Gender & Democracy

This report aims to be one of the first comprehensive reports that monitors the conditions of migrant detention centers in Israel. As the laws around detention have only grown stricter in recent years, it is not out of the realm of possibility that detention will continue to be a major tool in the Israeli government’s policy towards migrant-workers and asylum-seekers. 

The purpose of this field guide is to present the Gender Equality in Action intervention model, its rationale and assumptions, in order to provide a common language and knowledge base for action. The intervention model is based on experience accumulated over the last years from a number of diverse groups operating as part of the program, and on case studies and research literature.

A new report on the Holot facility exposes; substantial asylum requests of detainees rejected by Israel now about to be jailed in Saharonim indefinitely, grave shortcomings in food, rights violations in the form of punishment

In cooperation with the organizations Itach-Maaki and Agenda, The Center for the Advancement of Women in the Public Sphere (WIPS) in the Jerusalem Van Leer Institute is spearheading the project to formulate an Israeli action plan for the implementation of UNSCR 1325. Many countries have already succeeded in implementing a national action plan (NAP) for increasing women's participation in processes of conflict resolution. This initiative builds upon the experience in other countries in formulating an Action Plan that is relevant to the Israeli context.

We belong to the West — that is how most Israelis see themselves and their country. In Israeli public discourse, the countries of reference on almost every topic are those of Western Europe and North America. On the face of it, this sentiment has its justifications: Israel has Nobel Prize laureates in chemistry, economics and literature. Israel has satellites circling Planet Earth. Israel has academic institutions that place high on international rankings. Israeli scientists and entrepreneurs register more international technological patents than their counterparts in most other countries. Israeli films win prizes in Europe and in the United States. Israelis feel at home when traveling to the countries of Western Europe and to the United States. Yet, on most social and economic indicators, Israel ranks closer to southern and eastern European countries than to the United States or the countries of Northern and Western Europe. Israel’s median disposable household income is similar to that of Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Greece and Spain. The same is true for the average wage of Israelis. Israel’s GDP per capita is similar to that of Spain and only a bit higher than that of Slovenia and the Czech Republic. Israel’s middle class is in retreat. Israel’s poverty rate is closer to the poverty rates of South America countries like Mexico and Chile than to those of most Western countries

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE HE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Recent tensions on the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif are not isolated events but part of the growing rise of temple movements organizations and groups committed to challenging existing arrangements on this most contested of holy spaces. Despite Israel’s chief rabbis recently reinstating the ban on Jews ascending the Temple Mount, ascents are on the rise, along with a range of activities to realize the Mount as the site of the Third Temple.  The steady advance of these movements-and the permeation of their values into the public discourse represent one of the most volatile issues in the Middle East conflict today.  Ir Amim’s comprehensive report analyzes the dynamics of the growth of the Temple movements, their increasing acceptance in the political center in Israel and the nature and depth of ties between Temple groups and the Israeli political establishment. /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} Recent tensions on the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif are not isolated events but part of the growing rise of temple movements-organizations and groups committed to challenging existing arrangements on this most contested of holy spaces.   Despite Israel’s chief rabbis recently reinstating the ban on Jews ascending the Temple Mount, ascents are on the rise, along with a range of activities to realize the Mount as the site of the Third Temple.  The steady advance of these movements-and the permeation of their values into the public discourse—represents one of the most volatile issues in the Middle East conflict today.  Ir Amim’s comprehensive report analyzes the dynamics of the growth of the Temple movements, their increasing acceptance in the political center in Israel and the nature and depth of ties between Temple groups and the Israeli political establishment. - See more at: http://www.ir-amim.org.il/en/report/dengerous-liaison#sthash.cf6vuQqG.d… Recent tensions on the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif are not isolated events but part of the growing rise of temple movements-organizations and groups committed to challenging existing arrangements on this most contested of holy spaces.   Despite Israel’s chief rabbis recently reinstating the ban on Jews ascending the Temple Mount, ascents are on the rise, along with a range of activities to realize the Mount as the site of the Third Temple.  The steady advance of these movements-and the permeation of their values into the public discourse—represents one of the most volatile issues in the Middle East conflict today.  Ir Amim’s comprehensive report analyzes the dynamics of the growth of the Temple movements, their increasing acceptance in the political center in Israel and the nature and depth of ties between Temple groups and the Israeli political establishment. - See more at: http://www.ir-amim.org.il/en/report/dengerous-liaison#sthash.cf6vuQqG.d…

The Hotline for Refugees and Migrants' latest report, sponsored by the Heinrich Boell Foundation, is a critical analysis of Israel's Refugee Status Determination process for Eritrean and Sudanese nationals. This report builds upon the Hotline's 2012 report, titled Until our Hearts are Completely Hardened, in which they examined at length the Refugee Status Determination process for all asylum seekers. At the time, Israel's state run apparatus for protection did not accept applications from Eritrean and Sudanese nationals. Since formally accepting their applications the state has not recognized even one Sudanese refugee, and less than a handful of Eritreans. The following report addresses how the asylum policy is being applied, the shortcomings of the state's legal interpretation of the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees as well as numerous other flaws leading to the sweeping denial of refugee claims made by asylum seekers.

The Hotline for Refugees and Migrant's second monitoring report on the Holot facility covers the months of April to September 2014 in which between 2,300 asylum seekers from Sudan and Eritrea were held in the facility in Israel's south. The detainees, most of whom had been living in Israel for a number of years, were taken to the geographically isolated facility where they were far from the public eye. This report, published by the Hotline for Refugees and Migrants together with Physicians for Human Rights and with the support of the Heinreich Boell Foundation, is the only report of its type to document what is happening in Holot, the administrative issues faced by Holot residents and the effects of indefinite incarceration on the health and spirit of the detainees.  The report was published just prior to Israel's High Court decision (22.09.2014) to void the Anti-Infiltration Law under which the Holot facility was created. The report received extensive media coverage emphasizing that despite the government referring to Holot as an open facility, it is in effect a prison and is having a debilitating affect on detainees physical and mental health. As the Knesset is expected to legislate a new law before the end of 2014 this report will be fundamental to the Hotline's work to lobby the Knesset to take a more humane approach to asylum policy.

The Heinrich Böll Foundation’s Israel office sponsored the Israel premiere of „The Green Wave“, Germany 2010, directed by Ali Samadi Ahadi – a renowned documentary about the uprising in Iran following the presidential elections of 2009. The premier took place at this year's Jerusalem Film Festival on July 11, 2011 where it received an honorable mention by the festival jury. Read more about the film and the screenings which took place in Israel»