Impact

A campaign by Sikkuy: The Association for the Advancement of Civic Equality to demand Arabic translation on public transportation is now showing results on buses and bus stops. Following Sikkuy’s calls for the Ministry of Transportation to ensure that signs at bus stops, on the front of buses, and inside buses are bilingual –- in Hebrew and in Arabic — the ministry has begun to implement this policy throughout the public transportation system.

Lakia will be the first Bedouin municipality in Israel to have its own economic planning department. Thanks to Shatil, in collaboration with the European Union and Bimkom: Planners for Planning Rights, Lakia will have the capacity to implement an economic development plan and include local residents in the decision-making process.

Just a few days before Jerusalem Pride, a far-right group put up homophobic ads against LGBTQ rights and same-sex marriage around the city. After the ensuing public outcry and pressure from the Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC), the Jerusalem municipality ordered the removal of the posters.

During the April elections, the Likud party hired a private company to put cameras in the polling stations in Arab Israeli polling stations, which it boasted reduced Arab turnout. The plan to once again install cameras for the second round of 2019 elections was challenged by NIF grantees Zazim — Community Action and Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, who successfully petitioned Central Elections Committee Chairman Judge Hanan Melcer to prohibit cameras.

Thanks to the efforts of the Shatil-led Public Housing Forum, single mothers who receive child support will now be eligible for public housing. Until a recent ruling by the Tel Aviv District Court and effective advocacy by the Public Housing Forum, single mothers receiving child support were considered ineligible for public housing.

After a petition submitted by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), the Supreme Court has ordered the Ministry of Education to translate a state geography exam for Arabic-speaking students. In response to the court’s ruling, the ministry said the geography maps would be fully translated in time for all future exams.