An Alternative Voice in the Galilee

Alternative Voice in the Galilee is a registered non-profit organization of Arab and Jewish residents of the lower Galilee who joined together following the October 2000 events to challenge the unequal relations between Arab and Jewish populations in the region. From its beginning Alternative Voice in the Galilee has sought to address the mending of past relationships and the rebuilding of mutual trust between the two communities. It aims to build an intercultural civil society in the Galilee, a society that realizes and prospers by the mutual interests of all its residents. Alternative Voice in the Galilee aims to alter the present reality in Israel that supports an institutional preference of Jewish citizens over Arabs. In its place, it wishes to build a shared future based on equal rights for all, in the Galilee in particular and in the greater Israeli society at large. The organization works to correct historical injustices endured by the Arab minority, whose land has been confiscated, and its villages and townships are limited by government policy that does not allow for their growth. Alternative Voice in the Galilee is the only Arab-Jewish partnership in the region to concentrate on issues of joint housing and living together of Arabs and Jews.