Sheatufim, a non-profit organization that leads major social projects at a national level using the Collective Impact model, is leading a campaign requesting the media to focus on social issues that are truly critical – education and the fight against violence.
The campaign includes billboards and newspaper ads calling on the parties to express a clear position on social issues and requesting journalists and leading presenters to challenge the interviewees who are contesting the elections and demand answers on these issues - and not only on the recurring political questions.
On November 1, Israelis will gather for the fifth round of elections in two and a half years, and even now, it seems that the main players are avoiding expressing positions and presenting plans on the burning issues.
Israel’s ranking in international education indicators is going down, the gaps in education are among the most acute in the OECD, domestic violence is getting worse, and thousands of elderly people are joining the cycle of loneliness and poverty. Despite all this, it is rare to find applicable and detailed action plans in the parties’ platforms or to hear their public expression on the subject.
The current campaign comes to protest against this phenomenon. The campaign ads in the newspapers show the image of the presenters of the leading television and radio programs, and ask them to present politicians with pointed questions about social issues, and not just about the well-worn political topics. Among the interviewers appearing in the ads are Danny Kushmaro, Ben Caspit, Amit Segal, Hila Korah, Yonit Levy, Sefi Ovadia, Aryeh Golan, Kalman Libeskind, Assaf Lieberman, Ila Hasson and Yinon Magal.
The billboards show the inscription “I am your agenda for the elections,” on the painful issues – the loneliness of the elderly, the state of education and domestic violence in Israel– and calls on the politicians to put politics aside and say what they will do to solve those issues.
CEO of Sheatufim Shlomo Dushi: “The Israeli public is tired of the fact that every election cycle deals only with personal politics and not the essential problems. The social problems are increasing, and they are not going to disappear. It cannot be that election after election, we will hear the same personal and recycled messages, with whom to sit and with whom not to sit. The Israeli street is thirsty for immediate solutions. We say to the candidates and candidacies – we are fed up with simplistic messages and sophisticated strategies. Now is the time to really say what you will do to treat the painful wounds of Israeli society before it is too late. We chose to contact senior journalists because they have the power to create an agenda, to influence the public discourse, and not to let politicians dodge from the questions of substance.”
Sheatufim was established in 2006 and is the home of the Collective Impact in Israel - a way to drive multi-sector partnerships that lead to changes and solutions to complex social issues. As an actor at the national level, in the last decade, the organization led the intersectoral move to double the number of students approaching matriculation at the five-unit level in mathematics, the “Veshmarta” initiative to assist tens of thousands of elderly people in geriatric institutions during the Corona epidemic, managed the “Magan Haim” initiative to reduce casualties from hospital-acquired infections, and more. Today, the organization works on three main issues - the Top15 initiative to promote scientific excellence in education in Israel, a move to address loneliness and the quality of life of the elderly, and the Kavim Adumim initiative to prevent domestic violence.
For more details, visit https: sheatufim.org.il.