The Abraham Initiatives’ Personal Security Courses: Deepening Community Safety, Empowering Youth
By Ron Skolnik and Rabbi Margo Hughes-Robinson
As we continue our monthlong focus on the impacts of the ongoing war on youth in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza, we are honored to uplift the work of our longtime partners do to the better future that young people in Israel and Palestine so richly deserve, and so desperately need.
We’re delighted, therefore, to shine a light today on our longtime friends at The Abraham Initiatives (TAI). Longtime champions at the forefront of shared society work between Palestinian-Israelis and Jewish-Israelis, TAI launched a program last year in cooperation with local philanthropic and governmental partners aimed at empowering youth in the Negev, equipping young people to become agents of community change in the face of structural marginalization.
Due to long-term Israeli government neglect, Arab and Bedouin residents of the Negev have been victims of dangerously increasing levels of crime and violence. With little sense of hope and opportunity, and amid daunting economic pressures – Palestinian-Israeli youth face particularly high rates of unemployment and lack of access to education compared to their Jewish-Israeli peers – many Arab and Bedouin youth are at high risk for becoming both potential victims and/or perpetrators of violence.
Through TIA’s Personal Security Course initiative, Bedouin and Arab youth are able to gain essential safety and self-advocacy skills. In the wake of October 7th, program leaders alumni have been at the forefront, connecting their communities to rescue and community support organizations — essential work in villages and towns that do not have access to bomb shelters or other security structures.
As Program Coordinator Fayroz Alatayka wrote, “volunteering together and mobilizing women and young people gives me hope that we will soon live together in peace and equality. The shared hours are yet another reminder of what it means that we are all human beings whose lives intertwine, with dreams and the right to live in peace.”
TIA recently spotlit one Personal Security Course alum named Taysir. Pressured into gang membership after an interrupted education in eighth grade, Taysir was arrested as a teenager but was diverted out of the Israeli justice system to a psychological support and rehabilitation initiative. After graduating this program and TIA’s Personal Security Course, Taysir today serves as a community liaison in the Negev, bridging informational and relationship gaps between the IDF and his local community about local emergency procedures and safety advisories as the war continues.
The Personal Security Course team has also worked to mobilize women and youth groups in the city of Rahat and the surrounding communities to engage in volunteer work together in recent months, creating opportunities for the many diverse communities of the Negev to work together in shared initiatives and push back against the siloing of Jewish-Israeli, Palestinian-Israeli, and Bedouin communities in the wake of October 7th.
We have been delighted to partner closely with The Abraham Initiatives over the last several years. To learn more about the organization, check out our December 2023 “Kolot: Voices of Hope” feature, “The Abraham Initiatives: Working for a Shared and Fully Equal Israel”, which describes TAI’s various programs and activities – including their Shared Learning project for Arab and Jewish schoolchildren. In addition, you can watch a recording of our February 2024 webinar, “Keeping the Peace During the Gaza War: Preventing Jewish-Arab Violence within the Green Line”, with senior leaders of The Abraham Initiatives, Shahira Shalaby and Ruth Lewin-Chen.
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