Roundtable on "Shrinking Spaces in the public discourse in Israel"

In early March, WAS-NS Communications and Development director Samah Salaime participated in a Roundtable organised by Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) which took place in ZOA House, Tel Aviv. The event was arranged to coincide with a visit of German parliamentarians to Israel. The panelists discussed the theme of "Shrinking Spaces in the public discourse in Israel".

Samah took part in a panel presided by Judith Stelmach (Project Manager at FES) . It included experts in freedom of expression and representatives of the NGO sector, including Shaqued Mogar (Exec. Director of Peace Now), Anat Shalev (Researcher), Dorit Inbar (Gen. Manager at New Fund for Cinema and Television in Israel) and Jafar Farah (Director of Mossawa). Paul Pasch, Micky Drill and Sonja Lebkuecher from FES were also present.

Samah focused on the instrumentality of education in the struggle against mainstream thinking. She gave the example of the binational / bilingual curriculum of the WAS-NS Primary School in the context of legislative policy that increasingly constrains the civil liberties of Palestinian Israeli citizens.