Ramallah – 20/9/2022 – This week, MIFTAH released the 2022 Citizens’ Budgets for several social sector ministries, as part of its cooperation with UNDP and its social justice program interventions in public fiscal policies. The objective of this program is to promote standards of international transparency in public spending policies, to guarantee standards of social justice in public policies through providing facts and figures and strengthening the oversight role of civil society institutions.

The Citizens’ Budgets this year included the Labor, Education, Health, Finance and Social Development Ministries, as part of cooperation with official institutions in the social sector. The value of the citizens’ budget comes from the fact that it is a simplified document highlighting the ministry’s budget for a specific fiscal year. It shows how the funds are distributed according to programs and provisions, planned expenditures and developmental projects in each ministry. This allows citizens to monitor public funds and how they are distributed to the various official institutions in order to promote the participation of citizens and various social sectors in the planning of general budgets in a way that takes into consideration their needs.

The citizens’ budget shows the share of each ministry in the social sector in the overall general budget, which was ILS19 billion in 2022. The Health Ministry’s share was 12% of overall public expenditures, with a budget of ILS2.1 billion shekels. The health care services program took the lion’s share of the Ministry’s budget, or 76.8%.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education’s 2022 budget was ILS3.4 billion, or 18.7% of overall public expenditures and distributed over six main programs. The primary education program took the lion’s share of the budget, at 52.82%, while the vocational education program only had a share of 1.94%.

As for the Ministry of Social Development, its citizens’ budget stood at 4.7% of the overall general budget, with the combatting poverty and empowerment program taking the biggest share of 92.7% of the ministry’s allocated budget. Furthermore, ILS489 million were allocated to the cash referral program from which 125,000 Palestinian families in the West Bank and Gaza Strip benefit. The EU contributed 45% of this amount while the government covered 55% of the program.

The Labor Ministry’s 2022 citizens’ budget was released, with the Ministry’s share only ILS78 million, or 0.45% of overall public expenditures. Most of this money was allocated to the vocational training, operations and cooperation program, at 54.7%.

It is noteworthy that MIFTAH completed the publication of citizens’ budgets this year by posting them on an e-platform, which it launched in cooperation with the targeted ministries, in order to strengthen cooperation and ensure periodic release of these budgets. This followed a cabinet decision to adopt and ratify the e-platform for the publication of public fiscal information and citizens’ access to it.

Ramallah – 19/9/2022 –MIFTAH recently released its 2021/2022 biannual expenditure reports for a number of social sector ministries, as part of its cooperation with UNDP and its social justice program interventions for public fiscal policies. The objective of this program is to promote international transparency standards in public spending policies, in order to shed light on gaps in expenditures in the social sector and their impact on public policies, to ensure standards of social justice in the development of public policies and spending plans.

The findings of the reports for the Ministries of Labor, Education, Health and Social Development, included percentages for their actual spending for the first half of 2022, in comparison to actual spending for the same period in 2021. This reflected several indicators, which showed how public spending was channeled and how committed the Palestinian government is to the financial ceilings of official institutions, in their ratification of the general budget. The reports’ findings showed several gaps in the actual spending of official institutions in the social sector.

According to the Ministry of Social Development’s biannual report, the actual spending was lower in the first half of 2022, compared to 2021. It dropped by ILS111 million from the first half of 2021, whereby the spending rate did not exceed 78% of expenditures in 2021. The report also showed a drop in actual spending in referral costs, which include cash payments to underprivileged families, during the first half of this year. It dropped from ILS461 million during the first half of 2021 to ILS349 million in the first half of 2022. It should be noted that the Ministry of Social Development only disbursed one piecemeal installment for underprivileged families during the first half of this year instead of two.

The Ministry of Education report, including higher education and research, indicated a 3.2% increase in actual spending in the first half of 2022, compared to actual spending in the same period in 2021, which stood at ILS53 million. Spending was primarily on salaries, wages and social contributions in the first half of 2022, at 88.6%, compared to 88.3% of actual spending for the education sector in the first half of 2021.

The actual spending of the Ministry of Health in the first half of 2022 was ILS1,072 million from a total of ILS7,491.5 million of actual spending in the 2022 biannual general budget, or 14.3% of total expenditures. The report also showed that actual spending on commodities and services increased during the first half of 2022, compared to 2021, where it amounted to ILS565.8 million, compared to ILS544.9 million in the first half of 2021.This clause also includes the purchase of medicines and medical referrals.

At the Ministry of Labor, actual spending for the first half of this year was ILS24.6 million of ILS7,491,5 million of the 2022 biannual general budget’s total actual spending, or 0.33% of overall expenditures. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Labor’s spending rate during the same period in 2021 was only 0.29% of overall expenditures, which indicates the ministry’s humble share of public expenditures in spite of its major role in leading the operational sector and its policies in Palestine.

MIFTAH, in cooperation with civil society institutions, is looking to release position and demand papers to present to the various social sector institutions, with the objective of influencing current spending policies employed by the government. This is in addition to providing organized and periodic access to this data on a website that includes citizens’ budgets and expenditure reports, which MIFTAH developed.

(September 8, 2022): On Thursday, MIFTAH hosted a group of European Union and like-minded diplomats and our Board of Directors’ Chairperson Dr. Hanan Ashrawi, and Deputy Nour Odeh briefed them on latest Israeli crimes and human rights violations in relation to recent political developments.

Firstly, we expressed the Palestinian civil society's deep concern regarding the European Union’s revival of the EU-Israel Association Council and the new gas deal, which is rewarding Israel instead of ending its impunity and holding it accountable for persistent crimes. We also discussed the new "COGAT" Directive, another Israeli attempt at demographic engineering, which will further restrict the lives and movement of Palestinians and affect European nationals and exchange programs too. Also, we stressed that while Israel is crossing EU "red lines" by advancing the E1 illegal settlement bloc intended to suffocate occupied Jerusalem, and escalating its assault on Palestinian civil society, real accountability remains nowhere to be found.

Additionally, we also talked about the ongoing ethnic cleansing and forced displacement of Palestinians which continues unabated in Masafer Yatta and Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank among other areas. Similarly, we highlighted the need for intervention to end Israeli administrative detention, which holds Palestinians indefinitely without charge or trial, including Palestinian-French human rights defender Salah Hammouri. We also highlighted the collusion of the Israeli government and settlers that tie archeological and cultural sites to a Jewish-only narrative as a pretext to facilitate the theft of more Palestinian land and resources.

Finally, the speakers appreciated the active diplomatic missions that express solidarity through field visits and statements but called for this to be translated into a change in policy in their capitals to contribute effectively to bring justice and peace.

Ramallah – 1/9/2022 – MIFTAH recently launched the 2022 digital citizens’ budget in coordination with the budget and planning teams from various line ministries. The citizens’ budgets of six ministries were presented during the meeting. MIFTAH shared its experiences with partner ministries and biannual and annual actual spending reports for the various ministries were compared.

MIFTAH Executive Director, Dr. Tahreer Al Araj addressed advocacy and lobbying efforts in line with MIFTAH’s strategic approaches, to include standards of social justice in public fiscal policies. This, she said, requires citizens to be aware of their rights, which includes the publication of citizens’ budgets and government spending reports for various public institutions. Araj maintained that citizens’ reports help to identify several indicators pointing to social gaps and constitute a reference for how these gaps reflect on marginalized and vulnerable groups including the government’s bias towards them.

Furthermore, MIFTAH’s Democracy and Good Governance Program Director, Lamis Shuaibi-Hantouli addressed MIFTAH’s role and relationship with the various ministries in encouraging them to be more open in the publication of their fiscal statements. She also touched on the evolving relationship between civil society and the government and the impact of these fiscal policies at the level of budgets and public spending, in addition to development towards digitalization. She discussed the impact of these policies vis-à-vis good practices pertaining to international transparency, in addition to influencing executive policies in line with national reform strategies. In addition, Shuaibi-Hantouli spoke about MIFTAH’s support in providing a climate of dialogue between the relevant parties, based on evidence from accurate financial facts and figures, which she said comprised the basis for social accountability.

The e-platform for citizens’ budgets was then presented, which includes several social sector institutions and the general citizens’ budget. The platform reflects a transformation in how budgets are released. Their digitalization promotes more candidness among ministries about their services and how citizens can access data on public expenditures. The platform also includes interactive tools that allow its visitors to send in suggestions, complaints or objections regarding expenditures to the various public institutions.

The participants discussed the recommendations by the ministries’ budget and planning teams, which stressed on the importance of providing the platform with tools to simplify the ministries’ programs and budgets to the public and compare them to the actual spending of these institutions. The recommendations also said it was imperative to guarantee the platform’s sustainability and coordinate with ministries to regularly provide it with the necessary data, which first requires a Cabinet decision to adopt a citizens’ budget e-platform.

MIFTAH’s Dialogue Unit head, Hassan Mahareeq, said the launching of this budget was in line with MIFTAH’s strategic approaches to continue advocacy and lobbying efforts in order to guarantee social justice and equality in the development of public policies. He also said the organization sought the promotion of good governance in Palestine. To this end, Mahareeq explained that MIFTAH, in cooperation with UNDP, has worked on digitizing the citizens’ budget, in partnership with several ministries from the social sector, since the start of this year. He said the overall objective was the sustainability and development of international transparency standards for budgets and to promote more openness from government institutions towards the public, by regularly releasing financial statements pertaining to government spending allocations on social services programs. Another objective, he maintained was to improve citizens’ access to these services through this e-platform.

Ramallah – Civil society organizations, headed by MIFTAH, recently completed discussions on the Value Added Tax (VAT) bill with the Customs, Excise and VAT Department and the gender unit at the Ministry of Finance. The discussions are part of MIFTAH’s strategic course of action aimed at impacting public policies to guarantee citizens’ rights for all sectors of Palestinian society, to enhance the principles of good governance in official institutions and promote social justice in developing fiscal policies.

On behalf of CSOs, MIFTAH presented further comments to those previously presented on the most recent version of the VAT draft law, which included the following:

• Article 4, Paragraph 1, stipulates tax exemption for all non-profit organizations, yet Paragraph 2 of Article 4 stipulates: “The tax shall be imposed on non-profit organizations according to rates within the provisions of Article 2 of this law, to any activities that compete with the private sector.” This achieves the goal of the private sector in subjecting institutions to other taxes, on the premise that these are profitable activities, which compete with the private sector.

• A call to amend Article 2, by preparing a list that reflects tax progression rates on commodities and services, to promote fair distribution, particularly regarding VAT reduction on basic commodities and services; the list will be included as an addendum to the law.

• Articles in the penal code were pointed out, which lack principles of the rule of law towards the ‘employer”, demanding that its provisions abide by the provisions of the amended Palestinian Basic Law.

MIFTAH commented that while it appreciated the demands previously made, the abovementioned comments were key to promoting social justice in fiscal policies.

Meanwhile, representative for the Customs, Excise and VAT Department, Loay Hanash, said his department was open to discussions and cooperation with civil society to implement amendments to the articles in consultation with CSOs, maintaining that the following amendments were positively received:

• Amendment to Article 4, Paragraph 2 of the bill, which stipulates: Taxes shall be imposed on non-profit organizations according to tax rates within the provisions of Article 2 of this law, on any activities that infringe on the private sector.”

• An agreement that MIFTAH, in consultation with CSO’s, will prepare a list of commodities and VAT percentages towards achieving social justice, through progressive tax rates. The Ministry of Finance said it was prepared to adopt this within the framework of the law.

Within this context, MIFTAH stressed on fostering a dialogue-conducive environment with government and official parties as a foundation for influencing public policies and for adopting social justice as a basis for developing policies and influencing decision-makers in favor of citizens’ rights, which guarantee the protection of rights for marginalized and underprivileged social sectors.

Ramallah – 17/8/2022 – MIFTAH recently held a meeting to discuss comments by civil society organizations following up on the amended National Referral System for Battered Women “Takamul”. The meeting is part of follow-up and coordination of efforts between CSOs combatting gender-based violence and promoting the protection of citizens’ rights for women through impacting public policies, laws and legislation so they are more responsive to the needs of women and girls, especially those caught in a cycle of violence.

CSO representatives stressed on the need for follow-up by the Ministry of Women’s Affairs so it is continuously updated on any developments pertaining to the ratification of the referral system during the weekly cabinet meeting. The participants also touched on the importance of feedback on the CSO’s comments and amendments on the draft referral system, which is currently being discussed in its third reading.

The participants discussed the importance of cooperation between the various parties responsible for implementation of the referral system, in a bid to address the obstacles that could affect the quality of the service provided to battered women; facilitating the access of battered women and girls to protection services; addressing issues pertaining to women with disabilities. In this regard, they pointed to the need to: develop capacities among grassroots organizations in dealing with issues of violence against women; update their strategies and measures vis-à-vis their work; evaluate the interventions of health and medical workers regarding the administration and handling of battery cases; provide a specialist in the field of family education; and expand and increase the medical staff that receives battery cases.

The participants pointed to the role of the Ministry of Social Development and the importance of increasing earmarked budgets for handling battered women and purchasing services for them within the framework of promoting a system of protection.

The attendees stressed on the need to: review the referral system’s manuals and procedures to ensure they conform to the provisions of the amended system; address the gaps in the system through developing manuals, which clarify the parties mandated to deal with cases of violence; facilitate the cooperation process between the partner parties implementing the system on the ground that guarantees the rights of battered women are not infringed; and promote a national system of protection capable of combatting GBV. They also pointed to the importance of incorporating the Family Protection Law and international human rights treaties as a basic pillar for implementing the referral system.

The meeting concluded with an agreement that the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and the follow-up sub-committee on the amended referral system will brief the CSO’s on the latest developments in this regard, in addition to following up on the various readings and stages of the system.

Gaza: 19/8/2022 – MIFTAH recently signed a cooperation agreement and memo of understanding with the University of Palestine in Gaza City. This is part of its efforts to empower and enable young leaders to participate in public and political life and to create an interactive environment inside universities based on the principles of democracy, equality, respect for public freedoms and against discrimination and marginalization.

The cooperation agreement is part of MIFTAH’s Democracy and Good Governance Program and signed in partnership with UNFPA. The program includes the development of a discrimination index in Palestinian universities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, as a yardstick for areas of discrimination and to highlight the gaps in political, social, economic and cultural rights among university students. This will also provide valuable information and data for the development of practical measures to be utilized by decision-makers in universities for reforming policies and procedures aimed at cementing democratic values.

MIFTAH recently held a special session in which it discussed CSO priorities and interventions regarding the proposed legal amendments to the Local Elections Law No. 10 of 2005 and the General Elections law No. 1 of 2007.

The session began with a rundown of the most significant proposed legal amendments to the elections law, which CSOs have been discussing since 2013, in a bid to improve the efficiency of the electoral system. This entails guaranteeing the right of political participation for women and youth and reviving democratic principles to increase participation of the various social sectors. Most importantly, these include: amendment of the electoral system (proportional election system), lowering of candidacy age, threshold and women’s quota percentages, ban on first and second-degree relatives on the same list, direct election of local council president and setting a limit of two terms only for local council heads. Furthermore, the participants said CSOs must form a civil front that includes national and factional figures who can demand general elections. This front would be based on an agreed vision among institutions, the foundation of which would be a social contract (Basic Law and its stipulated principles). They maintained that this would lay the groundwork for partnership between the various civil components to demand elections and find a way out of the Palestinians’ political crisis, due to the failure to hold elections, the erosion of the system’s legitimacy, the rise in corruption within this system and the continued political division.

Meanwhile, the topic of laws by decree and the positions of CSOs was discussed. Some organizations said they believed the thwarted election process had created a legislative vacuum, which has obstructed and impacted citizens’ everyday lives. Institutions, however, were forced to deal with these laws by decree, given the need for updated laws that address pressing issues.

However, other CSOs believed the executive authority took advantage of the absence of the PLC to boost its dominance. They said these laws by decree serve the interests of the political system without any serious action to revive the legislative council through holding elections and ensuring the political right of citizens to choose their representatives. The participants capped off the session with a number of conclusions, including: agreement to form a broad-based national coalition to demand elections, through developing a civic vision based on the fundamental principles of the Basic Law; agreement on the proposed legal amendments and on broadening the circle of public and social debate until these amendments are adopted; promoting the legitimacy of this demand and the need to include the CEC vision for Local Council Elections, which is based on its actual experience during the 2021 local elections.

Hassan Mahareeq, officer in MIFTAH’s policy and dialogue unit, said the session was part of MIFTAH’s efforts to promote active political participation for all components of Palestinian society, particularly youth and women, by reviving mechanisms for democratic dialogue to ensure a legal and encompassing environment for this participation, which safeguards citizens’ rights, public freedoms and values of equality.

Ramallah – 2/7/2022 – As part of its Good Governance and Democracy Program, MIFTAH recently conducted an exchange visit between the Hebron and Jericho/Jordan Valley districts, in a bid to exchange expertise and focus on the success stories of female local council members and community activists. The visit was also an opportunity to hear about the challenges women in decision-making positions face and the extent of their political participation.

MIFTAH field consultant in Hebron, Maysoun Qawasmi, said this was the first exchange visit for activists from Jericho and the Jordan Valley to Hebron. The women were received by several organizations with whom they discussed the importance of women’s participation and involvement in activities within civil society institutions and the need for these institutions to respond to women’s community needs and priorities. Qawasmi said the meeting allowed the women the opportunity to discuss the challenges they face within an economic-political context and the mechanisms needed to address them.

“Israeli occupation policies and the reality they create on the ground, limit women’s political participation, especially in areas targeted by Israeli army and settler attacks,” Qawasmi maintained. This intersects with cultural norms, traditions and stereotypes about women’s participation and with the weakness of political parties. Over and above, unemployment rates have accelerated and economic conditions have deteriorated in Palestine, all of which pose challenges to the integration of women and youth in political and community action.”

The second visit was to the town of Tafouh where the women were received by local council members in the Hebron district, in addition to members of the Tafouh council and other organizations. The women spoke about the challenges the councilwomen face, mostly the lack of knowledge on municipality laws and the nature of municipal work. The women spoke about their marginalization in a male-oriented society and how they are not afforded their rightful roles in the council. The women also highlighted some of their councilwomen’s success stories.

MIFTAH’s field consultant in the Jericho/Jordan Valley district, Najat Ermeileh, stressed on the importance of the visit, which included women activists and council members from Jiftlik, Fasayel, Oja and Nuweima, in addition to Diyuk, Ein Sultan and Jericho. She said there needed to be more exchange visits between activists from various districts so the women could share experiences and learn about the other’s challenges and successes in local councils. This is over and above the challenges imposed by the legal system, pertaining to the electoral system and the Local Council Law, which MIFTAH, along with other CSOs, are working to amend.

Town hall meetings

MIFTAH also continued to organize several town hall meetings in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in cooperation with CSOs and grassroots organizations, in addition to local council members. The meetings were aimed at raising citizens’ awareness on issues such as political participation and the process of formulating public policies to foster a culture of democratic and civil values and integrating youth and women at the decision-making level.

MIFTAH’s head of office in the Gaza Strip, Shadia Al Ghoul, said the town hall meetings MIFTAH has conducted since 2003 address the following: introducing participants to the components of a state; presenting the experience of legislative and local elections; and offering a comprehensive explanation of the local and legislative elections law, the women’s quota and the concept of citizenship and its relation to political participation.

She added that the recent town hall meetings produced several recommendations, including: reaffirming the importance of raising awareness among youth and women to their role in decision making; the need for pressure on decision-makers to hold elections; to promote a culture of democratic and civic values and to integrate youth and women at the decision-making level; the importance of political participation of women as a human right, guaranteed by international agreements and conventions; the impact of political participation on national legislations, namely the declaration of independence charter and the Palestinian Basic Law and on the peaceful transition of power.

The recommendations also called for the continuation of regular town hall meetings and their expansion so that new sectors of women could be targeted and the concepts of democracy, citizenship and political participation could be further entrenched, spread and discussed. They also called for capacity-building training courses for women to create strong competitors to men in the political sphere, especially within political parties. Finally, the recommendations called for supporting young leaders and promoting their presence in political parties.

Ramallah – 23/6/2022 – MIFTAH recently capped off Phase Seven of its project, “Development of local communities through small income-generating projects”, which was launched at the beginning of 2021. Throughout this project, 10 grants were given to 40 women in the Jerusalem district, with funding from the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development.

MIFTAH completed the executive phase of the project in 2021-2022 by holding a capacity-building workshop for 48 grant beneficiaries. The training focused on developing self-assertion skills for the women, with the objective of empowering them and enhancing their role in the management of income-generating production projects, so they reflect positive patterns for women entrepreneurs in their communities. The project takes into consideration the needs of marginalized women categorized as vulnerable in their communities, by economically empowering them.

Beneficiary viewpoints

The beneficiaries stressed on the importance of continuing support and funding for their projects and expanding the network of beneficiaries through assessment of their achieved economic and social feasibility and the social, economic and psychological impacts of these projects on the women’s lives.

One beneficiary, Iftikhar Al Sheikh from Beit Sourik, northwest of Jerusalem, said the embroidery project she runs with four other women, economically empowered them and provided a source of income for their families in spite of the marketing challenges and obstacles they faced. She continued that this necessitated ongoing support so their projects could expand and achieve the best possible benefits.

Another beneficiary, Faeda Halabia from Silwan, south of the Old City of Jerusalem, who runs a food-manufacturing project with four other beneficiaries, expressed similar sentiments. She added that supporting such projects in Jerusalem had its own exclusivity, citing the challenges they face due to the Israeli occupation such as taxes on small projects and other more recent challenges from the past two years due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Halabia also said she hoped her project would continue to receive support so she and her colleagues could benefit from the income generated from it. She added that she and her colleagues are very interested in more MIFTAH training so they could further develop their project.

In her conclusion of the most important achievements of MIFTAH’s workshop and its ramifications on beneficiaries, trainer Wala’ Samara said, “The training focused on self-awareness tools, the importance of freeing ourselves from any negative feelings and learning how to cope with tension and anxiety. It also concentrated on the concepts of love and self-appreciation and how weak and strong points are formed, through the use of meditation and self-worth exercises, connecting with the self and strong internal dialogue.”

With this final training, MIFTAH has completed its project “Empowering rural women through small, income-generating projects”, which it has implemented in several Palestinian locations since 2008. The project was successful in terms of the impact and change it created in the lives of over 400 marginalized, rural women and their families in the Jericho and Jordan Valley, Ramallah/Al Bireh and Jerusalem districts. MIFTAH invested in this success by continuing to connect with the women and support their economic participation in Palestinian society. It also supported their involvement in the local market by opening the doors to more modern methods and technology to access foreign markets.