What we want

Our Gender and Democracy program seeks to enhance a comprehensive democracy that provides an inclusive, participatory system that ensures full civil and human rights.
Realizing that gender is a fundamental factor in shaping societies, we try to promote a political culture that prioritizes Gender Democracy values and practices on all levels.

For more information please contact Romy Shapira: Romy.Shapira@il.boell.org 

Articles

Asylum seeker children cross the street in south Tel Aviv, March 17, 2020. (Oren Ziv)

Outrunning a Catastrophe, Together: Assisting asylum seekers in Israel during the Coronavirus Crisis

The first confirmed Covid-19 patient in Israel was diagnosed three months ago on February 21st, 2020. Less than a month later, on March 14th, a countrywide lockdown was announced, which included a total shutdown of all restaurants and hotels as well as most other work places. Within a month from the lockdown, over a million people were fired or put on unpaid leave, increasing Israel’s unemployment rate to a staggering 27.4%.
By Dr. Ayelet Oz

Alleged Voter Fraud: The Most Dangerous Lie

Had there not been so many political storylines in the news avalanche ahead of Israel’s second general election in 2019, one might have been inclined to see it as Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last straw: On September 3, two weeks before the voters again went to the polling stations, Netanyahu went public with the allegation that had it not been for widespread voter fraud in Israeli-Arab communities in the April election, his right-wing coalition would have passed the 61-seat threshold needed to gain a majority in the Knesset.
By Henning Christian Lahmann

Israeli Elections 2019 – Round Two

Between triumph and failure lay only six weeks: On the night of April 9, 2019, Benjamin Netanyahu was celebrating with his followers as the shining winner of the Israeli parliamentary election. Once again, Netanyahu seemed to have made it, despite allegations of corruption and a broad-based opposition campaign against the continuation of the Israeli Prime Minister's right-wing coalition. On May 30, however, Netanyahu had to admit his failure –  he had failed to forge a viable coalition within the six-week deadline. In order to prevent the Israeli president from giving the opposition candidate the task of forming a government, the newly established Israeli parliament (the 21st Knesset) dissolved in a Likud led maneuver just before Netanyahu’s deadline and voted for new elections on September 17, 2019.
By Steffen Hagemann, Romy Shapira and Elisheva Gilad
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Publications

Handbook of Organizational Gender Consultation and Intervention

The Handbook of Organizational Gender Consultation and Intervention, published in 2019 by the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, is the first guide of its kind. Its aim is to provide a professional toolbox for men and women operating as agents of gender equality in modern organizations, either formally (appointees, consultants, and individuals responsible for equal opportunity and gender equality) or informally (as feminists aiming to promote change in the organization or in their institutional field). The Handbook is based on the understanding that promoting gender equality in an organization is a process of representing, recognizing, and granting weight and power to women’s point of view regarding organizational practices. Such practices that have exclusionary ramifications are made possible by the exclusion of women’s point of view from the planning and decision-making processes that shape organizational practices and day-to-day realities. Hence, the long journey toward gender equality in organizations is also the journey of the perspectives of women working in the organization—from the margins of the organization’s “attention” to the organization’s power centers where decisions are made. How can this journey be successfully managed?

The Handbook of Organizational Gender Consultation and Intervention is based on many years of research. It offers a rich toolbox that includes knowledge, know-how, strategies, and organizational interventions to promote gender equality and social justice in organizations: from the process of hiring to work arrangements, from the processes of tracking to the prevention of sexual harassment, from remuneration to leadership in the organization.

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New trends in human trafficking which exploit the asylum system in Israel

Since 2016 there has been a sharp rise in the number of Ukranians and Georgians applying for asylum in Israel. Data collected by the Hotline for Refugees and Migrants (HRM) shows that Israeli entities, including human resource companies, are involved in this rise by spreading mis-information in the the Ukraine and Georgia about the possibility of working legally in Israel. They charge large sums of money as agents’ fees, and they may also be involved, to varying degrees, in selling fake documentation.

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Knocking at the Gate - Flawed Access to the Asylum System due to the influx of applicants from the Ukraine and Georgia

Knocking at the Gate – Flawed Access to the Asylum System due to the influx of applicants from the Ukraine and Georgia

Since the start of 2016, Israel has seen a sharp rise in the number of Ukrainian and Georgian citizens applying for asylum. Data collected by the Hotline for Refugees and Migrant (HRM) shows that Israeli entities are involved in the increase in the number of migrants from these countries, and that they include human resource companies, which spread misinformation in the countries of origin about working legally in Israel by exploiting the dysfunctional2 asylum system. They charge high fees for mediation and are allegedly involved in selling fake documents. The emerging picture is that of a new channel of human trafficking3 .

Due to the backlog at the Population and Immigration Authority’s (PIBA) Refugee Status Determination (RSD) Unit in Tel Aviv, all asylum seekers now face limited access to the asylum process. Despite the extended period during which the authorities have had to serve an ever growing population, the necessary changes have yet to be made. Every night, dozens of people wait outside the offices of the RSD Unit in harsh physical conditions hoping to be first in the queue the following morning in order to submit their asylum application.

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