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= The Canadian Jewish News = May 22, 2003 === M Page 9

WORKING FOR THE RIGHTS OF ALL ISRAELIS

In response to Gerald Steinberg's May 8 CJN colomn, which he criticized the New Israel Fund for its inwovement with groups that he says support human and civil rights but also promote the delegitamisation of Israel, the NIF submitted the following article.

ByYORAM PERI

The last 2 1/2 years have been a challenging time for Israel and for all of us who care deeply about the country, its security and its democracy. It is a time when Jews ail around the world - in Israel, and abroad in Canada, Europe, the United States and elsewhere - are united in our deep concern for the future and fate of our families, friends and the Stale of Israel itself.

In my role with the NIF, and together with my Israeli colleagues on the board, I have worked hard to ensure that, even at this difficult moment, we focus on the immedate issue of Israel's security, and on the more difficult question of what kind k of Israel will survive when this current crisis has passed.

The New Israel Fund's mission is to strengthen Israel's democracy and to ensure that it is a stale based on values fundamental to Judaism and democracy: justice, freedom and equality. We take our inspiration directly from Israel's Declaration of Independence, which says, "The Stale of lsrael... will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex."

We believe deeply in a strong Israel, but we also believe that Israel*s strength derives not rally from its ability to defend itself militarily but also om its commitment to democratic values. To us, even at a time when Israel is fighting for its security, it must maintain its fundamental commitment to democratic principles if it is to fulfil the vision of its founders and its prophets.

Israel can be neither a democracy nor a true Jewish homeland if it denies a minority of its citizens their rights on the basis of their ethnicy. For centuries, that was the fate of the Jewish people themselves as they faced laws banning land ownershop in Europe or under Czarist regimes in Russia. It was precisely to escape such racism and discrimination that Jews began to return to Palestine in the late 19th century.

Unfortunately, for 54 years, this country has done at best a poor job of providing those minority citizens with equal or remotely equal services and benefits. To better understand, one simply has to visit an Arab Israeli school that receives one-third of the funding of a Jewish school, or the unrecognized Bedouin villages in the Negev that function without sewers or electricity, let alone schools and health clinics. Or review the national development budget, which consistently allocates to Arab citizens four per cent of each shekel spent on a Jewish citizen.

For 24 years, NIF has been the premier philanthropic organization promoting equality, fairness and justice for all of Israel's citizens, especially those populations that have traditionally been at a disadvantage: Arabs, women, children, Mizrahim, new immigrants and non-Orthodox Jews. With our help, a thriving non-profit sector advocates today for the nghts of many facing discrimination in Israel, from new immigrants to the disabled to the underprivileged seeking a road out of poverty to communities in need, such as battered women and rape victims.

NIF is dedicated to reversing years of discrinunalkm and mistreatment of the Arab minority in Israel. Our work is always posttive and directed toward the realization of shared aspirations of justice, and motivated by the belief that not only is it the morally right thing to do, it is in our self-interest. A healthy democracy that treats all its citizens fairly and equally is the surest way to ensure the long-run strength of the Jewish homeland in Israel. And that is a goal I know we all share as Jews - here in Israel and in North America as well.

Yoram Peri is immediate past president of the New Israel Fund and chair of its international council. He also heads the Herzog Institute/or Media, Politics and Society at Tel Aviv University.



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