Larry's Issue of the Week: Equitable Allocations in the North

NIF Blog
October 17, 2006
By LARRY GARBER

The entire NIF family lost a dear friend this week with the passing of Alona Vardi, the founder of SHATIL's Environmental Justice Project. The tributes contained in the story below describe Alona's enormous contributions to NIF and SHATIL, the Israeli environmental movement and Israeli society as a whole. We also extend our condolences to NIF co-founder Jonathan Cohen on the death of his mother on Yom Kippur.

As the Israeli Government and various philanthropic organizations begin investing in the north following the conflict this summer, the question of equitable allocations for all communities has risen to the fore. Two weeks ago, I attended the most recent meeting of the Inter-Agency Task Force on Israel, which formed two years ago and has helped place the topic of Israel's Arab minority on the agenda of many mainstream Jewish organizations in the United States.

The discussion at the Task Force meeting was both encouraging and worrying. On the positive side, the participants heard Zeev Bielski, head of the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI), state clearly that JAFI's mandate is to improve conditions for all Israelis, Jews and Arabs alike. And, the early evidence is that Bielski and others in senior positions in the Jewish communal world are serious about conforming their words and actions. At the same time, both Professor Elie Rekhes and Fathi Marshood (director of SHATIL's Haifa office) stated that the recent conflict exacerbated divisions between Israel's Jewish and Arab citizens and has made even more challenging the work of those who are trying to bridge social, economic and political gaps.

Subsequent to the Task Force meeting, the seemingly uniform endorsement of Bielski's constructive orientation has been called into question among some in the Diaspora community. Several organizations have publicly objected to funds from their constituents serving to benefit Arab communities. The initial response from the United Jewish Communities (UJC) defended the principle of using UJC funds in Arab communities, but rather defensively suggested that the actual allocation to the Arab sector amounted to a mere three percent. A more forceful and, I would argue, Jewish response recognizes that supporting Israel means supporting a state that affords its minority populations the freedoms, rights and opportunities that were for centuries denied to Jews around the world.

I believe that through the good work of the Task Force and the responsible attitudes of most Israeli and Diaspora leaders we will not see a reversion to base racism or a beggar-thy-neighbor philosophy. At the same time, recent experience highlights the need to be vigilant both in monitoring what is happening on the ground in Israel and what is being disseminated within the Jewish communities abroad. In the coming weeks, a SHATIL-convened coalition will report on the extent to which Israel is fulfilling its commitment to treat all citizens equitably in post-conflict Northern Israel. And, in the United States, NIF will continue to play a leadership role within the Task Force, which views the transformation of American Jewish understanding of the situation facing minorities in Israel as a primary goal.

In addition to the story about Alona, this week's NIF News describes the tenth annual NIF co-funded Sukkot, Hakhel Jewish Learning Festival, which for the first time was held in the north in solidarity with the citizens from the region. Also on Sukkot, NIF hosted a well-attended lecture in New York by Professor Michael Walzer on war and morality. And, with much sadness, we include an item about the Sukkot party hosted by Israel's President Moshe Katsav, who was photographed receiving a copy of a report prepared by an NIF grantee on sexual abuse.