Introduction:
2023 – Background: The October War and the Judicial Coup
At the time of writing this strategic document of MAAN Workers Association (MAAN), we are a year and a half into a bloody war that has reshaped the geopolitical landscape of the Middle East. In addition, in 2023, MAAN was a partner in a fierce mass struggle against the judicial-political coup, in which the Israeli right-wing, led by Netanyahu’s government, sought to transform Israel into a democracy in name only, lacking a system of checks and balances. After a temporary lull due to the war, we are now witnessing renewed attempts to revive this coup.
On October 7, 2023, Israel suffered a severe blow to its prestige as an all-powerful state, casting doubt on several paradigms that had guided its management of the conflict with the Palestinians and the surrounding states. Hamas, the organization that has ruled the Gaza Strip alone since June 2007, revealed itself as a murderous messianic terror entity unfit to responsibly govern a state.
The casualties, wounded, and kidnapped in this war created a deep national trauma in Israel, while the world of Gaza’s residents was devastated by an unprecedented Israeli retaliatory military campaign. It is not without reason that some refer to this as the second Nakba.
As a workers’ organization committed to peace and justice, we unequivocally condemned the Hamas terror attack and called for its removal from all governing authority. At the same time, we assert that the Palestinian people are entitled to a just solution to their demands for freedom and independence, and that without such a resolution, neither people will be able to recover or heal.
As a workers’ organization, we did not ignore the grave harm caused to 150,000 Palestinian workers, who had worked in Israel for decades and were abruptly expelled at the outbreak of the war. We intensified our efforts to support Palestinians in East Jerusalem in coping with the lockdown and persecution they faced since the war began.
Confronting the danger of Islamic fundamentalist forces on one hand and extremist racist and fascist trends in Jewish society on the other, MAAN struggles to be an anchor for principled Jewish-Arab partnership. MAAN’s adherence to shared human values and solidarity guides its pursuit of cooperation with civil society organizations, academia, and initiatives formed in recent years in the vital struggle for democracy and peace.
MAAN – Profile
“MAAN Workers Association” has been active for 25 years in defending and organizing workers in Israel. It focuses on workers whose basic rights have been harmed by the neoliberal economy, which has dismantled public services and promoted privatization since the early 1990s.
The creation of a vast system of subcontractors that disconnects the state from its responsibility to employ workers, along with the employment of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and migrant workers, has resulted in a mass of invisible, exploited, and abused workers with no one to turn to.
MAAN’s systematic action to defend and organize workers in privatized institutions – including Palestinian workers in Israel and the settlements, as well as workers in health, education, and human rights sectors – defines it as a workers’ organization making a significant contribution to advancing organized labor and halting arbitrariness and systematic rights violations.
MAAN’s profile as an organization based on equal partnership between Israelis and Palestinians, Jews and Arabs, men and women, is of paramount importance. Its activity across separation barriers, in areas occupied by Israel in 1967, aims to build trust and joint struggle between Palestinians and Israelis as a key to breaking down the physical and mental barriers between the two sides.
Work Plan for 2025–2026
Main Objective:
To promote workers’ rights in Israel, with an emphasis on fair employment regardless of ethnicity, race, or gender.
Main Areas of Work
Target Audience Profile:
The majority of MAAN’s unionized members are employees in nonprofits with 20–250 workers, who often do not receive attention from larger labor organizations. Currently, eight organizations and nonprofits are unionized under MAAN through collective agreements. These workers are concentrated in sectors such as human rights, caregiving, education, therapy, and music. Within MAAN, they receive personalized and dedicated support. These members appreciate MAAN’s progressive direction and its vision of a just society that sees every individual as equal and deserving of rights.
In the coming two years, MAAN will work to maintain its existing collective agreements and expand unionization to four additional workplaces.
Our work will focus on the following areas:
Targets for each of the next two years:
Target Audience:
Our work will focus on the following areas:
In East Jerusalem:
Targets for each of the next two years:
2.1. Handle 380 paralegal cases (with file opened and consultation with a lawyer), 40 legal cases (with direct legal intervention), and 600 counseling sessions (without opening a file, only registration of name and details). Total income generated for rights holders: no less than 800,000 NIS.
2.2. Conduct 10 in-person workshops; provide individual employment guidance to 10 women; hold 7 virtual Zoom sessions on employment topics; 5 open discussion sessions in the WhatsApp group; create and distribute 7 informational leaflets for women on employment rights via WhatsApp and social media.
2.3. Hold 3 meetings with teachers regarding their rights and a campaign to promote those rights; 3 meetings with doctors on their rights and a campaign to advance their rights.
2.4. Monitoring and lobbying the following key policymakers:
• Jerusalem Municipality – especially the Welfare Department and Employment Branch.
• Relevant government ministries:
- Jerusalem Ministry (responsible for the 880 five-year plan)
- Ministry of Health – monitor the decision to promote public health services (organic clinics run by health funds) over contractor services currently used. Promote employment of East Jerusalem residents in healthcare.
- Ministry of Labor
- Ministry of Welfare
Monitoring main service providers for jobseekers:
• National Insurance Institute
• Employment Service
2.5. Networking with civil society organizations: Ir Amim, Bimkom, Association for Civil Rights in Israel, Physicians for Human Rights, legal clinics (Jerusalem and Tel Aviv), Rayan, Lissan, Kulna, Yerushalmit Meduberet, Center for Victims of Sexual Harassment, Machsom Watch, Lada’at, Health Forum, research institutes like the Jerusalem Institute.
2.6. Content creation and publication of 6–7 items on social media: success stories, challenges, and more.
In Area C and the Territories – Topics and Indicators for Each Year:
Content creation and publication in media, social media, and policy briefs:
• Print, radio, television: 6 appearances.
• Social media: 25 posts in Arabic, some also in English and Hebrew.
• Policy briefs: 1–2.
Target Audience:
3,000 Arab women in the Triangle area who wish to integrate into fair employment but face structural and cultural barriers. These women often lack formal education, professional certification, or recognized trades. Many do not speak fluent Hebrew. MAAN offers a supportive environment and encourages these women to join sectors such as agriculture or homecare. MAAN also assists them in organizing work groups and monitoring their rights.
3.1. MAAN will create 200 new job opportunities and monitor 100 existing workplaces from previous years.
3.2. MAAN will encourage a core group of 15 leading women to participate in an empowerment group that meets regularly to discuss social and employment issues. These women, as MAAN members, will assist in outreach and empowerment efforts among Arab women in the Triangle.
3.3. MAAN will promote joint activities between Arab and Jewish women in the Triangle area to foster mutual understanding and support climate crisis challenges. Over the next two years, in collaboration with our sister organization Sindyanna of Galilee, we will launch a beekeeping project for Arab and Jewish women under the “Bees for Peace” umbrella.
3.4. MAAN will highlight its work with Arab women through media and social media platforms.
Target Audience:
MAAN does not operate in a vacuum and is not neutral in the struggle for a just society. In 2023, when hundreds of thousands marched in the streets against the judicial overhaul, MAAN stood with these masses. MAAN sees every civil society organization working for justice and equality as a partner for cooperation. Specifically, MAAN collaborates with dozens of organizations and groups in various fields, with a community of around 500 artists, and with all workers unionized under MAAN.
In Each of the next two years:
4.1. We will organize the annual “Bread and Roses” exhibition in cooperation with the artist community – approximately 500 artists – to raise funds for creating jobs for Arab women in Israel and Palestinian women in East Jerusalem. In the exhibition, artists donate their works and receive 25% of the sale price.
