Dear Friends,

As some of you have asked to receive additional updates and more information, below please find a more thorough description of some of Shatil's latest work to promote Israel's growing social justice protest movement. As we wrote previously, although our work is mostly behind the scenes we wanted you to be fully informed about the extent of Shatil support and activity. 

For us these are exhilarating but challenging times as we adapt constantly to answer the growing needs of the protestors in light of fast moving developments. Our work in this context is not being done in a normal meeting room but out in the noisy streets, with people who may not have had a hot shower in several days, and who are living in difficult conditions in tents cities. Though Shatil has always been a 'big tent' organization, bringing together disparate sectors of Israeli society, in this case we had to mediate in real time between multiple 'point people' including young student activists and public housing protestors, Tel Aviv yuppies and immigrants from Ethiopia or the FSU. This is definitely well beyond the regular organizational development work that we do, but through constructive struggle and other methodologies developed by our consultants and organizers we were able to unify the protest movement and help them crystallize a clear vision of what the socio-economic policies of the State of Israel need to be.

I want to end by saying that there are numerous regularly scheduled Shatil activities going on – our staff and consultants are doing their best to be there for and with the protestors while keeping up with their regular 'routine' work load. Many have cancelled or shortened scheduled vacations in order to be fully engaged. Please join me in expressing appreciation for their dedication and commitment during these challenging but exhilarating times.

Best regards,

Ronit