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Friday April 16, 1999

New Israel Fund pushing voter turnout, aide says here

SARAH COLEMAN
Bulletin Correspondent

As preparations for elections in Israel get down to the wire, Rachel Liel is orchestrating efforts to boost voter turnout to record levels.

As the director of SHATIL, the New Israel Fund's technical-assistance arm in Israel, Liel has recently been devoting a lot of time to issues of voter education and political advocacy for Israel's minorities.

She'd like to see that work pay off on election day, May 17.

"This is a chance to bring about change," Liel said in San Francisco earlier this week. She was in the Bay Area for a series of administrative meetings. "We're hoping that the coming election will create a more positive political climate in Israel."

SHATIL, which means "seedling" in Hebrew, was founded in 1982 to give guidance and technical assistance to Israeli nonprofit organizations. Though itself politically neutral, the agency assists more than 500 organizations committed to social change in Israel, including many groups that serve the country's Ethiopian, Russian and Arab communities.

SHATIL might provide these organizations with everything from budgeting advice to conference facilities or a fax machine.

"We call it the technical-assistance arm of NIF, but really SHATIL's programs go far beyond giving technical assistance," said Liel. "We take organizations that want to change the world and help them put their dreams into practice."

With a multicultural staff of 35 that includes Arabic, Amharic, Russian as well as Hebrew speakers, SHATIL is uniquely qualified to act as a coalition-builder and bridge between communities.

Liel is particularly proud of the Forum for Affordable Housing, a SHATIL coalition of 12 groups that recently lobbied successfully to make public housing available to low-income families. "Working separately, each organization couldn't have done it, but together they were able to get the legislation passed," she said.

The issue was a key one, since "if you don't have property, it's hard for you to move upward in Israeli society," she explained.

With the election approaching, SHATIL has been advising its member groups on how to take their issues to politicians.

"The pre-election period offers a great opportunity for groups to make connections with candidates, get commitments from them," said Liel. "After the election, a group might try to get an appointment with a politician and be turned away. But right now, candidates are eager to talk to them."

As part of its programming, SHATIL instructs trainees on how to get their issues on the platform, then hold politicians accountable afterward.

It has also been working on voter education in several communities.

In the north, member group El-Ahali ("For the People") is working to get Israeli Arabs more involved in Israel's social and political life. "The group doesn't call for voting for a specific party; it just wants the Arab community to go out and vote," said Liel.

Another initiative was spurred by the failure of an Ethiopian candidate to be elected in Labor Party primaries. "This was very painful; we could see how his failure represented the alienation of new Ethiopian immigrants," Liel said.

It's all hard work, she admitted, particularly at a time "when people are challenging the country's democratic institution." But, having recently finished an "unbelievably challenging and exciting" first year as SHATIL's director, she remains hopeful.

"People who work for social change are optimistic by nature," she said. "Unless you believe in a better world, you wouldn't be working to create it."

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