“Hope is not something to be found or lost. Hope is an action, and we continue to create it together.” Maoz Inon, peace activist who lost his parents on 7 October 

Building Tomorrow Together 

For more than 30 years, the New Israel Fund (NIF) has been working to create change in the Negev. Our office in Beer Sheva acts as a community hub for the region, bringing charities, grassroots workers and communal leaders together to work, train and collaborate. Years of experience working – for and with – these communities have allowed us to understand their unique needs, build meaningful relationships and demonstrate our effectiveness at implementing change. These communities, both Jewish and Bedouin, endured the worst of the trauma and displacement of 7 October, intensifying long- standing issues of inequality and underdevelopment in the area.  

Always guided by our shared values of democracy, equality and social justice, we are determined more than ever before, to bring an end to the endless cycle of violence and despair.  

NIF will provide: 

• Grants and seed funding 

• Organisational Support 

• Leadership development 

As we approach the new year, nearly a year after the devastating events of 7 October, Israel’s Negev region continues to face immeasurable challenges. The Hamas attacks uprooted some 38,000 residents, many of whom have yet to return home.  

NIF has been at the forefront of crisis response, launching an emergency campaign within 24 hours to provide essential services for thousands of evacuees, and to advocate for the most vulnerable.  

One year on, we are launching our Equality and Partnership in the Negev Programme. This investment will help rebuild the communities directly impacted by the attacks, and seize this moment to fight longstanding (pre-war) discriminatory government policies.  

We will fight the government’s aggressive displacement policy against the Bedouin community and advocate for their right to basic services including water and electricity.   

With the government’s pre-war discriminating policies and poor investment in the Negev, its residents face these days, additional challenges such as a desperate need for physical reconstruction of destroyed communities and structures as well as trauma recovery for victims of the attacks and their families. Yet, the government’s $400 million budget to rehabilitate the western Negev, provides compensation and benefits only to residents living up to 7 km from the Gaza border, which excludes the Bedouin town of Rahat and the development towns of Ofakim and Netivot, already pre-war marginalized communities, which were amongst those directly attacked by Hamas. 

With your help, we can build on our extensive networks and experience working – with and for – marginalised groups, to allow communal leaders and groups to leverage the rising global investment in the Negev and inspire effective social change in the region’s communities, for decades to come.   

This year, NIF’s grantees continue to bring more complex views and solution focused approaches to combat extremism, defend democracy and foster Jewish-Arab partnership.  

This Rosh-Hashanah, we invite you to join us in our vital mission – Together, we can turn hope into action and create a better tomorrow for the Negev and beyond. 

“Our house is burnt down – but we shall rebuild it…”  Yotam Kipnis, a resident of Kibbutz Be’eri, who lost his parents on 7 October and has a relative still held hostage in Gaza.