Attaa

The Atta’a Assistance Center for the Rights of East Jerusalem Residents has been helping Palestinian residents obtain rights and benefits since 2004, and we’ve described here, here, and here the amazing work they’ve been doing since the onset of the pandemic. Indeed, between March 2020 and March 2021, they helped Palestinians deal with over 7,300 requests, 4 times their annual average.

Atta’a staff being interviewed for local TV / Internet broadcast

And since March 2021, Atta’a is continuing to help local residents at an accelerated pace: From the beginning of 2021 to the end of July, Atta’a has had nearly 2,500 requests for assistance. This breaks down to:

• 800 requests via Facebook
• 500 requests via WhatsApp
• and another nearly 1,200 requests via in-person meetings

What’s the reason for the uptick in requests? Well, the continued pandemic, for one. Another is that the family re-unification law, which has prevented Palestinians from filing for residency status in order to live together with their families since the early 2000’s, was not renewed in early July, and many are turning to Atta’a for help. Since posting, this video has received over 210,000 views! Here’s the video in Arabic:

Many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation, the Rayne Foundation, the Leichtag Foundation, and the Euro-Mediterranean Foundation of Support to Human Rights Defenders for their support of Atta’a.

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

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.

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.

The Atta’a Assistance Center for the Rights of Palestinian Residents (also see its internet site) has been striving to help all Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem since 2004. For some time, in addition to its web site and Facebook page, and in addition to (pre-COVID-19) regular workshops and lectures, Atta’a provided one-on-one assistance at three centers around Jerusalem: Sur Baher, Wadi Joz and Beit Hanina.

For some time, Atta’a has sought to expand into the neighborhood of Issawiya. Now, despite, or maybe because of the additional complexities brought upon us by the coronavirus crisis, Atta’a was finally able to open a branch there.

Photograph of Issawiya, Photo credit here

Issawiya is a complicated neighborhood, with many many problems. It is a Palestinian neighborhood in Jerusalem located on Mt. Scopus, with approximately 20,000 Palestinian residents. It was part of the territory conquered in Jerusalem by Israeli forces during the Six Day War. The village falls under the jurisdiction of the Jerusalem municipality and its citizens have the status of permanent residents in Jerusalem.

In Issawiyah the housing is crowded, infrastructure is poor, and few residents have full access to the rights guaranteed them by international law. Their daily life continues to be disrupted by closures, restriction on movement, hostile police raids and use of excessive force. Since the summer of 2019, needs have become even more urgent in Issawiya. Unrest and friction between neighborhood residents and the ‘Israeli establishment’ – Municipality, police, etc. – have been the source of a great deal of tension. For example, the local community center, which is operated by the Municipality, was set on fire, since it is seen as a symbol of the Zionist occupying forces. Schools were closed, and children are questioned.

So, despite all the the extra pressure Atta’a is under because of the coronavirus crisis, it opened up a branch in Issawiya in August. It is located in a ‘neutral’ area of the neighborhood, which is accepted by everyone and enables everyone to feel safe going there. It is open for 3 hours a week, as coronavirus restrictions allow, and also receives Whatsapp messages to coordinate in advance.

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.

The coronavirus crisis is difficult for everyone on a number of levels. Given the already existing challenges in East Jerusalem – language, culture, socio-economic, statutory and much more – Atta’a’s services are needed now more than ever.

Many of the services and directives produced by the Israel Ministry of Health are translated into Arabic. However, many of the forms – such as home quarantine after returning from abroad – are only in Hebrew. Atta’a translated the form (below), and its post on how to fill out the form reached more than 22,000 (!) people. We know that it was used and shared by a number of prominent East Jerusalem Facebook pages and relevant organizations. Here’s a picture of the form:

Translation of the home quarantine form

And here’s the original Facebook post (in Arabic):

it is critical to raise awareness about the new directives, to ensure as many people see them as possible. It is even more critically important because of the crowdedness of many homes and neighborhoods, which puts that population at a higher risk of contracting the disease.

In addition, during this time, residents of East Jerusalem, like residents throughout Israel, require a lot of public and welfare services – from the National Insurance Institute, from the municipality, from the municipal employment office. Because of the situation most offices are closed, so Atta’a is one of the main channels that it getting the word out, to show how to navigate the different web sites (which are not always in Arabic), to be able to receive benefits (such as unemployment) that are so critical in these uncertain times. The post below is from a few days ago, when the East Jerusalem branch of the National Insurance Institute stopped having public reception hours. The branch director called Daud, the Atta’a Director, at 10pm so that he could get the word out about canceling public reception hours. This post reached more than 25,000 people, and was shared and posted on a number of major East Jerusalem Facebook pages. Here’s that post:

The Facebook page also posts updates by the National Insurance Institute about how to file for unemployment, and more. Atta’a also partnered with the JDC and the Jerusalem Municipality to produce the following video, which received tens of thousands of views:

In addition to the posts and additions to the Atta’a web site, Atta’a is also answering individual requests using a range of – by Facebook, email, telephone, and more.  Since the crisis began they’ve dealt with 300 requests, more than twice the number of they help during ‘normal’ times.

Kol hakavod on the dedication and hard work. Wishing all well and much strength to help others along the way.

And, as always, many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation for their continued support of Atta’a.

As an organization that helps Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem Atta’a has been on the front lines of helping residents deal with the COVID-19 crisis in East Jerusalem.

Photo Credit: Israeli Ministry of Health site

Much of this effort now is helping residents fill out forms to receive unemployment benefits, which are only in Hebrew. To help get the word out, Atta’a joined forces with the Joint Distribution Committee – Elka and the Jerusalem Municipality to produce this video:

In the first week after going up, this video was viewed tens of thousands of times.

Many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation for their continued support of Atta’a.

Every day Atta’a helps adults and children access – and fight for – their rights. Many times the stories are heart-wrenching. Here’s one of them.

Illustrative picture by pikrepo

A social worker from Hadassah Mt. Scopus contacted us (Atta’a is in contact with all social workers in Jerusalem hospitals) to help her with an urgent case she has in connection with the National Insurance Institute (NII).

There is a 7-year-old patient who underwent one operation and who needs to undergo another 2. However, NII decided that his parents are not eligible for health insurance because they couldn’t prove that they live in Jerusalem (a pre-requisite for Palestinians to receive Jerusalem resident status, only after which they can receive health insurance). Without health insurance, the parents were asked to pay NIS 200,000 to continue for the second operation, with the final bill potentially reaching NIS 300,000. As with many Palestinian families in East Jerusalem, this is a poor family with no way of paying such huge sums of money. The social worker helped the family to submit all forms and documentation to prove that they do indeed live in – and have never left – Jerusalem.

Since time is of the essence the social worker called Atta’a on behalf of the family in order to speed the process up.

We asked the social worker to prepare a report on the family and its situation. We also asked the surgeon to prepare a report on the child’s medical condition. Together with all the documents proving that the family lives in Jerusalem Atta’a went directly to the NII Director in East Jerusalem and the Director of the Residency Division (with whom Atta’a has a good working relationship) to request that they expedite this family’s case. The good news is that the family was granted residency status after only a week, and that from here on out they will be covered by health insurance, including one of the operations.

The bad news is that this took place on January 30, 2020, after the boy had already had two operations. By law this means that the family still had to pay for these first two operations, which were very expensive. Legally, after the NII decision, all additional matters must be appealed through the court system. Atta’a referred the family to another organization that can help them with these legal matters. We wish them the best in getting access to this coverage.

Many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation for their continued support of Atta’a.

At Atta’a we’re all about joint work, helping to advance rights realization in all areas of life. A recent joint project, that includes Atta’a and Michal Gutman-Kremer from our Cultural Competency Desk, with the ‘Like Me’ organization and their Arabic-language web site, Sichatuna (which means ‘our health’ in Arabic).

A look at the Sichatuna web site

Today, the site includes two online communities – one for diabetes and one for obesity. They are managed by physicians who advise and answer questions to help inform different treatment options and promote a healthier lifestyle.

We are helping to make the site more accessible and more adapted to the needs of the Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem, in order to raise awareness of these health issues and to give residents an additional source for consultation and information. Our first joint activity revolved around International Diabetes Day on November 14. A number of Jerusalem hospitals distributed flyers to promote the site’s activities. The results are significant – their Facebook page gained about 300 from East Jerusalem as a result of this video with Dr. Hashem about diabetes:

Many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation for their support of Atta’a.