, which focus on energy, transport, land, water, industry and local economy. Shatil recently began a series of meetings with the director of the Finance Ministry to review the proposals.

Shatil Environmental Justice Project staff has fanned throughout the country, training local activists in how to get environmental issues on the agendas of candidates running for local elections; teaching environmental organizations to use non violent tactics in managing conflicts; and lending our expertise to important environmental campaigns.

In June, Shatil will launch the Environmental Fellows Program in the south, which will bring together environmental leaders - including heads of NGO's, local authorities and businesses - to develop a vision of sustainable environmental practices in the south and work to promote that vision.

Last week, saw the first meeting of a new Shatil-led coalition of environmental, social and consumer organizations and academics to fight the planned privatization of the electric company and to provide an alternative to this government "reform." And the Shatil-led Ramat Hovav Coalition is working to submit a petition to the Supreme Court, together with the Law Clinic for Environmental Justice at Tel Aviv University, to force the government to abide by laws pertaining to hazardous chemicals in the area.

Shatil's one-year-old Palestinian Forum for Environmental Justice is about to finish gathering data about the specific environmental dangers in Arab population centers throughout Israel. On the basis of the data, the Forum will formulate its action plan.

More good news: After a campaign led by the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel succeeded in defeating a development plan in one of Jerusalem's last large wild tracts of land, the Regional Planning Council accepted residents' plan to create a park in the Deer Valley. The valley is so called because a flock of deer has managed to survive there in the midst of a bustling urban environment. Reporting on the success on May 28, the Walla internet news site headline announced: "A Revolution in the Capital: Deer Overpower Real Estate."

Most recently, Shatil has become involved in the campaign to stop the building of a coal power plant in Ashkelon. Last week, Minister of the Environment Gideon Ezra announced his opposition to the plan. The organizations involved, with Shatil's help and backing, are about to launch an awareness campaign on public busses.

As part of its celebrations of World Environment Day, the Knesset yesterday held a special ceremony in memory of a special person. Six teachers and their students were honored for their work to promote environmental justice in communities throughout the country. They were the first recipients of the Alona Vardi Environmental Award, created by Shatil and Alona's family together with NIF and the Green Environment Fund. Alona Vardi, a pioneering leader of Israel's environmental movement, initiated Shatil's Environmental Justice Project 13 years ago. She died two years ago at the age of 50, after battling cancer.

In the moving ceremony, Knesset Education and Culture Committee Chair Rabbi Michael Melchior presided over the granting of the awards. The award aims to promote Vardi's vision of an active citizenry that promotes environmental justice, including education about the relationship between democracy and the environment and the development of a critical social and environmental consciousness. The first winners of the NIS 5,000 scholarship are Nava Mark, a teacher in the Democratic School in Kfar Saba who led the community in rehabilitating a eucalyptus grove and Fadua Abd AlRahman, who led a campaign against asbestos in her school, Alsalem Elementary, in Majd El Krum. Four additional teachers received NIS 1,000 awards in recognition of their contribution to the field.

The room at the Knesset where the ceremony was held was overflowing. In addition to MK Melchior, also Knesset members Dov Chenin and Hannan Sweid were present and spoke movingly about Alona and the wonderful work of the schools and teachers recognized. Environmental activists from throughout the country filled the room - confirming as Rabbi Melchior stated "Alona empowered people, she was a central figure in Israel in establishing the environmental movement. Her legacy can be felt here today". (Please see the accompanying article that brings this legacy to life). However, the most amazing part of the ceremony was the presence of dozens and dozens of kids from the schools that received awards. To hear Omer, a 10 year old from the Kfar Saba Democractic School speak about the importance of environmental activism, of lobbying municipal representatives, of joint living and clean air...was simply unbelievable. And when 11 year old Jamal from the Alsalem Elementary school spoke about how she now brings environmental sensitivity and awareness to her home and community....one simply had to feel that there is hope!

Last weekend, this year's Everett Social Justice Fellows gathered for a weekend retreat in Arad devoted to in an in depth study of the theory and practice of constructive struggle. The constructive struggle model, as opposed to destructive struggle, attempts to restrain escalation, search for common goals, and preserve positive elements in relationships. Shatil's Conflict Transformation and Management Center (CTMC) is working hard to train NGO's and Israeli decision makers in this model.

At first the students were skeptical: "But we're not violent!" they claimed. But an initial exercise, in which they were asked how each of them reacts when they find themselves in daily situations of conflict -- for instance when another car takes their parking space and they are late to an exam, do they choose confrontation, dialogue, ignoring the action -opened their eyes. An analysis of those reactions led the participants to a deeper understanding of constructive struggle.

Students said they were able to internalize the theory through the practical exercises that related to their lives. Their engagement was evident by their intense involvement in the discussions.

"The students were thirsty for this knowledge; it was completely new to them," said Everett Fellowships Coordinator Vered Nuriel Porat. She added that it's difficult to find a topic that is new and relevant to each of the fellows, who have very different backgrounds, life experience, areas of study and exposure to the world of social change.

Vered added that the concept and the methodologies that derive from it would be helpful to each of the participants in their work for social change and in their personal lives.

The students had another chance to apply constructive struggle skills in an exercise in which they assumed the role of parents of girls who had been raped and had to address the media in a simulated "meet the press" experience on the issue of whether released sex offenders' addresses should be publicized. The "reporters" went by each group and asked them questions.

"They saw how difficult it was," said Vered. "In life we want to react immediately and constructive struggle says it's more effective not to be reactive, but stick to our goal. How do we do this effectively without trying to get revenge, without using violent language?"

Workshops in Aikido, contact improvisation and blindfolded trust exercises helped the group to experience constructive struggle through their senses and also helped the group to network and bond.

One participant expressed the feelings of the group when she wrote: "The experiential exercises enabled us to understand deeply and personally the critical importance of planning: defining messages, using positive language, transparency; how difficult it is to implement these things and how one has to practice restraint and not give in to impulsivity. The integration of theory and practice was fascinating."

The Everett Social Justice Fellowship is a Shatil program funded by the Henry and Edith Everett Foundation that places 50 university students a year in internships in social change organizations and provides them with training and scholarships.

Researching pollution in Eilat for a university tourism seminar, Avi Cohen saw something that changed his life.

"I love nature, I love to hike," said Avi, 28. "When I saw these crimes, I said, ‘Something has to be done.'"

The crimes Avi saw: "Enormous hazardous waste sites, many illegal dumping grounds, damage to nature reserves and other natural sites. It pierced my heart...I saw that these crimes happen, people get small fines and those same contractors then get big contracts from the municipality. I knew it wasn't simple; that it involved more than just reporting and expecting change. But I knew change was possible and I decided I wouldn't rest till it would happen. That's why I went to study urban planning."

Avi had gotten his B.A. in geography and was studying for his M.A. in urban planning at the Technion when he applied for Shatil's Everett Social Justice Fellowship, a program that places 50 university students a year in internships in social change organizations and provides them with training and scholarships.

If he was a determined environmental activist when he reached Everett and Shatil, that year-long experience caused Avi to connect the dots and changed his life even further.

"Before my involvement with Shatil, I was mostly involved in environmental issues," he says. "Through the Everett program and my internship at Shchenim (Neighbors), I saw a whole other world - not just environmental organizations but social organizations that focus on the social gaps. I saw many connections between environmental and social issues - the human effect of policies that don't take everyone into account. Today, I'm more knowledgeable about social and economic gaps in society.

"Since Everett, in every project I work on, I emphasize this connection."

Today, Avi works on transport planning for Lerman Architects and Town Planners, a Tel Aviv firm.

"Everywhere I work, including here, it's important for me to see how the connection between environmental and social issues get expressed - to make sure public transportation and bicycle trails are accessible and suitable for all, for example. Israel is years behind where it should be and I hope to have an influence on planning policy in general."

At his work at Shchenim, an NGO that brings Galilee Jews and Arabs together around issues of planning and design, Avi was involved in initiating cooperation projects between twinned Arab and Jewish towns and villages. He began by gathering material and interviewed engineers in the towns to create a community profile in order to see where they could cooperate.

"The communities are very different from one another, but our research revealed similarities: half the population is children and we realized one of the bases of cooperation was education and leisure activities for the children," Avi said. "The Jewish villages were too small to warrant institutions but if they combined their needs with those of a neighboring Arab village, things could happen. Parents in both communities want the best for their kids. I made presentations to groups in both villages that showed them what they really had in common and what the real data were - which was different from what they hear in the media. I could tell by people's questions and comments that their prejudices were coming into question." The groups are continuing to meet.

"Through Everett I also got to meet people that don't get their share of representation in the media and when you do see them on TV or in the newspapers, it's superficial and often distorted. The media doesn't give you the whole picture regarding the Bedouin population in the Negev, for example. We met them and heard from them about their needs and problems.

"I learned a lot from this - that you can research in the library all you want but hearing from the people themselves is critical for planning."

Avi said it was important for him to meet social activists working in NGO's - including the other Everett Fellows -- part of the program's enrichment component that includes retreats (see following story.) "It was one of the most powerful aspects of the program," he said.

"It was inspiring to meet people who care and do something about it -- who really make a change, a difference in people's lives. I wasn't aware how many such people there are in Israel. It had a far-reaching influence on me."

Students from the Former Soviet Union, not usually known for their orientation toward social change, have proven to be enamored of the area once they are exposed to it. Several graduates from the first year of SHATIL's course to train FSU immigrant students to become social entrepreneurs are continuing to work on the Salsa Project, which informs immigrant students of their rights and responsibilities, scholarship and work opportunities, etc. The program was launched in March in a local technical college in collaboration with another youth organization. The students are in discussion with Ben Gurion University of the Negev to replicate the project there.

Participants in the second cycle of the course together with the course's Graduates Forum from the first cycle are working on integrating youth from the FSU into Israeli youth movements. As part of this effort, they are giving workshops in the special characteristics of immigrant youth to youth movement coordinators and are discussing with them ways to encourage the participation of immigrant youth. The group also obtained the support and assistance of the head of Be'er Sheva's education department in their project to prevent hidden school drop out. A group from the second cycle is working to promote the issues of immigrant youth at risk on candidates' platforms in the local elections.

The Graduates' Forum developed and launched an internet forum in which participants can report on their activities, share ideas, announce events, ask for advice and discuss dilemmas. They aim to develop it into a web site to be used as a communications platform for anyone interested in immigrant youth, from the youth themselves to organizations and professionals who work with them and other interested parties. In the more distant future, the graduates hope to found a youth organization that deals with immigrant youth issues in the south.

Over the past several days, students and other young people trained and activated by SHATIL have been launching projects close to their hearts throughout the Negev. For young Bedouin women walking the tightrope between tradition and modernity and immigrant students from the FSU, SHATIL serves as an incubator for dozens of social change projects.

After a half a year of theoretical and experiential learning about social change and women's and human rights and several sessions devoted to project planning, 13 participants in SHATIL's Bedouin Women for our Rights course last week formally presented their dream projects, which they will carry out with SHATIL's help during the internship part of the course. In a moving ceremony, Yarona Ben shalom and Sultan Abu Abed, co-directors of SHATIL Be'er Sheva and Safa Shehada, director of Ma'an, the Forum of Arab Women's Organizations in the Negev and SHATIL's partner in this course, sent the young women off into the world, wished them well and reminded them they have a supportive home with backing and guidance in SHATIL and Ma'an. Each student will implement her project in the context of a Bedouin women's organization that is a member of Ma'an.

It was clear from the presentations, that the women had internalized SHATIL's experiential way of working. Hind Alsana, whose project "Culture and Context" aims to help young Bedouins reclaim their vanishing culture, asked each participant to close her eyes, imagine herself with a camera, and to take pictures of a place she loves, a place she wants to change, and something in her village that connects her with culture. When asked to share their experiences, one of the young women, who was moved to tears, described a youth club she used to attend in Laqia when she was a teenager that no longer exists - in fact there is no activity for youth there today. "It's where I grew up and I miss it very much," she said through her tears. "I long for that time and for the activities in that club."

Hind then threw out a series of questions that led to a brainstorming session on Bedouin culture including: Has our culture turned into mere folklore? How can we as individuals preserve our living culture? Has our culture turned into a product aimed at tourists and other outsiders and if so, how can we reclaim it? What obstacles stand between the people who preserve our culture and the young people who live in it and in the modern world?

Hind said her pilot project would focus on a mixed group of young Bedouin men and women in the village of Hura, under the auspices of the NGO, Bint Alabadia (Daughter of the Dessert) and will include strengthening reading skills among young Negev Bedouin and searching with them for books on Bedouin culture; fostering pride of place by working on greening their village; and working on a yearly strategic cultural plan so there would be continuous cultural activity rather than having one performance a year, as is currently the case.

Three other course participants are initiating a women's health project in Segev Shalom, Kseife and Laqia. "We have moved from a traditional to a modern culture and no one has prepared us," said Amal Abu Atom, one of the project initiators. One of the three is especially interested in working on mental health issues with women in polygamous families, with young unmarried women who fear becoming a second or third wife and with women in monogamous marriages who all feel afraid that their husbands will bow to male pressure and take another wife. (The project initiator: "In the shaik - - a gathering place of men - they always tell my husband, ‘Why don't you take another wife? Surely, your wife rules you and that's why you don't. You're not a real man.'") This is a sensitive topic and the project will be conducted in a village that is not the coordinator's home village. "People might feel that I'm going against the religion and that could cause a lot of problems for me in my family," she said.

Other projects include: Round Tables for young Bedouin women and men to explore the changing status of Bedouin women; early marriage; feminism in word and image; women agricultural workers' rights; inter-generational meetings between mothers, daughters and grandmothers and more.

One can see the barest trace of an old chip on the shoulder in 16-year-old Oshrat's direct gaze and in the slightly defiant tilt of her chin. The glint in her eye also betrays her talent at mischief, but the 10th grader has recently chosen to channel her considerable energies in new directions.

Oshrat is one of several hundred high school pupils who participate in SHATIL's Back from the Edge pilot program aimed at strengthening immigrant youth at risk and preventing school drop out in six communities. Seventy children benefit from the Project at the Pardes Hannah Agricultural School with AIKR - Absorption of Immigrants from the Kavkaz (Caucuses) Region. Oshrat says the project changed her life.

"Before this project came into my life, I bothered the teachers, couldn't sit still in class, got grades like 50, 40...13!" says Oshrat. "But they (the project staff) talked to us, explained to us the importance of studying, of how to study, of how it will help us in our future. They teach us in small groups where we understand every word. Since this program for olim started, we have really advanced."

True to its mandate, SHATIL does not work directly with the children participating in the project, but does so through local immigrant organizations. SHATIL works on three levels in Back from the Edge: Strengthening local organizations so they can in turn implement the project in local schools by offering guidance, consulting and training; and advocating for changes in the law to help immigrant children. The local organizations also receive NIF grants.

"Other kids say, "Too bad I'm not Kavkazi," says Project Coordinator, Albert, himself an immigrant from the Caucuses. "It's the first time I ever heard this. Although we don't work solely with Kavkazi children, the kids call it "the Kavkazi Project" and when they see the results, many of them want to be a part of it."

Along with project staff from the five other communities, Albert and five other teachers participated in SHATIL's Immigrant Youth and the Israeli Educational System course, which AIKR founder and volunteer director Ada said greatly strengthened their abilities in this endeavor. The Pardes Hannah project consists of small groups in English, math, and Hebrew language and literature; a special guidance counselor (as in all the participating schools); trips for the kids, parents and staff; and other activities. AIKR has also worked on curriculum development, creating a unique computerized literature course that looks more like a game than a learning tool. Movement and color are fully utilized as words and phrases whiz around the screen highlighting specific material; questions as well as period pictures pop up. "It turns the text into a conversation and the children receive the deeper as well as the surface meaning," says Ada. The children are also given many opportunities to express themselves.

When asked if something has changed in her school since the institution of Back from the Edge, Oshrat replies, "Not something - Everything." Oshrat is the youngest of seven in a family of Kavkazi immigrants. Her mother works at odd jobs and her father is unemployed. She works after school as a waitress in a catering hall. She says, "I feel like someone is standing behind me and that someone is with me, that if I don't understand, someone will explain."

As a result of her participation in the project, Oshrat's grades have skyrocketed. "I got an 89 on my last test," she says with a proud smile. "Before, I never would have imagined it. When I showed my Mom, she didn't believe it's me who studies, me who invests in school. I was always thinking about what mischief I could do next."

The small group experience affects the regular classroom as well. "In the regular classes, the good kids sit in front and are the only ones who talk to the teacher. The rest of us sit in back and don't pay attention. But through the project, I learned how to cope in the big group as well," says Oshrat.

Prior to participating in the project, Oshrat did not consider taking the matriculation exams required for college acceptance. "Now, it's in my head all the time," she sys. "Now, I want to succeed. I know I won't get into a good profession without the matriculation certificate." Oshrat was one of a group of children who lobbied for a continuation of the small 9th grade language arts groups in 10th grade as well. "The school was amazed," says Ada. "These were kids with no motivation." The new class was opened immediately.

In an upstairs classroom at the school, seven 10th graders bend their heads over an English word acrostic, dictionaries open in front of them. Odelia, who is circling words with colored markers, says she knew only four letters of English a year ago: A, B, C and D. Today, she reads, writes and translates independently with a dictionary. "It's because the teacher can relate to us individually, she can sit with each of us and help us," Odelia says. "In the big class, no one comes and helps you like here."

Odelia also passes all her language tests now. "Her language teacher from last year couldn't believe it. Last year, she never even sat for a test," says her Back from the Edge language teacher.

AIKR also runs a support group for Kavkazi girls, helping them bridge the gaps between their patriarchal, traditional culture, and the pulls of the modern world. "While other high school kids think about the army and college, these girls think about whom to get engaged to because of pressure from their parents to marry early and marry within the community," says Ada. "It's a huge issue. We try to help them find their way."

The warmth between program staff, volunteers and the students is palpable. The teachers take pleasure and personal pride in their pupils' new achievements. Oshrat bends to kiss Ada when she leaves the room.

Speaking of the Back from the Edge project in her school, Principal Sagie says, "It's a project with soul." Vice Principal Gutterman adds: "The project saved Oshrat from dropping out. It changed not only her grades and motivation but her behavior. The small groups enable the kids finally, finally to bridge gaps that were created over many years. This project doesn't only bring the kids back from the edge; it puts them in the center. We want it forever."

As part of its effort to raise awareness and advance solutions to the growing problem of domestic violence in the Ethiopian community in Israel, SHATIL's Yachdav Coalition presented its work and aims to a conference at Bar Ilan University last week. Sponsored by Bar Ilan's School of Social Work and the Association for the Establishment of the Inter-Cultural Center for Human Sexuality and Family Life, the gathering, From Impartial and Multicultural to Sensitive and Inter-cultural: Issues of Sexuality and Family Life, aimed to heighten inter-cultural sensitivity around issues of sexuality and family and to present the connection between culturally sensitive treatment, and tolerance and violence prevention. Coalition coordinator Shulamit Sahalo represented the Ethiopian community at the conference, which also featured representatives from the Israeli Arab, FSU, ultra-Orthodox and native born and communities. Shulamit spoke about the crisis in the Ethiopian family that leads to frustration and violence, the Coalition's emphasis on the treatment of men and about the fact that not enough preparation is given to Ethiopian immigrants for the drastic change in cultures they undergo upon immigrating. She informed the audience of professors, managers and government officials about the Coalition's dual focus: raising awareness in the Ethiopian community through seminars and public education and influencing decision makers, community workers and the government to make the issue a top priority.

As candidates for city councils and other municipal bodies launch their election campaigns for November's local elections, SHATIL is launching its own campaign by working with social change organizations to make sure social and environmental issues are on candidates' agenda. As part of this effort, SHATIL is collaborating with local organizations to create a dialogue between the public and the candidates by providing local media with stories, items and interviewees on relevant issues.

SHATIL published a new booklet: The Local Elections - Tools for Working with the Political System, the Media and the Public: A Guide for Social Change Organizations, written by senior SHATIL lobby consultant Lea Lieberman Bender and SHATIL media consultant Ilanit Elul. The booklet contains time lines, strategies, tips and recommendations for ways of working during the window of opportunity the pre-election period presents, as well as lists of relevant contact people and phone numbers. It is being sent to 1500 social organizations, the 120 members of Knesset, national and local government offices, and others. The booklet is available free of charge both on line (http://www.SHATIL.org.il/files/hoveret%20behirot3.pdf) and in printed form.
SHATIL is also guiding a national coalition of environmental organizations in an effort to get their vision on local candidates' agendas. The coalition is focusing on four issues: accessibility of open spaces, public transportation, environmental infrastructure and strengthening city centers. SHATIL is offering targeted courses for activists in the North, South and Center of the country on how to maximize their effect during the pre-election period.

"The central goal of this effort is to remind people that they have the right and the possibility of influencing their lives," says Shimon Malka, director of SHATIL's Center for Policy Change.

After a long struggle by two local organizations, street names in Ramle's Old City quarter - populated largely by Arabs -- will be changed to reflect the heritage and history of the local residents. Ramle's Committee on Names and Memorials accepted the request for such a change by the NGO Adar (My Home) and the Popular Committee (which unites local Arab non profits and neighborhood committees) with the help and backing of SHATIL's Mixed Cities Project.

The organizations began their struggle upon discovering that not a single street in the quarter carried an Arabic name. They pointed out that Jews and Arabs have been living together in the neighborhood for decades and felt the street names should reflect the heritage of both peoples.

In light of the decision, two streets which had only numbers for names have been changed to HaKalipha Suleiman Street, after the 9th century founder of Ramle and Emile Habibi Street, named after the Israel Prize laureate, Knesset member, journalist and author best known for his novel, The Optimist.

Jamal Salameh, chair of Adar and field coordinator for the Mixed Cities Project sees the committee's decision as a "historic decision" and hopes it will be a "turning point in relations between the city of Ramle and its Arab residents."

Nadia Harhash, 36, an activist turned project coordinator at the Israeli Committee against House Demolitions, says SHATIL's Community Organizing Training Program (COTP) has changed the way she approaches her grass roots empowerment and leadership work.

"I learned to stop working spontaneously and start working in a more structured, methodical and thoughtful way," Nadia says. "Thanks to the course, I'm working more professionally. I've learned to examine the consequences of potential actions. If not for the course and Koby (her project advisor, Koby Halpern of Community Advocacy,) I would have started the new group I'm working on three months ago. I would have hidden agendas and this is wrong. Now I'm clearer with myself and with the group. I have a tendency to become personally involved in my groups, which creates expectations that I will help people. I don't want to just help people. I want to help them to help themselves, to discover where their power is. The course has taught me to create better boundaries - for my health and for the health of the group. It's a slower, stronger, more solid process that opens up more horizons."

In addition to the third cycle of COTP, SHATIL ran dozens of courses this past winter. Among the new offerings was a course in financial management for non profits. This is an area that is becoming ever more important to the professionalization of NGO's and to funding bodies. The course launched Shatil's activities in this area, which followed an organizational needs assessment conducted on a volunteer basis by Canadian businesswoman, Leslie Ram in conjunction with SHATIL fundraising consultant, Liora Asa.

The new Coalition for Public Health Director, Yizhar Reshef, says he learned for the first time to create an organizational budget that is both appropriate for funders and true to his organization's aims as well as how to maximize the use of funds for social concerns. Yizhar also says he acquired constructive struggle tools in SHATIL's New Tactics: Social and Environmental Activists' course that help him build the Coalition's collaborations with the Ministry of Health, such as their cooperation with Ministry's research into contaminants in the Israeli food supply. "The course taught me that we have to move from a stance of criticism and attack to one of cooperation. It strengthened me and helped turn intuition into practice," says Yizhar.

In dozens of other courses, hundreds of activists learned how to monitor and follow up on government decisions, become social entrepreneurs, advocate for the disabled, influence economic decision makers, use the media to advance social change and much more.

The last 20 years have seen a sharp rise in civil society attempts to influence the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. Some organizations work to protect the human rights of Palestinians living in the West Bank using such strategies as reports and court petitions, others organize dialogues between people from both sides of the divide, and yet others initiate joint professional projects, hoping these will lower the level of mistrust and hatred.

Regrettably, none of these strategies has succeeded in 'bringing peace' to the region. Is the task too big for civil society? What can civil society organizations do in such a complex power structure, involving so many international players? Can social organizations really lead a fundamental transformation in the situation? Or can they only work 'within' it, minimizing the damage at the margins? Does their work always improve the situation, or does it at times serve the powers that be and actually act as a block to real change?

These penetrating and challenging questions were the subjects of discussion in a conference organized jointly by SHATIL's Conflict Transformation and Management Center and the Swiss Center for the Study of Conflict Management and Resolution at the Hebrew University, the first week of April. In the conference, "The Role of Civil Society Organizations in the Conflict between Palestinians and Israelis," more than 15 heads of human rights, peace and dialogue organizations participated in panels, sharing their strategies and discussing the dilemmas they face.

Are joint Palestinian-Israeli organizations better able to bring a clear message across because of their 'cross-border' cooperation, or are uni-national organizations more effective in each of their communities? What is the difference between organizations with a clear political statement against the occupation and those who do not have a clear position but work to bring together Palestinian and Israeli professionals? What achievements can human rights organizations show for all their efforts? These were some of the questions discussed. Although no clear answers could be given, most participants felt that creating a joint forum for raising the questions and discussing them together was an important step forward.

"Bringing together organizational directors from the field and academics who specialize in conflict management creates new ways of thinking," said one participant.

The conference was part of an ongoing effort by SHATIL and the Swiss Center to involve the academy in civil society efforts and to further develop the connection between conflict transformation theory and practice.

SHATIL scored a success for all Israeli civil society organizations this month when it succeeded against all odds in getting the Knesset to exclude NGO lobbyists from a new law regulating lobbying in the Knesset. SHATIL led an ad hoc forum of organizations that included NIF-grantee, the Association for Civil rights in Israel, the Economic Justice Law Clinic at Tel Aviv University, the Israeli Disabled Human Rights Organization and various environmental organizations in this effort. The original law applied to both organizational and commercial lobbyists. Both the MK's who introduced the law and other MK's strongly opposed the exclusion, but four months of intensive work paid off. When the law passed the Knesset in its last session of the season, organizational lobbyists were not affected.

"It's important that the Knesset recognized the difference between lobbyists for social justice and lobbyists for commercial interests," said Lea Lieberman-Bender, the senior lobby consultant at SHATIL who led the effort. "It enables us to continue doing our work to achieve a more just society unhampered."

After a two-year legal struggle against the Ministry of Education and the Rahat Municipality on the safety of Rahat schools, the SHATIL-led Forum for Arab Education in the Negev and local parents' committees achieved a triple success last week: the Rahat Municipality, as obligated by the courts in three petitions submitted by the Forum and the parents' committees with the legal assistance of the Center for Pluralism of the Union for Progressive Judaism,
affirmed that it conducted repairs to alleviate hazardous conditions demanded by the petition in several city schools and is in the process of repairing the hazardous conditions in others.

The suits were served after an examination by an engineer engaged by the Forum and the parents' committees found shocking safety violations in the schools and requests to address them went unanswered.

"This victory was a long time in coming but it is a sweet victory," said Shmuel David, SHATIL lobby consultant to the Forum. SHATIL Be'er Sheva co-director Sultan Abu Abed cautioned that while the Forum has had many successes, Bedouin education in the Negev remains in a sorry state and much work still needs to be done.

Forum coordinator, Dr. Awad Abu Freih: "I wonder at the fact that we have to turn to the courts in order to provide safe schools to protect the lives of our children and school personnel. We will continue to closely monitor the work done and the promises of the municipality."

In an era in which more people in our region are becoming ever more familiar with fear, the Fourth Annual Alternative Politics Conference in Sderot last week dedicated two days to "The Politics of Fear." SHATIL Associate Director Carlos Sztyglic opened the conference by comparing the fears officials try to instill in us today ("If we talk to Hamas, the State will fall apart; If we don't cut social budgets, we'll have economic catastrophe") to the fears of childhood monsters our parents evoked when we didn't mind them. In both cases, fear is used by the powerful to control the less powerful. Academics, writers, social activists and citizens from throughout the country participated in sessions on Fear as Policy in History, From Threat of Catastrophe to Economic Growth, Dangers, Fears and Security Policy. Sztyglic also moderated a round table discussion on "Another kind of Politics in Israel: Struggles, New Direction and Voices."

SHATIL Director Rachel Liel spoke at an evening event at the new Sderot Community Center along with literary, academic and community figures from Sderot and the rest of the country. The event brought conference participants together with Sderot residents and was recorded live for Michael Miro's popular weekly radio show, "Social Issues." It celebrated the 50th anniversary of Sderot's transition from immigrant transit camp to local authority. Liel spoke about the need to transform the concept "periphery" from a geographic to a social notion and from a negative poor cousin image to the positive potential the periphery holds for providing an alternative to the center that enjoys distributive equality and builds new models for diverse populations living together.

The Conference was co-sponsored by Sapir Academic College, SHATIL and the Heinrich Boll Foundation.

SHATIL Everett Social Justice Fellow Rama Bor got a byline the other day -- and a chance to influence hundreds of thousands of people.

Rama's op ed, "Country, City (Animal Vegetable Mineral)" -- the name of a popular Isareli children's word game -- appeared on Ynet, Israel's largest internet news site, on March 23. In it, Rama bemoaned the distressing deterioration and neglect of Israel's downtown areas, a process that hurts small businesses, the poor, the environment and city residents. Providing an analysis of the economic and political reasons for this state of affairs, Rama argued persuasively for the renewal of city centers, calling on the government to take action based on approved government programs. Using colorful metaphors ("The center is the city's beating heart and pumps life through its arteries",) Rama lauded Israeli cities like Kfar Saba, Tel Aviv and Haifa that are pouring resources into reviving their downtown areas.

The piece expressed the opinion of the Forum for Environment and Society, a coalition of environmental and social change organizations in Be'er Sheva, of which SHATIL is a part. Rama's internship includes media consulting to the Forum and to SHATIL-led Coalition for Public Health in Ramat Hovav, a polluted, factory laden area of the Negev near several unrecognized Bedouin villages.

Rama said the writing of the op ed piece was a challenge. "Each organization has its own agenda and its own opinions. Each one thinks something else should be written. I had to take the consensus views and write something meaningful and newsworthy and interesting that everyone would approve of."

The Forum is running a series of town meetings, each on a different topic and in a different neighborhood, with the goal of formulating a green vision for Be'er Sheva. To raise awareness, the Forum decided to try to get an op ed piece published in anticipation of the latest town meeting, which was devoted to the topic of city centers.

Rama's first byline in a non-student paper appeared in Ynet on International Human Rights Day, December 10, shortly after she began her Everett internship at SHATIL Be'er Sheva. It focused on the human rights of the Negev Bedouin. Another of Rama's pieces on the environmental impact of the IDF's plan to move all its training bases to the Negev also appeared on Ynet.

"Social change organizations are busy with actions, but in order to recruit people and interest as well as funders, you have to have exposure in the media," Rama says.

Rama says she is happy that these topics are getting the exposure they deserve. She works closely with SHATIL media consultant Ayelet Danon, who, she says, "actually taught me how to write, what to put in and what to leave out, how to edit, how to talk to editors."

A third year student in education and politics and government at Ben Gurion University, Rama is a third generation sabra from Afula who decided she wanted to experience a new part of the country. She has always volunteered she says, and so have her parents. "It's gratifying and gives me an opportunity to see things I would not otherwise see," she says. "It widens my perspective and opens me to new ways of thinking."

Rama says she is learning a lot from her Everett internship. "I didn't know about the environmental problems at Ramat Hovav. I didn't know much about Bedouins or the issue of the unrecognized villages," she says. "And I'm learning how to work with the media and about how social change organizations work."

Her work with SHATIL has convinced Rama that she wants to continue working in a social change organization.

"Civil strength has the power to change the present and the future," says Rama. "Social change organizations help people to formulate the problems, to raise awareness and give citizens the tools and the strength to believe in themselves and their ability to make a difference."

Working in an unusual ad hoc coalition of Russian, Ethiopian and Israeli Arab organizations, SHATIL took part in a campaign against racism by distributing prepaid postcards in Hebrew, Arabic, Russian and Amharic, asking people to anonymously write about their encounters with racism. One of the questions: "Tell us your secret: We invite you to share with us racism that you witnessed, initiated or of which you were the victim." A special internet site, irac.org/gizanut.asp was launched on March 21, the UN's International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

The first postcard on the site, hosted by the Center for Religious Pluralism, is a powerful anonymous apology. On it is handwritten over and over, "Forgive me (in all possible Hebrew grammatical voices aimed at a man, a woman, and a group of people) around the larger main message: "I can't tell you. I'm not able to tell you," and illustrated with finger prints.

Another admits: "I was quiet in the face of racism. I was a helper in an after school program in Jaffa that had Jewish and Arab children. I noticed that the teacher helped only the Jewish children with their homework and played only with them.... She was the only teacher who was nice to me and I just couldn't tell her she was not behaving well. I am ashamed."

And a third: "I thought I wasn't racist. After all, I'm socially active and very aware. But one day, I saw her walking, an old woman carrying heavy baskets. Rain was falling and the wind was freezing. I was shocked by the fact that I didn't take pity on her. If she had been Jewish, I would have felt sorry for her. I learned at that moment, that racism beats in my heart."

The postcards include stronger racist statements that were heard or felt, primarily against Arabs and Ethiopians.

The coalition, which included Tebeka: Advocacy for Equality and Justice for Ethiopian Israelis; Mossawa: The Advocacy Center for Arab Citizens of Israel; the Center for Jewish Pluralism and the Association for the Rights of Mixed Families and SHATIL prepared a detailed report citing racist statements and actions by government agencies and officials and others. Examples include, MK Nisim Ze'ev's statement: "We should deal with homosexuals the way we deal with bird flu" (quoted on the nrg web site on January 28, 2008;) an article describing the exclusion of Arabs from entry to the Western Wall (Yediot Achronot, April 11, 2007;) and a demonstration by Jews against a family who wanted to sell their home to an Arab (Ynet, May 13, 2007.) The document will can be found in Hebrew on our web site at http://shatil.org.il/services/1198677173/1206950864 with link