During the pandemic WAC-MAAN has taken many steps to support Palestinian women in Jerusalem to overcome the impact of the crisis. Some of these are detailed here.
Workers’ Covid-19 Hotline
At the start of the pandemic, WAC’s Jerusalem office was inundated with inquiries from workers who had been fired or put on unpaid leave. In East Jerusalem, the situation was particularly severe: the number of people registered with the Employment Bureau rose from approximately 6,000 before the crisis to more than 40,000 in April 2020. To respond to the high demand for assistance our Jerusalem office opened a hotline, recruiting dozens of volunteers. See the article http://eng.wac-maan.org.il/?p=2390
With the help of our Hotline, we aided about 800 East Jerusalemites, many of them women, to navigate the bureaucratic obstacles and attain their rights with the Social Security bureau, the Employment Services, the Post Office and their employers.
Quarterly monitoring of the social and economic situation in East Jerusalem
In January 2020, in collaboration with Ir Amim (http://www.ir-amim.org.il/en), we launched a project to monitor the situation and needs of Palestinians living in East Jerusalem. We attended especially to Government Decision 3790 on investments in the Palestinian side of the city. One of the project’s aims was to raise awareness among policy makers and the public concerning the employment situation of Palestinian women in Jerusalem. The June Monitor, produced jointly by WAC and Ir Amim, covers the first four months of the pandemic. Through statistics and reports, it presents the dangerous level of unemployment and poverty among Arabs in East Jerusalem, especially women. http://eng.wac-maan.org.il/?p=2397
A guide in Arabic for women “on the way to work”
Before and during the pandemic, WAC updated a digital guide in Arabic entitled “On the Way to Work”. This is a unique tool for the tens of thousands of Arab women in East Jerusalem who are looking for jobs in Israel’s labor market. It provides answers to many frequent questions and includes all the information needed for a Palestinian woman who wants to start a new job in Israel, such as how to use public transportation, maternity benefits and rights for part time workers: http://thewaytowork.site/ The digital Guide was produced and written by WAC ‘s Jerusalem coordinator Erez Wagner and designed by Vered Bitan.
A Hebrew language course for Palestinian women in collaboration with Lissan
As part of an effort to enable Palestinian women to learn Hebrew, which is basic to successful integration in the labour market, we collaborated with the Lissan Association ( https://www.facebook.com/lissan.np/?ref=bookmarks) , running a three-month course for two groups of 60 women– one for beginners and one advanced. The course was completed in July 2020 with a graduation event.
