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SIKKUY'S FOUR SUMMER EVENTS
PRIME MINISTER'S CONFERENCE
The summer activities began in July with the first prime minister's conference on the Arab citizens of Israel.
This conference was a direct continuation of the Sikkuy-faciliated process in which the Prime Minister's Office initiated a dialogue with the national Arab mayors committee following the August 2006 Second Lebanon War.
The conference was attended by more than 250 senior government officials, Arab and Jewish mayors, businessmen, academics and Sikkuy's senior staff and board members. It tackled three vital subjects: education, economy and local government.
In the discussion on local government, Sikkuy's Naief Abu-Sharkeia responded to the presentation by the director-general of the Interior Ministry.
In the plenum, Sikkuy's co-director of Equality Policy, Dr. Joubran Joubran, reviewed Sikkuy's new initiative to map the barriers to equality in major government ministries. This initiative received praise from ministry officials and mayors.
5 important declarations were made by the Prime Minister and his director-general:
1. to work to make government resources accessible to the Arab citizens.
2. Arab citizens are not a strategic threat to Israel and their citizenship is not to be threatened.
3. to build a new Arab city.
4. that for 60 years Arab citizens were intentionally discriminated against.
5. to continue the dialogue with the Arab leadership and to hold the conference annually.
PRESS CONFERENCE
The press conference was attended by all the major media in Israel as well as Reuters which accounts for the major international coverage the Index received.
Shuli Dichter and Ali Haider presented an overview of the Index to those gathered and were followed by presentations by Sikkuy staff members, Yaser Awad and Michal Belikoff.
The increased media interest can be explained by the fact that this is the publication of the second Equality Index quantifying the gaps between the Jewish and Arab citizens of Israel so that comparative trends (mostly negative) were now visible.
We are currently working on the English translation of the Equality Index and will send it out to you and post it on our website as soon as it is ready.
FILM SCREENING
More than 250 people attended the premier screening at the Haifa Cinemateque of Haim Yavin's new series about the Arab citizens of Israel, "I.D. Blues". The evening's program was part of the Sikkuy Tzohar project - a series of 5 movie screenings in Tel Aviv and Haifa followed by public discussions and a field-trip.
The first episode of the series, "My Blood Is As Red As Yours" was shown followed by a panel discussion moderated by author Marzuk Halabi with the participation of Haim Yavin, Dr. Mohammad Amara (appeared in the film and is a member of Sikkuy's board), Professor Gabi Salomon (Israel prize winner and Sikkuy's co-chair) and Nidal Rafea, a producer for CNN, who appeared in the film. The floor was opened up to questions and discussion from the audience (very intense). A break with drinks and cakes was followed by the screening of the second film: "The Land of the Negev", dealing with the Bedouin Arabs of the Negev.
There is also a lot of spin-off media coverage generated by the series. For example, Haim Yavin and Dr. Joubran Joubran (who is managing the Tzohar project for Sikkuy) were interviewed for two hours on Arabic language radio "Al Shams" the day before the screening.
SIKKUY EQUAL OPPORTUNITY SEMINAR
More than 40 civil society professionals, diplomats, government officials and Sikkuy staff and board members attended the seminar, chaired by Ali Haider, Sikkuy's co-executive director.
Board member, Patsy Landa welcomed Commissioner Christine Griffin and Israeli EEOC commissioner, Adv. Tziona Koenig-Yair, and Ms. Zeba Reyazuddin - Deputy Cultural Attache - US Embassy who greeted the audience on behalf of the U.S. embassy. Both commissioners spoke about their respective commissions, their challenges and goals.
The Israeli EEOC is newly established and with a small budget and staff, it faces the challenge of advancing implementation of Israel's equal employment laws.
Yaser Awad, director of Sikkuy's employment equity and fair representation project organized the event and is looking forward to ongoing cooperation with Israel's EEOC.
by Shalom (Shuli) Dichter
The co-director of Sikkuy: The Association for the Advancement of Civic Equality in Israel calls for the adoption of a new concept - "access creation" - to begin the necessary process of making sure that Israel's Arab citizens get their fair share of the governmental-resources pie.
The Association for the Advancement of Civic Equality in Israel published its annual report on equality between Jewish and Arab citizens on Wednesday. The report focused on the gaps between Jews and Arabs in education, housing, welfare, health and employment. >>>>
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The Equality Index of Jewish and Arab Citizens in Israel The Sikkuy Report 2006
Cover
Table of Contents
Introduction, Executive Summary
Theoretical and Methodological Background
The Aggregate Indexes
Statistical Appendix
Bibliography
The Full Report
September 2007
The conference, which summed up three years of monitoring the Or Commission's recommendations, provided a rare encounter between the central government, local government and civic society, and is part of Sikkuy's open and public effort to monitor government policy pertaining to the allocation of equal resources to the Arab population.
The conference was a continuation of the Nazareth conference held in September 2006…
September 19, 2006
Submitted by:
Ali Haider and Shuli Dichter
Proposal for priorities in the equal development of the Galilee, August 2006
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