Problem description
The two communities, Russian-speaking and Arabic-speaking Israelis, are in constant contact with each other. They often live in the same neighborhoods, work in the same hospitals, and work in the same plants and factories. Both Russian-speaking and Arabic-speaking Israelis are linguistic minorities who must defend their rights.
The solidarity of a language group determines whether its members can protect their rights and interests. Only cohesive groups can realize various forms of self-organization, such as non-governmental organizations, coordinating councils, lobbies, and act as a subject of political struggle, influencing the adoption and implementation of political decisions.
Arab-speaking residents of Israel have generally developed structures of self-organization in the form of pan-Arab coordinating councils, nongovernmental human rights organizations, political structures, and lobbyists. Despite the diversity of intra-Arab groups, in terms of both religious and ethnic factors, Arab-speaking Israelis have learned to make consolidated demands and to defend them at both the local and national levels.
The Russian-speaking minority constantly discusses the need for self-organization to protect their rights and represent their socio-economic interests, but they cannot reach a level of intra-group solidarity sufficient to create effective self-organization structures. Of course, there are isolated attempts in the form of non-governmental organizations or participation in elections. But they are not systemic and often compete with each other rather than reinforce each other. For example, of the 33 public lobbies registered in the 24th Knesset, not a single one defends the rights of the Russian-speaking minority or represents their interests.
Project Objective:
- to develop recommendations for increasing the solidarity and self-organization of the Russian-speaking minority by studying the experience of self-organization of the Arabic-speaking minority;
- Developing joint forms of self-organization to jointly protect the rights of linguistic minorities and represent their interests.
Project Objectives:
- Examine forms of community self-organization in Israel, using Arab and Russian-speaking minorities as examples;
- Develop recommendations (projects) to strengthen self-organization and intra-group solidarity of the Russian-speaking minority;
- Develop a training program for Russian-speaking activists on tools of self-organization (lobbying, social mobilization, electoral activism)