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Israeli women living on the economic, geographic, ethnic and social periphery of the country are amongst the most marginalized groups in the country and share common distress criteria: they are marginalized, low wage earners whose employment and welfare rights are consistently violated and under-protected. For Arab women, the situation is even more challenging, as opportunities for employment are extremely limited and enforcement of employment laws by the authorities is almost non-existent. Arab women often do not receive fundamental rights, such as minimum wage, pension and even official pay stubs.
Itach-Maaki tackles these issues on diverse levels, working to assist individual women, to answer policy problems and to create changes in the systems that influence the economic viability and stability of women from Arab and Jewish marginalized groups, including the following:
Hotline for Rights in Arabic and Hebrew, answering the needs of individual women on issues of socio-economic rights. Our lawyers and volunteers provide information on rights and provide legal aid for women whose rights have been violated. We serve about 1000 women annually.
Activism for and by Women includes facilitation of Arab and Jewish women who act to protect and/or advance their own economic/employment rights and to answer the needs of their communities or their peers is an important part of the social change we are aiming to create.
Advocacy includes work in a number of fields, utilizing strategies such as media appearances, position papers, legislative proposals and cooperation with public bodies. Following success in policy change, we work to inform women of the change in order for the policy-level change to genuinely impact the women it targets.
In March 2013, Itach-Maaki began the implementation of a 3-year initiative, funded by the European Commission, to improve Arab women's status in the labor market and social and economic conditions, with a special focus on enforcing the minimum wage law. Partners in the project include Kav La’Oved, Kayan Feminist Organization and the Legal Rights Clinic of Tel Aviv University.
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