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.
