Newsroom:
Racial Equality
-
Haaretz
September 13, 2022The Israel Religious Action Center – the advocacy arm of the Reform movement in Israel – led a campaign to disqualify Ben-Gvir from running for the Knesset in 2019. It failed, however, with the High Court of Justice ruling in his favor.
IRAC Executive Director Orly Erez Likhovski is concerned that many Israelis have been taken in by Ben-Gvir’s recent charm offensive and the toning down of his rhetoric. He no longer talks about deporting all Arabs, for instance, but instead only those who are “disloyal.”
“Maybe this makes some people calmer, but this is just a mask he has put on,” she says. “His intentions have not changed.”
Erez Likhovski attributes his popularity among young Israelis to ignorance.
“First of all, it’s important to point out that most of the kids at Blich were against him – not for him,” she says. “But I’m sure many of them have no idea what he’s all about. From my experience, when you talk to them about Kahanism, they can’t even tell you who [Meir] Kahane was. There are a lot of lost kids out there looking for something, and when someone like Ben-Gvir comes along who makes everything sound very simple, this appeals to them.”
Still, she believes that most young Israelis would never entertain the idea of voting for him and recoil from his views.
-
Middle East Eye
August 25, 2022Earlier this month, a study by the Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC) revealed that Palestinian citizens of Israel received a significantly higher number of indictments, convictions and sentences for incitement to violence than their Jewish peers in the last eight years.
Between 2014 and 2021, 77 percent of all indictments for incitement to violence and racism were filed against Palestinian citizens of Israel, who make up only 20 percent of the country's population.
The figures represented "insufficient enforcement policy", the Jerusalem-based group said.
Authored by attorneys Ori Narov and Orly Erez-Likhovski, the IRAC report said the lack of indictments against rabbis allegedly inciting violence, compared with Muslim clerics, demonstrates the law is not applied equally in the country.
The law enforcement system suffers from "a long, thunderous silence about the wild, unbridled incitement of rabbis who pretend to base themselves on Jewish law", it said.
-
Haaretz
August 2,2022The gaps between Jews and Arabs revealed by a new report that analyzed Israel’s enforcement of the laws against incitement over the past seven years are too large to be viewed as strictly quantitative. This data, compiled by the Israel Religious Action Center, shows a qualitative difference as well. That isn’t surprising, but it’s nevertheless hard to swallow.
-
Middle East Eye
August 1, 2022Palestinian citizens of Israel receive a significantly higher number of indictments, convictions and sentences for incitement to violence than their Jewish peers, a new study by the Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC) has found.
The disparity is caused by the prosecution's "foot-dragging and delays" when it comes to incitement by Jews, the Jerusalem-based centre said, according to Israeli daily Haaretz, adding the "data clearly shows an insufficient enforcement policy".
-
Haaretz
August 1, 2022Fully 77 percent of all indictments for incitement to violence and racism are filed against Arabs, according to a new study by the Israel Religious Action Center.
The report also found significant gaps in conviction rates and sentences between Arabs and Jews. In addition, it says, prosecutors tended to avoid filing incitement charges against public figures, especially rabbis.
“The data clearly show an insufficient enforcement policy,” said the report, which was written by Religious Action Center attorneys Ori Narov and Orly Erez-Likhovsky. The prosecution’s policy on incitement by Jews in particular is “characterized by foot-dragging and delays,” it added.
-
Haaretz
May 31, 2022Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, said in response to the statements: "Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu is well known for his racist views which most Jews and supporters of Israel find offensive and which the Israeli Supreme Court strongly condemned. As a purveyor of hatred towards Arabs, non-Orthodox Jews, LGBTQ and others, his views sully the strong moral case we regularly make on behalf of the State of Israel."
He continued, "Our Israeli Reform Movement’s Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC) has led and will continue to lead the legal fight against his regular incitement of racism. We were not involved in the decision to deny him a visa but if the rabbi is upset he should undertake a thorough cheshbon hanefesh, an honest assessment of his deeds, which is surely the reason he’s not a welcome figure across the Jewish and democratic world.”
-
The Jerusalem Post
May 31, 2022President of the Union of Reform Judaism (URJ) Rabbi Rick Jacobs responded to Eliyahu’s allegations “Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu is well known for his racist views which most Jews and supporters of Israel find offensive and which the Israeli Supreme Court strongly condemned. As a purveyor of hatred towards Arabs, non-orthodox Jews, LGBTQ and others, his views sully the strong moral case we regularly make on behalf of the State of Israel. Our Israeli Reform Movement’s Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC) has led and will continue to lead the legal fight against his regular incitement of racism.
-
PressTV
March 21, 2022The official Palestinian news agency WAFA on Monday cited the Israeli daily Maariv that the result of the survey conducted by the Israeli Racism Crisis Center (RCC) was published on the eve of the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination observed annually on March 21.
The director of the RCC, Samah Darwish, said in an interview that the results of the survey illustrated the extent of racism in the occupied Palestinian territories. “This should concern everyone.”
-
WAFA
March 20, 2022The director of the center, lawyer Samah Darwish, said that the results of this poll revealed the extent of racism in Israel, which poses a great concern.
-
Haaretz
March 9, 2022Samah Darwish, the director of the Israel Religious Action Center's Racism Crisis Center, accused the police of neglecting investigations into anti-Arab attacks. "We call on law enforcement agencies to come to their senses and act in any way possible to eradicate this despicable phenomenon," she said.
2022
-
Haaretz
November 25, 2021After the statement was released, the Reform Movement’s Israel Religious Action Center complained to the ombudsman, arguing the chief rabbi and other rabbinical judges – all of whom are civil servants – had spoken out on controversial political issues, in violation of the code of ethics of their position.
-
The Times of Israel
May 29, 2021The legal advocacy arm of the Reform Movement on Thursday called upon Israeli officials to designate the Lehava Jewish extremist group as a terrorist organization.
The letter, sent to Defense Minister Benny Gantz, Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit and the chief of the Shin Bet security service Nadav Argaman, detailed the actions of Lehava and its director, Bentzi Gopstein, since the organization was founded, the Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC) said in a statement.
“Lehava has been run like a terrorist organization for years, which is seen in their actions on the streets of Israel in recent weeks,” Anat Hoffman, director of IRAC said.
“Lehava’s use of Judaism distorts the values of Jewish morality to incite violence against Arabs just because they are Arabs,” Hoffman said.
IRAC said Lehava’s activists and leaders played a significant role in the recent wave of violence that swept Israeli society.
The letter to officials also includes evidence of Lehava members detailing their goal to “hunt” Arabs, and published materials to “deter” Arabs in Haifa, calling them “Haifa terrorists,” IRAC said.
“We expect the Defense Minister to join us in saying ‘Racism is not my Judaism’ and declare Lehava a racist organization,” Hoffman concluded.
-
Mintpress News
May 28, 2021The Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC), the public and legal advocacy arm of the Reform Movement in Israel, has been monitoring Lehava’s activity for more than a decade.
“Lehava is an organization that claims to work against assimilation, but basically wants to create a Jewish-only space in Jerusalem and in Israel in general,” Rabbi Noa Sattath, IRAC’s director, told MintPress News. “In this last wave of violence, they were certainly instigators in several of the cases.”
IRAC demanded Lehava be labeled a terrorist organization in a letter sent this week to Israeli Minister of Defense Benny Gantz, Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, and Head of the Shabak (General Security Service) Nadav Argaman.
2021
-
The Times of Israel
June 8, 2020The Israel Religious Action Center, which had petitioned the courts for charges to be brought against Gopstein, welcomed the development.
“With the start of his trial the time has come for Gopstein to not plaster organizations and other people with false accusations but to contemplate the seriousness of his actions,” IRAC attorney Orly Erez-Likhovski said in a statement.
-
The Times of Israel
March 16, 2020“More than 10,000 people from China and East Asia work in Israel today,” the Racism Crisis Center of the Israel Religious Action Center said of the incident. “The [coronavirus] panic must not turn them into targets. In some previous epidemics, it was the Jews who were falsely accused of spreading the disease. Let’s learn that humane lesson.”
-
Cleveland Jewish News
February 27, 2020Before filing the suit, Pink and the Israel Religious Action Center, which is part of the lawsuit, commissioned a private investigation that they said proved the service was tailored to be discriminatory.
-
Jewish News
February 24, 2020The lawsuit, which is demanding about £35 million in compensation from the firm’s founders, follows a two-year investigation into the firm conducted by groups such as the Israel Religious Action Center.
-
The Yeshiva World
February 25, 2020Pink and the Israel Religious Action Center carried out a private investigation before filing the lawsuit. Channel 12 News broadcast segments of the hidden camera footage of the undercover investigation, with one scene showing an undercover private investigator asking a cab driver what the Mehadrin service offers.
-
Yisrael Hayom
February 23, 2020Prior to submitting the lawsuit, Pink, along with the Israel Religious Action Center, conducted a private investigation in October 2018.
-
Arab News
February 23, 2020Pink, along with the Israel Religious Action Center, sought a private investigation into the service before submitting the case, sending in undercover people posing as potential drivers.
Herzl Moshe, Gett’s Jerusalem representative, allegedly said he would never allow an Arab driver to register with the Mehadrin service.
“It’s for people who don’t want an Arab driver,” he said in comments recorded during the private investigation.
Anat Hoffman, executive director of the Israel Religious Action Center, claimed that religion is only being used by Gett as a cover for racial discrimination.
“Using Judaism to justify racism isn’t Jewish,” Hoffman said. “Racism by any other name smells just as foul.”
-
i24 News
February 22, 2020Prior to submitting the lawsuit, Pink, along with the Israel Religious Action Center, conducted a private investigation in October 2018. According to the investigation's report, two people disguised as aspiring drivers met Gett's Jerusalem representative, Herzl Moshe.
During the meeting Moshe allegedly said in recorded comments, "Gett Mehadrin is not for religious [Jews]. It is for people who don’t want an Arab driver. When my daughter wants to travel, I order her a Gett Mehadrin. She doesn’t care if the driver is religious or not because what she wants is a Jewish driver."
-
Haaretz
February 21, 2020Attorney Asaf Pink, who is working on the case, along with the Israeli Reform movement’s legal arm Israel Religious Action Center, investigated the service before launching the suit. The investigation’s report stated that in October 2018, two people were sent to pose as prospective drivers to meet with Herzl Moshe, Gett’s Jerusalem representative. While meeting with him, Herzl, who was being surreptitiously recorded, said that the Mehadrin service is not intended for religious Jews, but rather “for people who don’t want an Arab driver.”
"When my daughter wants to travel, I order her a Gett Mehadrin," he said. "She doesn't care if the driver is religious or not because what she wants is a Jewish driver."
He allegedly told the undercover investigators that he would never hire an Arab driver for the Mehadrin service, the Guardian reported. The investigation firm also sent an Arab man to see if he could sign up for the service as a driver, who was turned away.
-
The Guardian
February 21, 2020Before submitting the case, Pink and a local rights group, the Israel Religious Action Center, commissioned a private investigation that they said proved the service was tailored to be discriminatory.
Anat Hoffman, executive director of the Israel Religious Action Center, said Gett Mehadrin masked racial discrimination with Jewish practice. “Using Judaism to justify racism is not Jewish. Racism by any other name smells just as foul.”
2020
-
Ynet News
November 26, 2019The decision to indict Gopstein came following an eight-year legal battle with the Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC).
Rabbi Noa Sattath, the director of the Israel Religious Action Center, said in response: "The attempt by the Lehava leader to present his racist and violent doctrine as Judaism failed. The IRAC will keep tracking the racist agitation by his group and other such extremist leaders."
-
Haaretz
July 5, 2019Israel Religious Action Center filed another High Court petition over what it alleged was ‘intolerable foot-dragging’ that conveys ‘a lax message from the authorities when it comes to racist incitement’
The Israel Religious Action Center’s latest petition describes nearly a decade during which it states that dozens of complaints have been filed with law enforcement agencies regarding Gopstein and Lehava over alleged incitement to racism and violence. IRAC’s first High Court petition against Gopstein was filed in 2014. In early 2015, the state prosecutor’s office responded that it had just begun examining the findings from a secret investigation into Lehava that had been initiated several years earlier. As a result, IRAC’s petition was denied.
Two and half years later, IRAC filed another petition. In November 2017, the Jerusalem district attorney’s office announced that Gopstein was suspected of incitement to violence, racism, terrorism and of obstruction of justice and would be summoned for a hearing. Among the allegations was that Gopstein “published words of support and solidarity with the terrorist act committed by Baruch Goldstein,” a reference to the American immigrant to Israel who in 1994 killed 29 worshipers at the mosque at Hebron’s Tomb of the Patriarchs.
-
The Jerusalem Post
June 28, 2019
“The exhibition was initiated by Racism Crisis Center and the Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC), which addresses issues like equality and individual privacy. IRAC has a department that helps victims of racism,” Lifschitz explains. Dream On is designed to amplify that stand and get it out to the public, using the posters as an aesthetically appealing platform. The Yellow Submarine is also in the mix and, following the Outline week, the show will relocate to the said music venue later on in the year. -
AP
April 22, 2019Noa Sattath, director of Israel’s Religious Action Center, said she noticed kindergarten security regulations this week featured the contentious rule, and pledged a lawsuit against the municipality if it did not take action.
Sattath called the fliers a “classic case of the dehumanization of Arabs in Israel,” where Arabs comprise 20 percent of the population and have faced decades of discrimination.
-
RT
April 23, 2019Noa Sattath, director of Israel’s Religious Action Center, said the fliers were a “classic case of the dehumanization of Arabs in Israel,” Israel Hayom reports. Arabs make up 20 percent of Israel’s population.
“Arabs in Israel are viewed as dangerous as it is, even in the absence of any real and specific indication that they pose a potential threat,” Religious Action Center’s Racism Crisis Center pointed out in a letter. The organization said that as a result of this stereotyping, Arabs are targeted more than any other group in the country.
-
Haaretz
April 20, 2019In its appeal, the Racism Crisis Center, operated by the Israel Religious Action Center - the advocacy arm of the Reform movement in Israel - said that the municipality instructions to comprehensively prohibit outsiders and non-Jewish minorities from entering kindergartens harm their right to human dignity and equality, and therefore is wrong, illegal and forbidden.
"Arabs in Israel are viewed as dangerous as it is, even in the absence of any real and specific indication that they pose a potential threat. As a result, they become immediate suspects, and are targeted, more than any other sector, due to alleged security reasons which are based on religious and ethnic stereotypes," the letter states.
-
972 Mag
April 18, 2019The Racism Crisis Center, a project of the Coalition Against Racism and the Israel Religious Action Center of the Reform Movement, sent a letter to the Jerusalem Municipality last week arguing that the instructions were illegal and demanding that they be changed.
-
Haaretz
January 27, 2019The Israel Religious Action Center, which is an affiliate of Reform Judaism, and the Tag Meir anti-racism group said the rabbi's statements show support for the suspects.
-
Haaretz
January 24, 2019Two years ago the Israel Religious Action Center and a few other organizations petitioned the High Court to subject Eliyahu to a disciplinary trial for his previous statements. Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked avoided taking any steps against him but pressured by the petition she declared that she had held a “clarification talk” with him. Let us hope that this time the attorney general will make the necessary decision to dismiss Eliyahu from his official posts.
2019
-
The Jerusalem Post
October 18, 2018The petition was filed by the Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC), the Association for Civil Rights in Israel and other NGOs.
-
Haaretz
June 22, 2018The Racism Crisis Center – an initiative of the Israel Religious Action Center, the advocacy arm of the Reform movement in Israel – was established 10 months ago to lend legal and other assistance to individuals targeted by acts of discrimination and racism. Since its launch, reports Mezuman, it has handled some 75 complaints – three-quarters of them from Arab citizens – on issues ranging from discrimination in customer service to racial profiling and physical attacks.
Among the complaints it is currently handling is one involving an attempt to bar Arabs from a Jerusalem swimming pool – in this case by charging them higher prices than Jews.
-
Haaretz
June 13, 2018The Conservative-Masorti movement and Yosef are receiving legal representation from the Israel Religious Action Center – the advocacy arm of the Reform movement in the country. The petition will be filed against Interior Minister Arye Dery and Shlomo Mor-Yosef, director of the ministry's Population, Immigration and Border Authority.
-
Haaretz
June 3, 2018The petition to the High Court will be submitted through the Israel Religious Action Center, which is the advocacy arm of the Reform movement in the country.
“The decision by the Interior Ministry contradicts all legal precedents, as well as the criteria that it itself drew up regarding recognition of conversions of recognized communities overseas,” said Nicole Maor, the IRAC attorney who will be handling the case.
“There is no doubt whatsoever that the Abayudaya are members of the world Conservative-Masorti movement and the Interior Ministry is, therefore, obliged to recognize conversions performed in its framework,” she said.
-
The Times of Israel
March 15, 2018The Reform Movement’s Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC) and the Mossawa Arab advocacy group sued the website, arguing that it was bigoted against non-Jews.
2018
-
The Jerusalem Post
November 20, 2017Ori Narov, an attorney for the Reform Movement’s Israel Religious Action Center, described Zohar’s generalizations as racist.
“Your discourse encourages hatred,” said Narov. “I did not say that the claims are not correct, but that the connection is not appropriate… Show statistics about the extent of the phenomenon – but to say that all Arabs can be characterized in this situation is a racist statement.”
-
The Times of Israel
November 13, 2017The Coalition against Racism in Israel and the Reform movement’s Israel Religious Action Center welcomed Monday’s announcement in a joint statement of their own, calling Lehava “a racist organization that organizes hate crimes and incitement.”
-
Haaretz
November 13, 2017The Coalition against Racism in Israel and the Reform movement’s Israel Religious Action Center both welcomed the decision to indict Gopstein, saying in a joint statement that Lehava is a racist organization responsible for “hate crimes and incessant incitement against Arabs.”
The indictment, coupled with the arrest of Gopstein and other Lehava activists a month ago, constitute important steps in the right direction, they said.
-
972 Mag
October 17, 2017The judgement concluded a lawsuit filed by the Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC) and Mossawa Center against the owner of the site, Avodah Ivrit (“Hebrew Labor”), claiming that it violates Israel’s anti-discrimination laws. The website publishes wanted ads by businesses and employers that only hire Jewish staff, as well as job seeking ads by Jews only, while prohibiting Arab citizens of Israel from doing the same. Avodah Ivrit was forced to pay NIS 40,000 ($11,300) in damages.
-
Haaretz
October 17, 2017The suit against the website was lodged by the Israel Religious Action Center, the Mossawa Center (The Advocacy Center For Arab Citizens in Israel) and was joined by the equal opportunities commissioner in the Labor Ministry, as part of an attempt to safeguard the recognition of “rights enshrined in legislation regarding labor.”
-
Haaretz
July 7, 2017The first petitioner is Jamal Julani from Jerusalem, who as a 17-year-old in 2012 was attacked by young Jews in central Jerusalem after they identified him as Arab. The other petitioners are the Israel Religious Action Center, the Tag Meir Forum, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel and the Coalition Against Racism.
-
The Jerusalem Post
July 5, 2017The Israel Religious Action Center on Wednesday asked the High Court of Justice to compel the prosecution to indict the head of radical right-wing group Lehava.
The center – the public and legal advocacy arm of the Reform movement – along with the Reform movement, other NGOs and lynch victim Jamal Jalani, also requested that the High Court order Attorney- General Avichai Mandelblit to criminalize the Lehava organization.
More specifically, the petition said that Mandelblit should indict Lehava head Ben-Tzion Gopstein for incitement to racism and violence.
-
Haaretz
July 2, 2017“We know that it’s happening all the time and we know the police simply ignore it,” said Rabbi Noa Sattath, director of the Israel Religious Action Center, which has been monitoring Lehava since 2009.
“The police are called and they don’t come. And if they come, they don’t investigate,” she said. Although there are plenty of closed-circuit video cameras in the area, Sattath noted that “there’s never any video, it’s always erased. We went to the [police] district commander a year ago and his answer was, ‘Do you know how many incendiary devices are thrown in [the Jewish neighborhood of] Pisgat Ze’ev?’ It’s clear, from the level of district commander to the beat cop, that the Arabs have no protection in Jerusalem,” she added.
According to lawyer Orly Erez-Lahovsky, head of IRAC’s legal department, another problem is the lack of faith Palestinians have in the police “when they see that they file a complaint and the case is closed without being dealt with.”