Shatil - The New Israel Fund

In March 2020, Shatil opened its Crisis Hotline for organizations facing critical new challenges following outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Over a four-month period, Shatil provided 55 organizations with emergency assistance on issues including staff furloughs and layoffs, crisis financial management, and the remote mobilization of volunteers. Over 1,000 social change activists across issue areas participated in Shatil’s 28 emergency trainings, which ranged from over-subscribed sessions on resource development to Arabic-language workshops on media outreach. Shatil also conducted 12 weekly leadership forums, providing a space for peer-to-peer support, as well as tools and resources for non-profit directors facing one of the greatest crises of their careers.

The Shatil-led Public Housing Forum successfully advocated for a freeze on evictions during Israel’s March-April lockdown, as well as a hold on rent collection. Shatil has also mobilized and empowered housing activists, who will take over coordination of the Public Housing Forum in the coming months. This year also included Shatil's first ever work to promote the right to housing for Israel's Palestinian community.

2020 saw expanded demand for Shatil services, reflecting not only the tremendous challenges facing social change groups, but Shatil’s ability to remain on the cutting-edge of organizational adaptivity. Nearly 300 social change organizations received capacity building consultancy, double the number in 2019. More than three times as many social justice groups requested consultancy during the first six months of 2020 compared to the previous year, reflecting the socioeconomic problems heightened by COVID-19. Some 2,900 activists participated in 76 trainings, an increase of 330% over 2019.

The Shatil-led Jewish-Arab Forum for the Promotion of Health in the Galilee (Northern Health Forum) and the Southern Health Coalition secured a government commitment to provide personal protective equipment for all ambulance crews in Israel after Arab and haredi first-responders complained they weren't being provided with this life-saving equipment. The Northern Forum also successfully advocated for provision of dialysis to COVID-19 positive patients, securing establishment of a dedicated dialysis unit at the Galilee Medical Center.

Shatil successfully transformed a group of progressive haredi activists into an organization with a board, a strategic plan, and a network of supporters. Today, the organization has received public and private grants, opened a virtual afterschool program for haredi students, and submitted a petition to compel the Mevaseret Zion local council to open a public school for haredi children, as part of the organization's strategy to expand public education options in the haredi community.

Since mass protests against PM Netanyahu began in July, the Shatil-led Forum for the Freedom of Protest has trained over 100 activists on their rights and options when those rights are violated. Coordinating their work through the Forum, member organizations are actively combating the chilling effect intended by excessive arrests and police brutality.

Bedouin activists, Shatil and NIF grantees successfully moved forward recognition of four Bedouin villages, crafted and published a strategy for new taxation distribution formulas, and partnered with local organizations to convene the Negev Coronavirus Situation Room, a body that successfully lobbied for increased government investment in Negev healthcare and culturally-sensitive public health initiatives in the south. In November, after a year of Shatil-supported advocacy, Minister of Interior Aryeh Deri announced that NIS 20 million (almost $6 million) in annual regional tax revenues from the Neot Hovav industrial zone will be redistributed to 11 local authorities in the area, including six Bedouin municipalities.