Read NIF's latest press releases and statements. For press inquiries, please contact Elisheva Goldberg at: ‪917.740.4031 phone or [email protected].

• New Israel Fund Calls on Prime Minister Netanyahu to Strengthen Israel’s Democratic and Pluralistic Foundation

  23 March 2010

  Washington DC, – As Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu arrives in the United States to meet with President Barack Obama and Jewish leaders, the New Israel Fund is launching a new campaign in defense of democracy in Israel. Citing more than a year of attacks on Israeli civil society and the repression of dissent, NIF is calling on supporters and like-minded individuals to sign a petition calling on the Prime Minister to stand with all those working to strengthen a democratic and pluralistic Israel.

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• Dr. Jill Biden, Wife of the Vice President, Praises New Israel Fund/Shatil Bedouin Women’s Program

  11 March 2010

  Laqia, Israel:  Dr. Jill Biden, the wife of U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, visited the Min Ajlina (“For Our Rights”) Bedouin Women’s Empowerment Project in Israel’s Negev today and expressed support for the program, which is a joint project of the New Israel Fund/SHATIL and the U.S. State Department’s Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI.)  The multi-track program strengthens Bedouin women as social change leaders, empowering them to effect positive change in public policy and advance the status and lives of Bedouin women in the Negev.

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• Lies, Damn Lies, and the Im Tirtzu Report

  11 February 2010

  Recently the New Israel Fund became the latest target of what appears to be a coordinated effort to stifle dissent and shut down the human rights community in Israel. A complete, source-by-source analysis of the report demonstrates that it is a concoction of misrepresentations, sleight-of-hand with numbers, and outright lies.

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• NIF Under Attack

  2 February 2010

  Recently, the New Israel Fund became the latest target of what appears to be a coordinated effort to stifle dissent and shut down the human rights community in Israel.

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• New Israel Fund Concerned About Arrest of Leading Civil and Human Rights Activist Hagai El-Ad

  15 January 2010

  Washington: The New Israel Fund is extremely concerned about the arrest of Hagai El-Ad, Executive Director of NIF’s flagship grantee Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) during a peaceful rally today in East Jerusalem.  Following last week’s detention and interrogation of activist Anat Hoffman for leading a women’s prayer group at the Western Wall, it appears that a disturbing pattern of police intimidation is beginning to emerge.

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• Israeli High Court Ruling for Freedom of Movement on Route 443

  29 December 2009

  Washington, DC: The New Israel Fund applauds today’s ruling from the Israeli High Court holding that the military must remove restrictions on Palestinian travel on Route 443 which runs between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.  We also congratulate our flagship grantee, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), for its successful petition to the High Court on this critically important issue of civil rights.

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• Human Rights March & Pluralism Event Dramatize Progressive Voices in Israel

  14 December 2009

  Jerusalem, Israel.  With support from the New Israel Fund, thousands marched by daylight, and hundreds lit candles at dusk, in a spirited show of support for human rights and religious tolerance in Israel.  In a two-day span, the events demonstrated that many Israelis are recommitting themselves to the Jewish and universal values of freedom, dissent and sustaining democracy.

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• State Department: “Discrimination Against Non-Jews and Non-Orthodox Continued”

  11 November 2009

  Recently the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor issued its annual report on religious freedom in Israel and the occupied territories.  According to the report, the “status of respect for religious freedom by the Government was unchanged during the reporting period.”  While citing the Israeli government’s general respect for freedom of worship in practice, the report details many areas in which the right to freedom of religion, respected by all modern democracies, is curtailed or shortchanged by Israel’s relinquishment of civil authority to the Orthodox establishment and Muslim/Christian religious authorities.

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• New Israel Fund Announces Daniel Sokatch as New CEO

  16 September 2009

  Washington, DC.  The Board of Directors of the New Israel Fund has unanimously approved the selection of Daniel J. Sokatch as the new NIF Chief Executive Officer, succeeding Larry Garber.  Mr. Sokatch will manage a $30 million Israel-Diaspora partnership, the leading organization committed to equality and democracy for all Israelis.  The New Israel Fund is celebrating the 30th anniversary of its founding in its birthplace city, San Francisco, this evening.

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• ‘Influential Woman’ Rachel Liel Named Israel Executive Director for New Israel Fund

  13 August 2009

  NIF announced today that Rachel Liel has been selected to serve as the new Executive Director in Israel. Liel, named one of the 40 women making the most significant contributions to Israeli society by <em>Ha’aretz</em> in 2007, has directed Shatil, NIF’s action arm in Israel, since 1998.

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