Stories

In a victory for the Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC), the High Court of Justice ruled that non-Jewish children adopted by Jewish couples will no longer be required to undergo strictly Orthodox conversions. In practice, this also means that non-Orthodox families will not be automatically disqualified from adopting non-Jewish children. Legal efforts and advocacy also brought about a landmark ruling allowing same-sex couples to adopt children domestically.

Following a settler rampage in the village of Huwara, NIF supported solidarity visits with the residents and funded legal aid for those who were harmed. Work by Breaking the Silence and FakeReporter helped lead to revelations about IDF errors: Not only did the IDF fail to prevent the February 2023 attack on Huwara; the military blocked emergency services from responding and fired tear gas and stun grenades at Palestinians being attacked by settlers.

In 2023, NIF helped launch a new group of religious progressives (Hasmol Ha’emuni, or the Faithful Left) that opposes the government’s agenda as well as the racism and extremism prevalent in some ultra-Orthodox and religious Zionist circles. The group’s inaugural conference drew some 700 participants, while the second one, held this March, attracted 900 attendees.

To address the dearth of young Palestinian-Israeli political leadership, Shatil launched Rawabit (“Connections”), a training program for Palestinian citizens in their 20s and 30s with potential to lead social change in their communities. Shatil launched a
second cohort in April and is building an alumni network—all part of NIF’s work to build the capacity of Palestinian-Israeli civil society in the long term.

IRAC’s Racism Crisis Center secured a ground breaking settlement in its class action lawsuit against Gett Taxi. The company’s “Gett Mehadrin” service effectively enabled passengers to order cabs driven exclusively by Jews. The settlement ordered Gett to eliminate that option and pay $1.7 million in damages to Arab drivers and shared society organizations. The lawsuit was supported in part by an NIF rapid response grant.

NIF awarded the single biggest prize in Israeli civil society to Nasser Nawaj’ah, a
researcher with B’Tselem: The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories. The William S. Goldman Truth to Power Award, named for the late NIF board member, is worth roughly $27,000. It was awarded to Nawaj’ah for his fearless work exposing the injustices of life under Israeli occupation.