I think it is time to add more impressions and thoughts to the blog with less travelogue. What is this organization, New Israel Fund, that I am traveling with?

I think that liberal Americans may be thinking that Israel, with its vast military superiority, has really become the “thug” in the Gaza conflict. There is a reflexive tendency to believe that anyone with the most guns must be the oppressor. You may wonder, “what is Israel thinking?” to believe it can act with impunity, with utter disregard for world opinion, and with unwarranted cruelty towards the Palestinians of Gaza.

First, let me suggest that there is certain hypocrisy on the part of a certain European country whose conduct with respect to its former North African colony was atrocious. While it is hard to quickly find precise data, Hamas has fired several thousand missiles into Israel in the past several years. While few have done a lot of damage, no sovereign nation would tolerate its immediate neighbor firing missiles onto its territory. You may criticize the Israeli response as disproportionate, but it certainly has a right to make a military response. I do not believe this response constitutes war crimes. At the same time, Israel’s continuing development of settlements in the occupied territory of the West Bank and its treatment of its large Arab minority are both unacceptable.

As a result of the Gaza war, Israeli citizens elected more right wing candidates to their Parliament than ever before including an openly racist anti-Arab party. You might be inclined to think that there are no progressive voices in Israel that are critical of Israeli policy and keep the ideals of justice and equality alive within Israel. You’d be wrong. New Israel Fund is one of many voices within Israel working towards a more just and equitable society within Israel, better treatment of the Arab minority within Israel, and a more productive approach to working with Palestinians in the West Bank.

In the course of 5 days of traveling with the New Israel Fund here are eight organizations we’ve met with, which are a small subset of the grantees supported by New Israel Fund:

Association of Civil Rights in Israel – This group is over 30 years old and was the first organization in Israel to focus on public advocacy law. It has repeatedly sued the government on behalf of Arab Israeli citizens to prevent home demolitions, recover lost property, and attempt to re-route the Separation Barrier to prevent splitting Arab villages. On the morning we visited the supreme court of Israel, all 3 of the cases being heard by the High Court of Justice were brought by or on behalf of NIF grantees.

Ir Amim – This group is devoted to improving Israeli-Arab relations in Jerusalem and improving the legal and political situation to increase equity for Arabs, enable peaceful relations between Israelis and Arabs, and monitor government activities affecting Israeli-Arab relations. On our tour with them we saw excavations the government is conducting in the East Jerusalem (Arab side) neighborhood of Silwan. Here the government proposes to build a “Jewish Theme Park” (derisive name) on the alleged, but completely unverified site of the palace of King David. We also toured the separation barrier being erected to reduce terror attacks by separating the West Bank Palestinians from Jerusalem. It’s a sad reminder of the Berlin Wall. It might be understandable if Israel were building this wall on its own side of an established border, but Israel is using the routing of the wall to incorporate much more land into the Israeli portion of Jerusalem. Ir Amim monitors the construction of the wall and repeatedly sues the government to prevent routing the wall through the middle of Arab neighborhoods.

Mimizrach Shemesh – This group uses Talmudic teachings from Mizrahi rabbis (Sephardic) to emphasize lessons of Jewish social justice to improve the lives of marginalized groups within the Jewish community and to non-Jews. As they themselves put it, some Jewish groups focus on the Judaism of the land, some on the Judaism of correct text analysis and law—what is needed is more emphasis on Jewish social justice.

Mixed Cities Project – Israel has made life in Israel difficult for Arab (or Palestinian) citizens of Israel, especially by dislocating Arabs from their homes, not approving housing construction for Arabs, and under-investing in services and education for Arab towns and villages. The Mixed Cities Project helps Arab groups plan and gain support for housing projects and provides legal assistance for suing the national government and local governments to prevent demolitions, misappropriation of land, and challenging delays to housing approval.

Eretz Carmel – This one visionary guy focuses on how to achieve energy sustainability by improving the energy efficiency of homes and processing organic home waste as compost to reduce garbage volume and reduce greenhouse gas emissions caused by garbage burning. OK, this is not social justice but everything can’t focus on security all the time.

FSU (Former Soviet Union) Immigrants and Social and Economic Justice Programs in the North – This group funds local support for immigrants from the former Soviet Union. Israel has encouraged immigration of Jews from around the world. The government provides limited support for the new immigrants. This program provides additional funding for needed social services.

Active Citizenship Program – This program has developed a curriculum in democracy and pluralism for use in the civics classes in middle school and secondary school. We met with the principal of a religious middle school with a large immigrant enrollment who spoke with sincere personal passion for the program. “Religious” school may require some explanation: this does not mean a school for ultra-orthodox Jews. These schools are like parochial schools funded by the government. In addition to a full program of secular subjects, the schools also teach Judaism.

Religious Pluralism Project – This project supports advocacy to change government policy, legal activity, and infrastructure development to support non-orthodox Jews and to provide more equality for women in Jewish life. This is worth an entire post and is a remarkable effort lead by remarkable women.

So, that is just a taste of what New Israel Fund does. I think you can see that it provides a remarkable voice and funding in support of progressive causes in Israel. It is the largest foundation in Israel devoted to these causes, but it is not alone. Many Israelis who love Israel and our loyal to Israel also challenge their own government and have very different views than those expressed by the most conservative elements in Israel. New Israel Fund represents the best in Jewish social justice by supporting practical on-the-ground programs for bottoms-up social change in Israel.

So, I am proud to be traveling in Israel with New Israel Fund.