ACRI Human Rights Day Activities Continue Despite Right Wing Opposition

8 December 2017

Ahead of International Human Rights Day, NIF’s flagship grantee Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) has embarked on a range of activities to promote human rights in Israel.

Last week, Education Minister Naftali Bennett called for the cancellation of one of these activities — a conference on workers’ rights for school teachers and was being held in cooperation with the Ministry of Education and the Center for Educational Technology. Despite Bennett’s intervention, the conference went ahead as planned.

“We have clearly reached a new low,” said ACRI Executive Director Adv. Sharon Abraham-Weiss. “The man responsible for the education of all of Israel’s children is working with Im Tirtzu, a movement whose sole purpose is to undermine Israeli democracy.”

ACRI added on its website, “After Bennett tried (and failed) to cancel our conference on human rights, we have been swamped with dozens of Israelis asking how they can support us and donate to ACRI. They joined the dozens of others who came to this important conference on rights of each and every one of us.”

The conference received widespread coverage in the Israeli media and ACRI enjoyed a boost in donations.

Other ACRI events for Human Rights Day included Knesset sessions on racism against Ethiopian-Israelis and “The Right to Live in Dignity,” a special session of the Knesset Education Committee.

Photo via Flickr