The Citizens' Accord Forum between Jews and Arabs in Israel

2004

 

The Irwin Green Family Early Childhood Development Center / CAF facilitated the development of the Center, the first of its kind in the Nazareth-Ilit region, which was built on land donated by the French Hospital Francais Staint Vincent de Paul.  The Center offers diagnostic and therapeutic services to Jewish and Arab children in the region. Today, the Center works with more than 400 special-needs children under the age of nine, and provides more than 9,000 treatments a year.

 

Jewish-Arab Editors’ Committee / CAF established the Committee to promote Jewish-Arab relations as an item on the national agenda using the media as an outlet. The Committee also served to expand Israel’s Arab journalists' access to government officials and decision-makers.

 

2003

 

Du-Et Newspaper / In October 2003, CAF launched Du-Et (‘Two Pens’ in English), a Hebrew-Arabic newspaper that provided a rare and much needed opportunity for Jewish-Arab communication, and was in publication until 2009. The initiative was launched in response to official figures at the time that stated whilst Arabs represented 20 percent of the population, only 0.3 percent of journalists employed in the Israeli (Hebrew) media industry were Arab. Further, whereas Arab affairs were generally covered in the Arab press, Jewish journalists tended to be disconnected from, and unfamiliar with, events in the Arab sector.

 

At the time, Du-Et was Israel’s only newspaper jointly written and produced by Jewish and Arab journalists.  At its height, Du-Et published between 200,000 to 300,000 copies per issue in Ha’aretz, Ma’ariv, Kul al-Arab, As’sennara, and Panorama, and had a readership of nearly one million.  In June 2007, Du-Et published a special feature in The Marker (the prestigious business supplement in Ha'aretz) on Israel's most prosperous Arab business leaders alongside a feature on Israel’s most prosperous Jewish business leaders. This first-time inclusion of Arab business leaders in Israel's most popular business magazine was very well received by the Israeli business community, and resulted in new prospects for commercial cooperation between Jewish and Arab businesses. Click here to access past Du-Et issues.

 

2002

 

Jewish-Arab Press Club / CAF brought together prominent journalists and editors from leading Arabic and Hebrew newspapers (including Kul al-Arab, Panorama, Ma’ariv, and Ha’aretz), as well as the managers of Israel Radio and Channel 2 to form the Jewish-Arab Press Club. Club Members met with senior newspaper and television editors to discuss how to positively change the media industry to include coverage of Arab society and culture in mainstream Hebrew press.