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

• 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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• Incitement, Fraud, and Fabrication

  23 July 2009

  The New Israel Fund is committed to a democratic Israel in which progressive voices are not intimidated, threatened and misrepresented. The coarsening of discourse in Israel is an issue that many thoughtful commentators have raised, as is the unprecedented series of attacks on the Israeli-Arab community exemplified by the proposed Nakba and loyalty-oath legislation.  Disgraceful behavior by some who disagree with our values or actions only demonstrates their real objective – to silence dissent and mute unpopular voices, particularly in the human rights community.

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• New Israel Fund to Launch Virtual 30th Anniversary Celebration

  27 April 2009

  As a joint celebration of NIF’s 30th anniversary and Israeli Independence Day, NIF is launching the “Celebrate Israel Your Way” campaign.

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• Orthodox Jews and Arabs to March in Solidarity in Umm El Fahm

  2 April 2009

  Jerusalem: In response to last week’s incendiary march by right-wing extremists, religious Jews will lead social activists and citizens alike in the Israeli-Arab city of Umm El Fahm to express solidarity with the local residents and Arab citizens of Israel.  The event is being organized by the orthodox forum 12th of Heshvan (Yud Bet B’Heshvan), in cooperation with the New Israel Fund (NIF).

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