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Dear Sikkuy Friends,
 Sikkuy is proud to announce the election of Professor Muhammad Amara as co-chairman of Sikkuy. Professor Amara has been an active member of Sikkuy's board since 2004 and many of you have had the opportunity to meet him in Israel or at the Sikkuy seminar in New York in November 2007.
He has published many articles and books, is an outspoken voice for equality in Israel and has served on the boards of many civil society NGOs and foundations.
Professor Amara is a linguist and today heads the English Department of the Academic Institute for Arab Teacher Training at Beit Berl College. He was also a faculty member of Bar Ilan University.
We've begun planning the Sikkuy visit to North America for mid-May. This is your opportunity to help us add locations and events for Ali and Ron. Please be in touch if you'd like to help bring them to your community or meet with them during the their visit.
Here are some important resources (electronic and print) on the right hand side of the page. We hope you'll have time to review them.
- A video about Sikkuy's pioneering project, the Jewish-Arab Mayor's Forum for Regional Cooperation.
- In our last newsletter we told you about the press conference held in November to release the 2008 Sikkuy Equality Index of Arab and Jewish Citizens in Israel. Now we bring you links to a video from the conference with English subtitles.
- Sikkuy's co-executive directors participated in a conference call sponsored by the Inter Agency Task Force on Israeli Arab Issues. In this call they presented the Index findings and answered questions.
- And finally, we share with you three articles published recently in the Israeli media: two Op-Eds by Sikkuy's co-executive directors and a cover story from the Jerusalem Post Magazine.
I hope we haven't overloaded you and that you'll find time to look at some (if not all) of these materials that will add insight and understanding of our work.
We hope you'll share your thoughts and comments with us.
Sincerely,
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SIKKUY IN THE MEDIA - OUTREACH TO PUBLIC OPINION IN ISRAEL AND ABROAD INCLUDING NEW VIDEO AND AUDIO RESOURCES
· A MOVIE ABOUT THE SIKKUY JEWISH-ARAB MAYOR'S FORUM
· VIDEO OF THE EQUALITY INDEX PRESS CONFERENCE
· AUDIO OF A CONFERENCE CALL PRESENTING THE 2008 EQUALITY INDEX
· IN THE PRESS
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Sikkuy has facilitated two forums of Jewish and Arab mayors since 2004 creating sustainable frameworks for regional cooperation in areas such as: shared industrial zones, environmental protection and tourism development. This video (English subtitles) shows you why the project is so successful.
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· On November 18, 2009 Sikkuy held a press conference in Tel Aviv to release the findings of the 2008 Equality Index. This, the third annual index measuring the level of inequality between Jewish and Arab citizens based on official data provided by government offices, demonstrated that the gaps between Jewish and Arab citizens are increasing at an alarming rate. The links below take you to a brief video with highlights (English subtitles) from the event.
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On January 28, Sikkuy's co-executive directors, Ron Gerlitz and Ali Haider participated in an open conference call (in English) sponsored by the Interagency Task Force on Israeli Arab Issues to present and discuss the findings of the new index. ----------------------------------------------------
IN THE PRESS
February 2, 2010
Ali Haider
Recently the country was all excited about the visit to Israel of OECD representatives and about the willingness of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which is composed of 31 developed countries, to add Israel to its ranks. But what aroused particular interest was the mobilization of the prestigious organization to expose the increasingly large gaps between the Jewish and Arab populations in Israel, and its recommendation to the government to take immediate action to close these gaps, so that the country will be able to meet the criteria for joining the organization...
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February 19, 2010
Ron Gerlitz
...The overwhelming majority of donations from the Diaspora are earmarked for institutions, organizations and local authorities that serve Israel's Jewish population. In this, these resources bypass about one-fifth of Israeli citizens - the state's Arab citizens - almost entirely. For them, this only worsens a difficult reality: the ongoing governmental discrimination against Arab citizens when it comes to budgeting resources for education, welfare, infrastructure and almost all other fields...
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In this Jerusalem Post Magazine cover story about the failure of Israel's hi-tech industry to offer equal opportunity to qualified Arab workers, Sikkuy is singled out as the "leading NGO promoting Israeli Arab equality".
January 29, 2010
LARRY DERFNER
Earlier this month Peres led a bus of top businesspeople on a tour of Arab hi-tech companies in Nazareth. Is Israel ready to take on affirmative action? >>>>
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