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From my early adulthood I have been an activist in the civil society and the political world of Israel. My political activism began during my undergraduate study 1967-1970 as a member of SIYAH—a group that had foreseen already the disastrous effects of the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip and started a struggle against it.

During 40 years of being in Israeli academia I assumed the following roles:

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1979-1985 -- activist in Peace Now movement, fulling an active role in the Tel Aviv Secretariat and founder of the Peace Now Youth  

1981-1990 -- volunteer consultant to the Labor party (leftist–center) in Israel 

1984-1996 -- training with interventions of teachers and principals in Education Against Racism and Education For Democracy 

1992, 1996, 2000 -- volunteer consultant to election campaign of Meretz (Leftist party)

1993-94, 2000 -- adviser to the Minister of Education from Meretz party to build Peace Education.

 

Then in the summer of 2015 as I retired from my position at TAU and was searching for a mission of political activism, I noticed that June 2017 would mark 50 years of occupation. It was clear to me that this event could not be left unnoticed. This led me to found the movement Save Israel-Stop the Occupation (SISO) to give maximal voice to messages stressing the disastrous effects of 50 years of occupation mostly on Palestinian society, but also on the State of Israel and its survival.  SISO is motivated by the idea of Collective Impact: that coordinated activity by diverse groups, each within its own sector and areas of expertise but with a common strategy, is greater than the sum of its parts. So within a year we formed an institutionalized infrastructure, mobilized literally hundreds of supporters, recruited Israeli organizations as well Jewish liberal and peace organizations around the world, set social media—website  http://www.siso.org.il/ and Facebook . This mission ended in 2018. Since then I have been deeply involved with the activities of the civil society in its struggle for peace and against the occupation.