Shatil, NIF’s action arm in Israel, has created a Jewish-Arab Partnership Task Force to help respond to the current crisis. Comprised of 10-15 key shared society organizations and activists, the task force will work together to promote legitimacy for Jewish-Arab political partnership and increase representation of Palestinian citizens of Israel in decision-making centers. The long-term goals of this task force include ensuring the presence of Palestinian-Israeli representatives in the public discourse and achieving equal representation for Palestinian citizens of Israel in positions of influence.

On May 16, Shatil hosted a meeting for shared society and Palestinian society grantees. Thirty people representing around a dozen organizations attended. Participants discussed the importance of effective media work and Shatil offered strategies to ensure that critical de-escalation efforts are properly reported by the media. Shatil is also helping those who work on issues related to shared society reach the media. For example, Shatil put Aviv Tartarsky of Ir Amim in touch with the Jerusalem Post, which resulted in Tatarsky writing an excellent opinion piece for that newspaper.

Shatil, together with grassroots groups and the Welfare Ministry’s Community Work Service, also recently initiated Ba’ot Betov, an effort to map and distribute information about local shared society initiatives throughout Israel. Shatil assisted in the map’s creation and distribution as well as the messaging around it for the media. The map gained over 500 followers within its first day.