Projects

by Haya Laufer

01/16/2007

Mission to Israel Report 2006/2007

Landing in Israel a little over four months after the official cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah our small and diverse group of mission participants were ready for a meaningful experience. Enjoying Israel’s beautiful sights, her wonderful gastronomic offerings and the amalgam of past and present, merely provided the background for addressing and witnessing first hand the issues, problems and challenges Israel faces today.

Israel of 2007, one year shy of her sixtieth birthday, is at a serious crossroads.

 While Israel’s economy was growing at a high rate before the war it sustained a significant loss during the hostilities in the north. In addition to high cost of the war, significant numbers of business were destroyed. The tourism industry was hit hard and its recovery is slow.
 At the same time the economic gap between the haves and the have nots continues to widen, with Israel competing with the US for the top rank of inequality among the developed countries.
 One out of every three Israeli children is poor.
 Israelis are demoralized by the inability of the current ruling coalition to govern, by the nuclear threat Iran poses, and by what they view as the military fiasco of the Lebanon War. They have been further discouraged by the moral and ethical void exhibited by some of the country leaders.

The entire group- from its youngest member (eight month old Aaron) to the senior citizens- kept its high spirits and eagerness to learn regardless of the winter weather that welcomed us in Israel. Heavy rains throughout the country with several inches of snow in Jerusalem did not dampen the enthusiasm nor did it deter our group from its tour.

Ameinu’s progressive world-view together with the movement’s labor Zionist values defined the content of the program. The ambitious and busy itinerary of the five days mission included touring, presentations, briefings and discussions with Ameinu’s strategic partners in Israel, the grass root volunteer based organizations of NISPED and YEDID. Those two organizations- effectively fulfilling the Jewish value of Tikkun Olam (repairing the world)- are committed to an amazing array of public missions and provide social, communal, legal, economic and psychological guidance and assistance.

NISPED (Negev Institute for Strategies of Peace and Development) through its Arab-Jewish Center for Equality, Empowerment and Cooperation (AJEEC) centers on the needs and concerns of the Bedouin community in the Negev since within the Arab/Palestinian-Israeli community their situation is the most dire. Mission participants visited NISPED’s center in Be’er-Sheva and toured a winter day camp for Bedouin children, run by a group of young Jewish and Bedouins women, all high school graduates, who volunteered for a year of civic service. Driving to the Bedouin village of Lakiya the group found out that the heavy downpours, which overflowed a local wadi (creek) prevented the bus from reaching a cluster of unrecognized Bedouin villages visible on the hills lining the main road. The unrecognized villages, devoid of official infrastructure, were completely unreachable in the rain. In Lakiya we visited the Bedouin’s women’s embroidery workshop where women’s empowerment programs combined with microeconomic initiatives enable Bedouin women to become more self sufficient, educated and find their place in a changing society.

YEDID (Hebrew for friend) promotes social justice through a network of Citizen Rights Centers in disadvantaged communities throughout Israel. Visiting the YEDID center in the poorer part of Haifa we met some of the organization’s leaders as well as other people who run the organization on the ground. Many of YEDID’s former clients return to its centers as volunteer counselors assisting others in their efforts to break the vicious cycle of poverty. From professionals to volunteers the entire YEDID staff is united in their hard work to provide both assistance and empowerment tools as well as legal advocacy to the unemployed, those being evicted from their homes, poor renters, and the homeless. The “Nutrition Law” to provideg at least one hot meal for every school child was initiated and drafted by the organization. During the war in Lebanon YEDID’s centers took the initiative and helped with food distribution, temporary shelter for people who were forced to vacate their homes and day camps for children. While at the same time assisting the Northern residents with their claims for compensation, benefits and in negotiating terms of residents’ work and financial obligations. YEDID’s post war effort focuses on educating Northern residents, providing them with a complete guide to their rights as citizens, with legal aid to help them realize those rights and supporting them in rebuilding their lives that were disrupted by the war. The American group also visited the Arab community of Wadi Nisnis where several Hezbollah rockets landed last summer demolishing several homes. Leading the YEDID outreach to this community was a young Druze woman who coordinates YEDID’s work within Haifa’s disadvantaged Arab neighborhoods.

Other highlights of the mission were:

1. A visit to the Intel company plant in Kiryat Gat, which produces computer microprocessors and is committed to Corporate Social Responsibility.
2. A visit to the Givat Haviva Jewish Arab Center for Peace where among the many of the educational workshop and programs the center provides is the special training and enrichment track for Jewish and Arab women in the social service professions, with the goal of advancing the social, political and cultural involvement of women in their communities.
3. A visit to the urban kibbutz Tamuz in Beit Shemesh. The kibbutz through its Kehila (community) NGO was instrumental in providing shelter and assistance last summer to hundreds of evacuees from the Galilee during the Lebanon war. Kehila’s commitment to social justice is demonstrated by its operation of several programs for women and children in disadvantage neighborhoods in Beit Shemesh.
4. Tour of Jaffa with a special briefing on plans for the enrichment of Jaffa's Jewish and Arab citizens, both through educational and social programs as well as the rehabilitation of run down neighborhoods.
5. A visit to the Labor party HQ in Tel-Aviv and meeting with Labor party Member of Knesset Orit Noked a member of Kibbutz Shefayim.
6. A special meeting with the Israeli members of the World Labor Zionist Movement and the Labor party young leadership. The meaningful meeting allowed the group and the Israeli hosts to engage in a heart to heart exchange that continued for many hours afterwards.
7. A visit to the famed Kinneret Cemetery on the south western shores of the Sea of Galilee where the pastoral setting provides the resting place for famous Zionists figures, poets, fallen soldiers from the war of Independence, and lesser known pioneers and kibbutz builders.

We had an impromptu Kabalat Shabbbat on the bus driving from the Kinneret to Jerusalem through the Jordan Valley. On Saturday some trip participants went to progressive Shabbat services while others walked the neighborhoods of Jerusalem. The group spent Shabbat afternoon in the old city of Jerusalem and ended Shabbat with a Havdalah service led by Steve Burnstein a student at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College.

Witnessing the incredible work, the dedication, the resourcefulness and the ethics of the people working on the ground in Israel is a humbling experience. Even the trip’s guide who has been accompanying trips and missions for many years was amazed by what we witnessed. Yet these not-for-profit organizations operate under the pressures and constrains of small budgets and they struggle for daily survival. They need us to notice, appreciate their hard work and assist them, so they can continue their vital missions. In a world where liberal Jews look for new ways and venues to engage in social activism, participating in grassroots efforts to create a Just Society in Israel is a great effort to be part of and a Jewish thing to do. Being part of this however means more than just helping Israeli NGOs help others. Those NGOs themselves are crucial because they are the keepers of the true values and soul of the Jewish state, of what Israel attempted to be in the past and what she can still become in the future.