Shared Society

As a social democratic foundation, we want to promote a society in which all members have equal rights, equal accessibility to resources and all contribute to society.

On the one hand, the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict is leading to tensions between Jewish and Arab citizens of Israel. On the other hand, the heterogeneous Israeli society poses a challenge to the concept of a shared society.

Building a shared society requires a variety of measures: the empowerment of disadvantaged groups in society, the establishment of equal rights for all citizens, and the promotion of exchange and cooperation between the various groups in society.

In order to fulfill these diverse tasks, we work together with a wide range of Israeli NGOs and universities as well as international partners.

Givat Haviva and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation in Israel embarked on The Locals – Eye Level Dialogue in 2019, to reach audiences in the heart of Israeli society, who had not given any thought to the effect of the Nation-State Law and its implications on Arab-Palestinian citizens and on Israeli society at large.

We realized that there is great need and potential in open dialogue regarding various issues Israel’s Arab-Palestinian citizens care about, and the different ways Jews and Arab-Palestinians can communicate, get better acquainted and more trusting, making the State of Israel a better place for all of us – Jews and Arab-Palestinians. So, we decided to continue this project, using it to expose more issues affecting Jewish-Arab relations in Israel, going deeper into them and building the necessary infrastructure for a shared society in Israel.

>> Read more