October, 2020 | The Jerusalem Intercultural Center

Ha’aretz Article Highlights the Behind-the-Scenes Work in East Jerusalem

On October 25, Ha’aretz journalist published an article about the IDF’s Home Front Command’s system-wide efforts in East Jerusalem to fight COVID-19. It describes the different avenues and connections that have been made, that have enabled a relative containment of COVID-19 in East Jerusalem in the second wave, after the infection rate spiked in the summer months.

East Jerusalem

We’re not mentioned in the article, but much of what has been possible has been the result of the tireless work of the JICC. As soon as COVID-19 hit Israel, the JICC established and continues to coordinate a 160-member WhatsApp group of civil society leaders in East Jerusalem. This is much more than a channel of communication; it has enabled numerous initiatives to take place that help to help East Jerusalem Palestinians fight the spread of COVID-19. As a result of our deep and extensive network of Palestinian civil society actors, the JICC was asked to join the Municipality’s Control Center, the first NGO to ever be asked to join the emergency control center. JICC Director spoke a bit about this at a Jerusalem Foundation Switzerland online event entitled, “Diversity and Inclusion in Times of Crisis.” You can read more about that here. In May of this year we were quoted in the Jerusalem Post as well. You can read about that here.

These efforts are complementary and in addition to the specific efforts of the Atta’a Assistance Center for the Rights of East Jerusalem Residents and the MiniActive Network of Palestinian women. You can read about their activities here and here, respectively.

Here are relevant parts of that article:

Today, in his role as head of the coronavirus control center for Jerusalem, [Brig. Gen. (res.). Ben-Zvi Eliassi] has had to build a completely new kind of relationship with the city’s residents.

Evacuating and isolating confirmed COVID-19 patients is an important part of the center’s activities. As a result, the Home Front Command runs hotels in East Jerusalem that are designated for that purpose. An assistance network has also been set up for the families of patients and for those required to go into quarantine to encourage them to follow the guidelines and to provide them with food and medicine.

“Patients feel that there is someone looking after them, so they don’t leave home,” Eliassi said. “In addition, there is enforcement at the individual level to make sure people follow the rules. Patients know they’re being monitored, and they don’t break the isolation rules.”

Some of the personnel at the coronavirus control network are paid by the Defense Ministry and the municipality, while others are volunteers who look after the needs of patients and those in quarantine. The control center works through Jerusalem’s community administrations (local neighborhood councils with fairly broad powers, which operate in both the eastern and the western parts of the city). It pays the salaries of the person in the neighborhood who is responsible for coronavirus operations, along with the coordinator of volunteers and the coronavirus “trustee,” who monitors compliance with rules and is involved in contact tracing.

…

The Home Front Command center has relied on a network of paid personnel and volunteers, as well as young women from East Jerusalem doing alternative national service. The cooperative effort required the center to surmount political and social obstacles. While army uniforms are considered less problematic in East Jerusalem neighborhoods than those of the Border Police, Palestinian encounters with uniformed Israeli personnel can still be tense.

East Jerusalem activists have agreed with the Home Front Command that the coronavirus is a common enemy, which has helped reduce tensions. But other residents of East Jerusalem have said that the activists who have been working with the soldiers are not from the mainstream of Jerusalem Palestinian society.

Instead, they say, they are Palestinians who have tended in any event to be more cooperative with Israel. Contrary to expectations, however, since the beginning of the second wave, there has been almost no opposition to such cooperation in the field or on social media.

An expert on East Jerusalem who has been following the control center’s activities said there are three types of Palestinian activists and organizations in Jerusalem. “There are activists who always cooperate with the municipality, and they were the first to jump on the bandwagon,” he said.

“The question is how accepted they are and how representative of the population. Alongside them are the community administrations that have received generous funding and have proven that they have a high capacity to carry things out. And then there are the folks who can’t even utter the word “city hall” – but even there, the beginnings of cooperation can be seen. It’s done through quiet dialogue – things that we haven’t seen in the past. The subsiding of the Palestinian issue is also manifesting itself in Jerusalem.”

You can read the original article here.

As noted above, much of the activity in East Jerusalem is thanks to the behind-the-scenes work of the JICC. We are honored to help fight the spread of COVID-19 in East Jerusalem.

Naomi Roff2020-11-18T09:25:39+00:00October 31st, 2020|Blog, Palestinians/Arabs|

Atta’a’s Muhammad Akeel in Interview at Beit Hanina Community Center

Atta’a has been working around the clock to help Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem weather the coronavirus crisis. You can read about it here.

Muhammad being interviewed

Atta’a’s long-time rights coordinator, Muhammad Akeel, was interviewed by Beit Hanina Community Council. He spoke about the current economic situation in East Jerusalem, especially in light of the coronavirus. He also spoke about unemployment benefits, welfare payments from the National Insurance Institute, and more. Thus far the video has had over 6,000 views.

Here’s the interview in Arabic:

Many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation, the Rayne Foundation, the Bader Philanthropies, and the Jerusalem Model for its support of Atta’a

Naomi Roff2020-11-06T06:54:52+00:00October 27th, 2020|Attaa, Blog|

Little Prince – Continuing to Forge Public-Private Partnerships in Jerusalem

We’ve written here, here, here and here, about how the Little Prince initiative, through the JICC’s mentoring of activists from all parts of the city – Arabs, religious, secular and Haredi Jews – are helping to make Jerusalem a clean city, even during corona times. Over the past 3 years, by helping grassroots leaders to forge intercultural connections with each other and with Municipal professionals and officials on numerous levels we have empowered them to create change on the ground, starting with one of the most basic services – garbage and clean streets. Part of this work is facilitating partnerships with the Jerusalem Municipality and its professional leadership as a way to make work more effective. On October 14, we took one more step to strengthen this partnership.

This was the quarterly meeting with the Director of the Operations Department. The meeting included a number of division directors: Eitan Levy, Director of the Beautification Department; Ilan Sasson, Director of the Municipal Supervision and Policing Division, and Gili Gorni, Director of the Sanitation Division; ), a number of quarter supervisors and unit directors, together with the residents and activists. In the meeting, all participants were treated with respect and all claims and arguments were taken seriously. This meeting was another example of the importance of working together, where each of the partners brings their own piece to the puzzle, creating a beautiful, varied picture.

Much of what we do is putting the puzzle pieces together – together

This feeling was strengthened when Itzik Nidam gave his presentation, which showed the significant progress that was done as part of the Jerusalem Municipality’s cleaning reform:

Street sweeping reform: 600 new cleaning personnel were hired.
Sanitation Division responds to residents’ queries until 22:00 at night!
50 new and sophisticated street cleaning vehicles have been introduced, enabling a high degree of street cleaning.
Regular collection days for old cars and scrap metal, as well as pruned branches and leaves in each neighborhood.
Cleaning of 1,250 acres of open private spaces. These spaces are technically the residents’ responsibility to clean, but de facto are public eyesores. Over the past year the Municipality took responsibility for many of them (You can read more about that here.), and as a result, thus far 10 tons of garbage (!) were added to the regular garbage collection in the city.
Placement of 3 huge compactors in the downtown area for the use of business owners and residents.
Replacing garbage bins with underground bins, and upgrading existing underground bins to new models that have bigger openings and a larger capacity.
Investing in educational and social activities in schools, kindergartens and community centers to advance clean city principles, when possible in light of COVID-19 restrictions.
Reinforcement of cleaning in gardens and playgrounds.
Establishment of residents’ forums in the neighborhoods that work together with the neighborhood professionals.
And much more….

After the presentation we had a long discussion in which residents responded to the issues presented, brought up additional needs and issues that require continued focus and effort. We thought together about ways to deal with vandalism, supervising residents and more and came up with ideas for implementation.

And yes, all this cooperation took via Zoom.

We have been introduced to many desirable changes that affect how the city looks and our quality of life, which brings us closer to our original goal – to make Jerusalem a clean city. What fun it is to work with our partners from Operations Division, who invest so much in turning Jerusalem into the cleanest city in Israel.

Here’s the link from the original Facebook post in Hebrew:

Many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation and the US Embassy in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv for its continued support of the Little Prince!

Naomi Roff2020-11-18T15:07:57+00:00October 24th, 2020|Blog, The Little Prince - Cleaning Jerusalem Together|

Atta’a Interview on Al-Quds Digital

We’ve written here, here, here and here about the different ways the Atta’a Assistance Center for the Rights of East Jerusalem residents has been helping East Jerusalem Palestinian residents realize their rights. They’ve been operating since 2004, and Atta’a has been even more important since the onset of the COVID-19 crisis.

Daud being interviewed by Al-Quds Digital

As part of its efforts to help East Jerusalem residents, Atta’a has been reaching out in various ways – through individual assistance, updates to its website, Facebook posts, and videos.

On October 13, 2020, Atta’a Director Daud Aliyan was interviewed by Al-Quds Digital, a social media-based station, about different unemployment benefits and the National Insurance Institute, and directions on how to submit the necessary forms. You can watch the video in Arabic here:

Many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation, the Leichtag Foundation and the Rayne Foundation for its ongoing support of Atta’a, and to the Jerusalem Model , the Russel-Berry Foundation and the Bader Philanthropies for their support of our emergency activities in East Jerusalem in response to COVID-19.

Naomi Roff2020-12-25T14:47:58+00:00October 22nd, 2020|Attaa, Blog|

MiniActive Women – Building Community Resilience with Online Lectures

The MiniActive Network of 1,000 Palestinian women has been working on a grassroots level to improve communities and their infrastructure in East Jerusalem since 2012, and in the process, they’ve been strengthening civil society, strengthening women’s place in the community, and building community resistance.

We’ve written several times about how MiniActive has strengthened community resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic. You can see a few examples here, here, and here.

Over 80 participants on Zoom for an anti-stress workshops

On October 15, 2020 they continued to do so, with an online lectures about how to deal with everyday stresses, especially during current times. She spoke about how to deal with everyone at home, with children who are trying to study remotely, how to reduce stress and keep control of the household without everyone going crazy.

Over 80 women participated in the lecture, and feedback was excellent. Thank you MiniActive! May we have many more activities that help us get through this period together!

Here’s the post from the MiniActive Facebook page (in Arabic):

Many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation and to Natan for their ongoing support of MiniActive!

Naomi Roff2020-11-06T08:38:29+00:00October 20th, 2020|Blog, MiniActive|

Cultural Competence Training for Academic Institutions during COVID-19

The COVID-19 crisis has changed so many aspects of all of our lives. Since so much of our communication has become less and less face-to-face, the need for cultural competence and cultural sensitivity is more critical than ever.

Teaching lecturers how to navigate diverse classrooms, especially during COVID-19

This includes, among other places, the academic classroom. Like many college and university campuses around the globe, COVID-19 has turned the bustling academic campuses into spaces that are largely virtual. In Israel, the school year began with full online academic learning, and, as part of the preparations, the JICC Cultural Competency Desk was invited to lecture at the Zefat Academic College on how to teach online courses, with diverse classes, in a culturally competent manner.

Raising questions, discussing answers

How can lecturers hold classes online that will be both culturally competent and culturally sensitive, taking into consideration the cultural differences between students and faculty, as well as between the students themselves?

What aspects should be taken into account vis a vis the students, where not everyone might have a suitable Internet infrastructure, but they do have a strong desire and motivation to learn? How do you take attendance when everyone can choose a Zoom nickname and / or turn off the camera?

And most importantly – how can dialogue and the skills of listening and recognizing intercultural differences help a lecturer overcome these challenges? The culturally competent perspective and these questions were raised by Dr. Rachelly Ashwall in the online lecture held on September 15, 2020 for academic staff at Zefat Academic College.

Naomi Roff2020-11-20T14:05:32+00:00October 11th, 2020|Blog, Cultural Competence, Cultural Competence in Academic Institutions|

Atta’a Center – Continuing Emergency Assistance during COVID-19 Outbreak in East Jerusalem

The Atta’a Assistance Center for the Rights of East Jerusalem Residents (also see its internet site) has been working tirelessly since the coronavirus crisis hit the region to help Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem to deal with the range of effects of the coronavirus on East Jerusalem – in health care, welfare, economy, and more. They’ve been:

Disseminating information, with Facebook posts about Ministry of Health guidelines, National Insurance Institute guidelines (for unemployment and welfare payments)
Helping residents individually with online forms, which are only available in Hebrew. This includes forms for furlough and unemployment, for discounts on property taxes, and a range of other forms.
Producing videos and website guides to help residents realize their rights.

We wrote about what they’ve been doing here, here and here.

Videos with healthcare leaders

Here are a few statistics:

Since mid-March, Atta’a has helped over 3,500 requests, which has helped resident receive an additional NIS 10 million, more than twice their regular annual average.
Between March – July, Atta’a posted over 30 posts to its Facebook page and to other popular pages in East Jerusalem about COVID-19, health guidelines, instructions on filling out various forms and other critical information. These posts received 224,235 views cumulatively
Between March – June 2020, the Atta’a web site had 9,534 views.

More recently, Atta’a has made videos together with the National Insurance Institute and with a health care leader for two videos (in Arabic).

Link to video held with member of National Insurance Institute:

Link to video held with Fuad Abu Hamed, owner of Kupat Cholim Branch in Beit Safafa:

Many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation and the Rayne Foundation for its ongoing support of Atta’a, and to the Jerusalem Model and the Bader Philanthropies for their support of our emergency activities in East Jerusalem in response to COVID-19.

Naomi Roff2020-10-30T11:37:33+00:00October 3rd, 2020|Attaa, Blog|

Monthly Archives: October 2020