Newsletter No. 7/07
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2007 AT THE PRINCETON CLUB IN NEW YORK -
LOOKING FORWARD TO SEEING YOU THIS SUNDAY AT
THE FIRST SIKKUY SEMINAR IN THE U.S.A.
See the full program and information below – but first, two articles from Ali Haider and Shuli Dichter give us all some "food for thought" before the seminar.
Local Arab government: A chronic crisis demands immediate intervention
November 1, 2007, TheMarker
Ali Haider
This week, the heads of Arab local municipal authorities became fed up and lost their patience, to the point of declaring their collective resignation, slated to take effect in about three months. Many of them have already submitted their resignation letters to the office of the chairmen of the Council of Arab Mayors in Nazareth (Haaretz, Oct. 23). The local authority leaders also announced that in addition to their historic decision to tender a collective resignation, they plan to adopt a series of measures to escalate the protest and bolster their struggle vis-a-vis the state authorities.
This step constitutes a warning alarm directed at the ears of the government in general and the ears of the prime minister and ministers of the interior and finance in particular. This is because the protest is directed primarily against them by virtue of their roles and responsibility for the development of the chronic predicament of the Arab local authorities and the fact that this crisis has grown over the years due to a lack of will by the government to bring it to an end. The declaration of the Arab local authority leaders is the last nail in the coffin of Arab local government and reflects the total collapse of the largest organizational structure in the Arab public.
The protest by the local leaders is based on three main reasons.
- A large number of Arab local authorities were recently disbanded by the interior ministers and replaced by appointed councils led by Jewish citizens who have a security background or political ties to the ministers who appointed them. This move is contrary to the wishes of the residents, violates the basic principles of democracy and the right of citizens to manage their own affairs, and sends a very negative message
to the Arab public in general and to the elected local leadership in particular. The management of 15 of 64 Arab local authorities by appointed councils stirs memories in the Arab collective consciousness of the dark period of the military government.
- The local authorities are experiencing a financial crisis that is becoming more and more severe, and is expressed in a weak economic situation and large budget deficits. From the start, the localities have faced a crisis due to the fact that the state's institutions - led by the planning institutions - have limited the development of Arab communities, thus resulting in a significant shortfall in their sources of independent revenues. This creates an almost absolute dependence on resources allocated by the central government. But the funds that are supposed to be provided to the local authorities by the government ministries are not arriving.
The Ministry of Interior conditions the transfer of funds on achieving an unrealistic level of tax collection, which most of the residents cannot afford. The socio-economic situation of the residents creates a vicious circle: Many do not succeed in paying their debts to the local authority and as a result the locality is unable to provide elementary services for them or even pay the salaries of its employees. And if this were not enough, the anticipated cutbacks in the 2008 state budget add fuel to the blazing fire and undermine any hope for change.- Successive governments have not implemented the agreements signed with the leaders of the local authorities. There is a wide disparity between the promises and declarations, on one hand, and the actual implementation. A long series of evasion and non-implementation exacerbates the lack of trust in the state by the Arab public in general and by the local authorities in particular, and lowers the motivation to struggle for serious change.
Before we experience a state of anarchy in Arab local government and in order to generate a change in reality, it is vital to take several steps to demonstrate a real desire and determination to produce practical results. On one hand, the Arab citizenry must fulfill its obligation to the local authority and respond to the repeated calls by local leaders to pay its debts to the local authority, to emerge from its apathy and work to improve the quality of Arab local government. On the other hand, the prime minister must respond to the demands of the Arab local leaders and take immediate action to carry out his commitments to channel the required budgets in order to resolve the specific problems. The government should ensure that the resources required by Arab local government are included in the 2008 budget, in accordance with the principles of equality and distributive justice. Furthermore, the government should institute a general and comprehensive reform in Arab local government, with real collaboration and consultation with leaders of the Arab local authorities, aimed at finding fundamental ways to solve the crisis the localities are experiencing.The writer is the co-executive director of Sikkuy: The Association for the Advancement of Civic Equality
We’re in the Building Age, not the Stone AgeOctober 14, 2007Shalom (Shuli) DichterFour incidents of stone-throwing in ten months do not constitute "a return to the Stone Age," as Maariv announced. On the contrary, a stable civic fabric is being woven in the Wadi Ara regionA week ago, a main headline appeared in this newspaper - "A return to the Stone Age" in Wadi Ara (Oct. 7). This headline raises fear that a campaign against the residents of the area is simmering. The connection between the facts and the headlines, which were splashed across pages 2 and 3, was particularly feeble: Do two clusters of stone-throwing incidents by teenagers who came from the West Bank (they were apprehended, it was reported) ten months apart, and two incidents of stone throwing within Kafr Kara constitute a "return to the Stone Age," justifying a dance to the sounds of the war drums of October 2000?Well, one can still hope that the night editor went crazy. Headlines like these serve to delegitimize Arab citizens living in proximity to the Green Line, adding pressure on the government to gerrymander them outside of the state's borders and strip them of their citizenship So, for the information of those seeking to drive a wedge between Jews and Arabs, and to negate the Israeli citizenship of Wadi Ara residents, here are a few facts:First, during the past three years, a forum of mayors has operated in the Wadi Ara region, with three Jewish localities and eight Arab localities participating. The chairman of the forum is the mayor of Umm al-Fahm, who accepted the leadership role in order to create a bridge between the Jewish and Arab localities in the region. His deputy is the head of the Menashe regional council.Second, the forum established a joint and egalitarian directorate for developing a regional industrial zone in the eastern part of Wadi Ara. An agreement to form a joint directorate for a second industrial zone in the Wadi's western part is about to be signed. The main effort was focused on reaching agreements on an equal allocation of future tax revenues.Third, the communities in Wadi Ara have yet to be included in any municipal organization for environmental protection. This has a decisive impact on various aspects of environmental quality, from trash removal to sewage treatment, which require cooperation and coordination between municipalities. The forum is now bringing the Wadi Ara communities into the Hadera Municipal Association for the Environment. This process is comprehensive and slow.Four, entrepreneurs and local residents, Jews and Arabs, have joined together - encouraged by the mayors' forum - to establish a non-profit company promoting tourism in the area. During the past year, over 1,500 people, from Israel and overseas, visited the area. They participated in nature tours and visited art galleries, guided by their Jewish and Arab hosts. Recently, in the framework of the Ramadan Nights project, some of them also stayed the night at bed & breakfast on Mount Alexander in Umm al-Fahm.The future of Wadi Ara, like that of the entire State of Israel, depends on weaving a sustainable civic fabric between Jews and Arabs, with their common citizenship in the State of Israel constituting the basis for work. It is no longer a "sensitive fabric of relations," threatening to unravel at any moment. The sign posted in Wadi Ara reads: "Caution, building here." Maariv's headline last week will not destroy the stable structure being constructed here, with much hard work. Just don't hinder the work.The writer is a member of Kibbutz Ma'anit, located in the Wadi Ara region, and is the co-executive director of Sikkuy – The Association for the Advancement of Civic Equality.SEMINAR CHAIR:
Ms. Terry M. Rubenstein, Executive Vice President
Joseph & Harvey Meyerhoff Family Charitable FundsSPACE IS LIMITED SO PLEASE REGISTER ASAP. THE PARTICIPATION FEE (INCLUDING A LOVELY, NON-MEAT, PRINCETON CLUB LUNCH) IS $90 PER PERSON. CONFIRM YOUR PARTICIPATION (name, e-mail, phone, organization) VIA EMAIL TO CARL PERKAL, SIKKUY'S DIRECTOR OF RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT - carl@sikkuy.org.il.The First Sikkuy Seminar will be an opportunity for Sikkuy's friends from across North America to convene in New York for an exciting day of learning, discussion, sharing, suggestions and planning for the future. Sikkuy's co-executive directors, Ali Haider, Adv. and Shuli Dichter, as well as Dr. Muhammad Amara and Mary Schweitzer, members of Sikkuy's board of directors, will participate.THE PROGRAM
09:00 - Registration 09:30 - Greetings: Terry M. Rubenstein, seminar chair; Dr. Muhammad Amara, member of Sikkuy’s board of directors, lecturer, Departments of English and Political Science, Bar-Ilan University 09:45 - Presentation and discussion: "Perspectives on a lifetime in service of human rights" - Robert L. Bernstein, former president, chair and CEO of Random House and founding chair of Human Rights Watch 10:15 - Review of Sikkuy's current activities - Sikkuy's co-executive directors, Ali Haider, Adv. and Shalom (Shuli) Dichter; introduction to Sikkuy's Equality Index - Carl Perkal, Sikkuy's director of resource development 10:45 - Panel discussion: The "The Future Vision of the Palestinian Arabs in Israel" - Different perspectives - Chair: Shuli Dichter - Speakers: Dr. Muhammad Amara, Ali Haider, Adv., Sarah Kreimer, Associate Director of Ir Amim and former chair of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel 12:00 - Lunch 1:00 - Presentation and discussion: Minority-Majority relations in hegemonic democracies - Dr. Ilan Peleg, Editor-in-Chief of Israel Studies Forum: An Interdisciplinary Journal 1:30 - Panel discussion: Changing perceptions and attitudes on the issue of equality in Israel within the North American Jewish Community - Chair: Harriett Mouchly-Weiss - and "break away" groups 2:30 - Summation 3:00 - Program concludesDATE: SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2007WHERE: THE PRINCETON CLUB, 15 W.43RD. ST. (BET. 5TH AND 6TH AVE.) MANHATTAN, NYC (www.princetonclub.com - 212 5961200)
TIME: 9AM - 3PMINVITED PARTICIPANTS: FRIENDS OF SIKKUY, HEADS OF FOUNDATIONS AND ORGANIZATIONS, JOURNALISTS, RESEARCHERS, STUDENTS AND ANYONE INTERESTED IN ACHIEVING EQUALITY BETWEEN THE JEWISH AND ARAB CITIZENS OF ISRAEL. - The local authorities are experiencing a financial crisis that is becoming more and more severe, and is expressed in a weak economic situation and large budget deficits. From the start, the localities have faced a crisis due to the fact that the state's institutions - led by the planning institutions - have limited the development of Arab communities, thus resulting in a significant shortfall in their sources of independent revenues. This creates an almost absolute dependence on resources allocated by the central government. But the funds that are supposed to be provided to the local authorities by the government ministries are not arriving.
Tel: 972-2-654-1225 Fax: 972-2-654-1108 E-Mail: jerusalem@sikkuy.org.il