One Year of Israel’s Unlikely Government Part 2: Challenges for Progressive Civil Society

Join us on Wednesday, June 15 at 10am Pacific/12pm Central/1pm ET for the second session in a two-part series exploring the opportunities and challenges that Israel’s current government has created for civil society organizations over the last year.

In this second session, we’ll be shifting our focus to the challenges we have faced over the past year and how we are working to overcome them. While important strides have been made through civil society working with the new government in some areas, progressive civil society has faced significant challenges. Israel’s governing coalition, led by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, has approved new settlement construction, forced the expulsion of Palestinians in the West Bank and of Bedouin citizens in the Negev, and has, at best, ignored rising settler violence targeting Palestinian civilians. Despite these myriad challenges, NIF, our action arm, Shatil, and our grantees have not given up advocacy in the face of these challenges.

In this second session, we’ll hear from Breaking the Silence’s Avner Gvaryahu, Physicians for Human Rights—Israel’s Ghada Majadli, and Eran Nissan of Mehazkim. They’ll share insights with us they have learned from the past year of struggle to advocate for change with the current Israeli government.

Register on NIF’s website here.

Speakers:

Eran Nissan is the COO of Mehazkim, and an Israeli peace activist. Prior to joining Mehazkim, Eran headed the education & advocacy department at Peace Now, and has interned at the US Congress as part of ‘New Story Leadership.’ Eran has a BA in Political Science & Philosophy from the Ben Gurion University, and is currently working on an MA in Emergency & Disaster Management at Tel Aviv University.

Avner Gvaryahu was born in the Israeli city of Rehovot. During his army service, he served in the special forces of the paratroopers brigade, where he attained the rank of staff sergeant. A year after completing his service he joined Breaking the Silence as a researcher and tour guide with a focus on Diaspora Jewry, and later served as the head of our Public Outreach Department. Avner completed a B.A. in Social Work at Tel Aviv University and an M.A. in Human Rights at Columbia University. Today he serves as Breaking the Silence’s Executive Director.

Ghada Majadli is the director of the occupied Palestinian Territory department at Physicians for Human Rights Israel. Ghada joined PHRI in 2017 and since then she has been engaged in various projects related to the right to health and access to proper medical care in the occupied Palestinian territories. As part of her job, she has been conducting research, policy change work and local and international advocacy targeting violations of the right to health of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.

Ghada brings with her extensive work experience in human rights and social justice. As a Palestinian woman living in Israel, she was exposed at an early age to struggles related to gender bias and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. She has worked with various groups within the Palestinian and the Israeli society on women rights and empowering disadvantaged groups. In 2016 with the outbreak of the refugee crisis, Ghada volunteered and worked in Greece and Germany with local staff, focusing on cultural sensitivity when applying integration measures.

Ghada holds an MA in Human Rights and Transitional Justice from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a bachelor’s degree in Social Work from Tel Aviv University.

Register on NIF’s website here.