A MESSAGE FROM SIKKUY’S CO-EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS
JABIR ASAQLA AND RON GERLITZ

JABIR ASAQLA                                  RON GERLITZ

Dear Sikkuy Friends,

This first newsletter of 2015 is loaded with information and links to both two new Sikkuy reports and to some essential articles from the media related to all of our challenging work in the aftermath of the Gaza war in the summer of 2014 and as we face the unknown factor of what the elections called for March 2015 will bring.

One of the paradoxically positive results of the very negative “Jewish Nation-State Law” proposed by Prime Minister Netanyahu and his right-wing coalition members is that it forced many of the government’s “centrist” parties and their leaders to get off the fence and take a stand.

Just to mention a few prominent voices that spoke out unequivocally against the law: President Reuven Rivlin and former president Shimon Peres, the Attorney General, many leading constitutional experts such as Professor Ruth Gavison, former Likud leaders including Dan Meridor and Michael Eitan, writers such as Oudeh Bisharat and opposition leaders from Labor, Meretz and the Arab parties.

During and in the aftermath of the summer’s war in Gaza, Arab citizens of Israel were subjected to unprecedented incitement from extreme Jewish activists and even members of the government. Arab citizens felt threatened in the public space by both verbal and physical abuse as they have never felt before (see Ron's Op-Ed “Not just escalation: A frightening new era of Jewish-Arab relations in Israel)

Arabs who protested the war and the damage it was inflicting on the Palestinians in Gaza in public and on the social media found themselves targets for dismissal from their places of work. There were public calls by Jewish ministers and MKs for Jews to boycott Arab businesses.

During that period Sikkuy worked intensively in the media and both of the co-executive directors appeared many times on television and radio to warn about the deterioration in Jewish-Arab relations and the difficult situation of the Arab citizens during the war, along with our opposition to the attempts being made to use the war in Gaza to incite against Arab citizens. Sikkuy’s voice was heard loud and clear and this voice was also very important to the Jewish and Arab citizens who believe in shared society and equality.

Sikkuy also led a civil society coalition that ran a social media campaign calling on employers not to fire Arab employees and on Arab workers to make use of the legal tools at their disposal to roll back the unjust dismissals.

Here’s an example (in Hebrew) of the campaign.

Sikkuy’s senior staff member, Samah Elkhatib Ayoub, published an enlightening Op-Ed on this challenge to the basic civil rights of Arab citizens and the chasm it opened in Jewish-Arab relations in Israel. During the war and at the peak of the escalating incitement against Arab citizens, sikkuy's co-executive director published a trenchant analysis of the trends in Israeli society that are behind the increasing incitement and verbal and physical attacks on Arab citizens at a time when they are making their presence felt in the shared public space (workplaces, universities, media etc.). In it Ron demonstrates that it is indeed the ever increasing presence of Arab citizens in the public space that has generated a backlash by Jews who feel threatened by this. An expanded exposition of Ron’s thesis can be found here: http://bit.ly/ReasonsForEscalation .

Other important achievements:

NEW SIKKUY PROJECT WILL USE CONSTRUCTIVE DIALOGUE WITH THE EDUCATION MINISTRY TO ADVANCE EDUCATION FOR SHARED SOCIETY AS A CORE SUBJECT IN THE SCHOOL SYSTEM

Despite the importance and success of various “boutique” programs teaching the values of shared society in Jewish and Arab schools, the school system in Israel largely ignores the vital need for a broad-based and universal program of shared-society education for Jewish and Arab students and Arabic language studies for Jews.

Over the last year Sikkuy examined this issue and came to the conclusion that a major effort to advance across the board changes in the education curriculum in Israel is vital. We have a well thought out project plan which is now moving forward and we will soon be hiring project co-directors, an Arab and a Jew, to begin the work – this due to the generous additional donations from our funders and the willingness of other foundations/donors to consider new grant requests for our “Education for Shared Society” project. We will be happy to send you the proposal brochure (PDF or hard copy).

EQUALITY ZONES PROJECT CONCLUDES AFTER THREE YEARS OF ACTION AND SUPPORT BY USAID

Despite the tension in Israel at the time, on November 25, 2014, Sikkuy succeeded in bringing together over 130 Arab and Jewish citizens - mayors, leaders, activists and decision-makers from the public, private and third sectors, to explore the challenges and opportunities in cross-municipal Jewish/Arab partnerships. The event highlighted sikkuy's efforts to advance partnerships between Jewish and Arab local municipalities over the last decade, and especially since 2011 through the USAID-funded Equality Zones Project.

Conference participants reported walking away, even during these painful and frightening days, with a sense of inspiration and hope, that potential partners, those looking for “real solutions and not just Band-Aids”, do exist.

Panel discussion at the conference

Sikkuy’s co-executive directors with USAID heads

The project created new frameworks for cooperation between Jewish and Arab municipalities in the fields of environment, tourism, employment zone development and public transportation. It advanced a decision by the government to establish a statutory “cluster” that will advance regional cooperation and solutions with, for the first time, both Arab and Jewish local authorities as equal members.

The project heads wrote a detailed description of the project to serve as a model and road map for other regions in Israel: “Equality Zones: Promoting Partnerships between Jewish and Arab Municipal Authorities – Lessons and Insights”

SIKKUY POLICY STUDY CALLS FOR CHANGES IN DIVISION OF GOVERNMENT MUNICIPAL TAXES SO THAT ARAB TOWNS WILL RECEIVE THEIR FAIR SHARE

At a conference attended by municipal leaders from Arab and Jewish towns, senior civil servants, civil society activists, journalists and diplomats Sikkuy and Injaz – Center for Professional Arab Local Governance concluded a two-year project funded by the European Union and other Sikkuy supporters to advance cooperation and equal budget allocations between Arab Local Authorities and the government offices that provide funding for local authorities and municipalities.

The conference launched the Sikkuy/Injaz policy research "From Deficits and Dependence to Balanced Budgets and Independence – The Arab Local Authorities’ Revenue Sources" that made headlines in all the media in Israel. The research demonstrated that the real reason for the impoverished state of the Arab Local Authorities is the failure of successive governments of Israel to invest in the development of tax revenue producing industrial zones in the Arab towns or to include Arab towns in the property tax revenues collected by the regional industrial zones throughout Israel.

Furthermore, the study demonstrated that property taxes paid by government offices and facilities goes almost exclusively to Jewish towns further impoverishing Arabs towns. As a result of Sikkuy and Injaz’ s study and intervention policy changes are in the offing that will provide major new sources of income from these tax revenues to the Arab local authorities.

Thanks for taking the time to read this important message. We look forward to your comments and questions and to keeping in touch in 2015.

Sincerely,
Jabir and Ron

Dear Friends of Sikkuy,

As we begin 2015 this is a good time to thank all of our friends (in Israel and abroad) for their commitment and support in what was a very challenging year for Jewish-Arab relations in Israel and for our work.

As Sikkuy approaches its 25th anniversary in 2016, it is larger, stronger and more successful than ever before in advancing significant and measurable achievements in equality and shared society between the Arab and Jewish citizens of Israel.

We were very moved by the increased support our donors provided in 2014. We see this as recognition of the important and effective work of Sikkuy’s staff (25) and board (12 members). We are also extremely proud of the fact that more than 15% of our budget for 2015 will come from Israeli donors (both foundations and philanthropists). This is both a vital component of our operating budget as well as proof positive that our work has increasing support within Israel.

I’m pleased that so many of you were able to meet with Ron on his recent trip to the USA and expect that the next visit in 2015 will include both Ron and Jabir.

For those of you who would like to make an additional or first-time donation to Sikkuy you can go to this link in our website for easy instructions or simply contact me for details.

Sincerely,

Carl Perkal

Director of Resource Development

carl@sikkuy.org.il