User:Zhzh5599/Standing Together

Standing Together (עומדים ביחד, نقف معا) is a grassroots joint Jewish-Arab social movement working towards peace, equality, social justice, and independence for both Israelis and Palestinians.

The movement runs eight regional and seven student chapters. It has over 3,200 registered members.

Movement History and Major Campaigns
“Standing Together” was founded in 2015 by a group of activists seeking a joint Jewish-Arab response to an uptick in Israeli-Palestinian violence.

Initially, the group organized a series of joint Jewish-Arab protests under the title “Standing Together.” The first protest took place on October 17th, 2015, and attracted about 1,500 participants. After a series of successful protests in Rahat, Haifa, and Tel Aviv, the group decided to formally organize itself as a non-partisan political movement.

Since its establishment, Standing Together has participated in a wide range of progressive struggles. They’ve fought for increased social security payments, against ongoing Israeli occupation of the West Bank, against the expulsion of African asylum seekers, against the Nation-State Law, and for a 40 NIS minimum wage.

In early 2017, Standing Together decided to reorganize itself as a democratic movement where all registered members could elect the national leadership and vote on the movement’s core strategy. In December 2017 the movement held its first national convention in Yafo and elected its first national leadership. The movement held its second national convention in June 2019 in Kfar Kassam and its third national convention in November 2021 in Taiybe. At the Taiybe convention, the movement chose the struggle for affordable housing as the movement’s current core campaign.

During the May 2021 Israel-Hamas conflict, the movement organized dozens of joint Jewish-Arab protests attracting hundreds of participants across Israel.

The movement also operates an alternative media outlet known as Rosa Media which produces Arabic and Hebrew podcasts on political, economic, and social issues through a socialist lens.

Minimum 40 Campaign
In 2021, Standing Together launched a campaign, called Minimum 40, demanding that the Knesset raise the Israeli minimum wage to 40 NIS per hour. Thanks in large part to the movement’s pressure, in November 2021, the Knesset passed a gradual increase to 33 NIS per hour. The campaign nearly succeeded in full in June 2022 when the Knesset passed a preliminary reading of a bill to raise the minimum wage to 40 NIS. However, the Knesset dissolved itself before the bill could come up for a final vote.

Likud Controversy
In the run-up to the 2022 election, Standing Together launched a campaign to raise voter turnout in specific Arab towns. In response, the right-wing Likud party filed a lawsuit against the movement with the Israeli Central Elections Commission alleging that they were violating their status as a non-partisan organization. The commission sided with Standing Together and even ordered Likud to pay 15,000 NIS in damages.