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These Jewish and Arab Israelis Are Creating a New Type of Grassroots

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These Jewish and Arab Israelis Are Creating a New Type of Grassroots All Share Tweet Email Zen News 'Trump is right about the Opinion Raise the coronavirus. The WHO is wrong,' home. Stand up t says Israeli expert Netanyahu | Opin Recommended by Home > Israel News These Jewish and Arab Israelis Are Creating a New Type of Grassroots Activism Citizens groups are not a replacement for a political party that speaks in the name of both communities, but at the moment they may be the best Israeli society can come up with David B. Green | Send me email alerts All Share Tweet Email Zen Mar 12, 2020 4:17 PM News 'Trump is right about the Opinion Raise the 583 Tweetcoronavirus. The WHO is wrong,' home. 1 Stand Zen up t says Israeli expert Netanyahu | Opin Recommended by Members of Standing Together taking part in a demonstration in Tel Aviv against Israel's actions in Gaza, May 2018. Credit: Moti Milrod It sounds almost like a scenario from the end of days: One recent Thursday night before the election, a group from an Arab-Jewish, socialist, political action organization made forays into several central Jerusalem neighborhoods to hang posters expressing their solidarity with a population group that is more often an object of hostile attacks. Printed in Hebrew, Yiddish and Arabic, no less, the posters were meant to convey the message to the capital’s sizable ultra-Orthodox (or Haredi) population that, basically, “We’re all in this together”: “Not one of us want our grandmothers to be stuck lying in the hospital corridor. … None of us want to be forsaken in old age. … All of us want a good education for our children,” the posters read. “We had spoken among ourselves about how we were fed up with the incitement against the Haredim in the election campaigning – something that is in fact quite common on the left,” explains Carmel Givon, aAll 19-year-old Share activist Tweet with the organization Email Zen Standing Together (“Omdim Beyahad”). And so the group of some 15 young people Newsdecided 'Trump to reach is right out about with thethe posters, which, withOpinion their Raise stark the black-and-whitecoronavirus. text, The look WHO from is wrong,' a distance like the pashkevilimhome. Stand that up t says Israeli expert Netanyahu | Opin plaster walls and message boards of many Orthodox neighborhoods. Recommended by — Advertisement — Retired Americans Are About To Take One On The Chin... New U.S. law could rob you of your IRA, 401(k), and even your pension. Watch The Video 3,12 Promoted Content Givon, who has been involved with a variety of left-wing groups since age 16, says the group decided to follow up that goodwill gesture with a more substantial political struggle on behalf of the Haredi community. Consulting with people from within the community, the members of Standing Together’s Jerusalem branch – it calls them “circles” – learned about the wide gaps between the salaries paid to ultra-Orthodox teachers and teachers working in secular state schools, and stationed themselves around the city to hand out flyers about the problem. All Share Tweet Email Zen News 'Trump is right about the Opinion Raise the coronavirus. The WHO is wrong,' home. Stand up t says Israeli expert Netanyahu | Opin Recommended by One of the pashkevilim placed in ultra-Orthodox parts of Jerusalem by Standing Together, pointing out the similarities between secular and religious communities. Credit: Standing Together “The salary of a Haredi teacher can range from 25 to 50 percent less than that of a secular teacher,” Givon says. “And they generally are hired as contract [freelance] employees, so that 80 percent are fired at end of the school year and then rehired in the fall,” denying them the social benefits permanent employees receive. “We wanted to raise awareness of the problem among the secular public. And we hoped for a joint battle.” So far, although Givon says they have received encouragement from teachers they have spoken with, as yet none have been ready to go public in joining the protest for fear of losing their jobs. But Givon and his comrades intend to continue with the effort on behalf of these unlikely bedfellows. As Standing Together’s national co-director, Alon-Lee Green, explains: “We decided to ‘stand together’ with them, and to show that the struggle is not between religious and secular.” Most of Green’s fellow members fall into the latter category. Related All Articles Share Tweet Email Zen ● IsraeliNews election: 'Trump is How right Iabout (literally) the joined the driveOpinion to get Raise the out thecoronavirus. Bedouin The vote WHO is wrong,' home. Stand up t ● Israelisays armyIsraeli blocksexpert 200 activists from plantingNetanyahu trees with| Opin RecommendedPalestinians by in West Bank ● 'Sometimes you need to make deals with the devil': Arab Israelis stand tall after election, but warn against fourth round Just around the corner from Zion Square (one of the spots where group members handed out flyers), a local youth hostel recently hosted another Standing Together initiative: a mini-course called “What Is to Be Done Now?” Over four successive Sunday nights, former Joint List lawmaker Dov Khenin and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev political scientist Prof. Dani Filc took turns offering an analysis of what’s ailing Israel politically, socially and economically, and a primer on how to collectively organize to effect change. The course was based on the eponymous book co-authored by the two men. Virtual resistance Standing Together is an organization of Israeli Arabs and Jews who have made common cause under the banner of “peace, equality and social justice” to bring about political action and change. Although these principles naturally mean the organization is dedicated to fighting the Israeli occupation, that and the Arab-Israeli conflict in general are just two among the many issues its members engage with. Parties on both sides of the political spectrum define themselves vis- à-vis the conflict and security – one could even say they are the political spectrum – and voters are corralled into positioning themselves accordingly. As a consequence, most other issues get short shrift in political campaigns, even as the candidates profit by pitting religious against secular, Mizrahi against Ashkenazi, and, most significantly, Jew against Arab. What gets ignored are such problems All as climate Share change, Tweet the growing Email privatization Zen of health care, lack of affordable housing, discrimination suffered by EthiopianNews and 'Trump Bedouin is right citizens, about andthe erosion of workers’Opinion rights, Raise to the mentioncoronavirus. just a few. The WHO is wrong,' home. Stand up t says Israeli expert Netanyahu | Opin RecommendedIt was another by left-wing, nonpartisan citizens group, Zazim (“Let’s Move”), that brought to national attention the fact that some 50,000 Bedouin living in unrecognized towns and villages in the Negev don’t have reasonable access to polling places, sometimes having to travel up to 50 kilometers (about 30 miles) to their assigned polling places. Working together with the Council of Unrecognized Villages, Zazim organized an operation last April that connected volunteer drivers with local residents, and provided some 7,000 Bedouin with rides to the polls for the April 9 election. The nonprofit had ambitious plans for the do-over election in September, but those had to be scrapped when a right-wing organization, Im Tirtzu, successfully petitioned the Central Elections Committee that Zazim was a partisan organization and was contravening election rules. If it still went forward with its effort, it would lose its nonprofit status. Zazim decided not to challenge the prohibition, and the effort to ferry Negev Bedouin to the polls took place without its involvement last September and in the recent March 2 election. According to Maayan Dak, Zazim’s deputy director, the organization operates largely in the digital sphere and has no physical office. Staffers live and work around the country, and consult virtually each day via video conferencing, in addition to weekly in-person conferences in Jaffa. The organization, which was founded in 2016, sends out regular email announcements and appeals for funds in both Hebrew and Arabic, to a mailing list of some 150,000 “members.” All Share Tweet Email Zen News 'Trump is right about the Opinion Raise the coronavirus. The WHO is wrong,' home. Stand up t says Israeli expert Netanyahu | Opin Recommended by Activists from Standing Together taking part in a protest against lack of efforts to address violence in Israel's Arab community, Tamra, October 12, 2019. Credit: Standing Together Standing Together, on the other hand, emphasizes the circles it has opened up around the country since launching in 2015: By the end of 2019, there were 16 circles, most of them defined by region, but some nationwide and devoted to specific issues like the environment or workers’ rights. It has 2,500 paying members, who contribute between 5.9 shekels to 250 shekels ($1.65 to $70) a month. (Zazim does not have membership fees, but both organizations derive most of their budgets from individuals’ contributions within Israel.) Standing Together recognizes that it will have members – generally Jews – who are Zionist, and others – generally Arabs – who are not. Says Sally Abed, a 28-year-old part-time staffer and Arab citizen of Israel: “We truly believe that whether you’re Zionist or a Palestinian nationalist, you can still find a place within Standing Together” based on “shared struggles.” At the same time, she says, “We have a very clear set of values that we don’t budge from: We are a socialist, democratic movement.” Abed says All Standing Share Together Tweet is modeled Email in part on Zen the Spanish social-action movement Podemos, from the period before it became a politicalNews party 'Trump in 2014.
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