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2021-02-28-accounts

British Shalom-salaam Trust Crossing Borders for Peace 411 Iiiiijj Annual Report & Accounts aam March 2020- February 2021 THE BRITISH SHALOM-SALAAM TRUST Charity No. 1103211

From Our Chair

March 2020 to the end of February 2021 was like no other year: it was ushered in with the arrival on our shores of Corona Virus, soon to be named Covid-19, which rapidly became a pandemic.

We already knew that our partners in Israel/Palestine were flexible and innovative, so we weren’t surprised when many organisations with which we work stopped their normal activities to respond to the immediate Covid-related needs of the communities they serve. These included providing health advice; hygiene packs; food for families where breadwinners had lost their jobs; books; and educational help and toys for children trapped at home in cramped surroundings because their schools and nurseries had closed. In several instances, this annual report reflects the adjustments the groups we support have had to make. BSST also reacted by pausing our regular activities and application procedures and offering, as rapidly as we could, emergency funds to those groups and projects in most need.

BSST is now fully back to our usual work, though we still hold our trustee meetings and discussions with visitors from Israel/Palestine online rather than face to face. And, of course, requests for our help have continued to arrive, from both our regular grantees and also from new groups that have found us through our spreading network.

We have also had some Board changes. We were happy, in November, to welcome Clare Ungerson as a new trustee. However, only two months later, Anthony Bale stepped down from our Board, because of his increasing work commitments. We were very sad to see him leave and thank him for his contribution to BSST - including his annual 10km sponsored runs - and to the projects we work with.

As always, we must give an especially large thank-you to ALL our supporters, great and small, who enable us to do our core work of supporting groups who make life in the troubled region of Israel/Palestine a bit better and spread hope and optimism in their communities.

Enjoy this report and pass it on to family, friends and colleagues. We’d love to receive their donations too!

Dr Gill Yudkin Chair, BSST August 2021

Images: Front cover: From +972 article How a Palestinian shoemaker started the West Bank’s only mask factory overnight (+972/Amjad Zaghir). P2 & back cover: Installing LED panels (FADE). P3: Demolition of Khirbet Humsa community, (Activestills/Oren Ziv). P5: Soldier manhandles villager (HIRN). P6: Covid emergency rations (Kotof elKhair). P22: Animation workshop (Bozour Theatre). P23: From video Gaza Dances to 'Jerusalema' (WeAreNotNumbers.org).

British Shalom-Salaam Trust Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

Who we are

The British Shalom-Salaam Trust is the only British Jewish grant-giving charity established specifically to work across Israel/Palestine, the area comprising Israel since 1948 and the land occupied by Israel since 1967 (the West Bank including East Jerusalem, Gaza and the Golan).

At BSST our Jewish identity is central to our work. By our actions we hope to represent a positive and practical Jewish statement of opposition to the oppression of the Palestinian people, and support for a just and democratic peace in Israel/Palestine.

Our grants policy: challenging oppression – bringing justice and hope

We are committed to promoting political, social and economic justice, including a sustainable resolution of the conflict in Israel/Palestine based on democracy, equality, human rights and mutual respect between all communities. Beyond these basic principles, we are driven by the needs identified by the groups with which we work, not our own preconceptions, plans or programmes.

BSST favours small grassroots groups, but we do not seek out possible beneficiaries: they find us, mostly through word of mouth and personal contacts, occasionally by internet searches. This approach has produced our eclectic portfolio of supported projects – since we were founded in 2004 some 500 grants have gone to around 150 different organisations.

BSST assists regardless of ethnicity or religion. Most of our grants go to Palestinian, Jewish and joint groups, but we also donate to organisations aiding African asylum-seekers and migrant workers from around the world who now live in Israel. We are especially willing to help groups tackling difficult and contentious issues and those that may be overlooked by major funders.

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British Shalom-Salaam Trust Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

How we work

Required under British charity law to deliver ‘public benefit’, we do so in three ways:

Many of our grant recipients employ paid staff and possess an Israeli or Palestinian legal status approximating to a British charity. However, we also support relatively informal groups, that have minimal infrastructure, are entirely volunteer-run and are the most likely to struggle for mainstream funding. We do need applicants to have email access, but given that tented communities in the Negev desert, without mains electricity or wi-fi, manage to contact us, we are confident our reliance on online working is no obstacle even to the most deprived groups.

Our application process is very simple: we post our grant criteria on our website, provide an online, user-friendly application form, take requests year-round and make decisions in weeks.

BSST necessarily operates at arm’s length, so we have developed evaluation procedures to review our beneficiary groups. As well as measuring applications against our own criteria, we check other sources: internet presence, newspaper reports, briefings from other groups and individuals in Israel/Palestine. We have also designed report-back procedures for the end of each funding period, using a brief standard form adjusted for each project, and we consult our advisory group whose members have specialist knowledge, and some of whom live in Israel/Palestine.

Finally, when possible, we meet grant and Post Box recipients personally. When trustees visit Israel/Palestine, we include trips - at our own expense - to groups we are supporting.

What we give

Typically 98% of our expenditure goes on charitable grants. Grants are usually capped at £5,000 per year per organisation, except in an emergency or when we run a special appeal. However, we make many repeat awards year after year, as the groups we support often find it impossible to replace our funding.

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Refugees &
Women's Rights
Migrant Workers 8% Art & Culture
3%
15%
Civic Engagement
14%
Children &
Education
20%
Environment
Human Rights 1%
31%
Health
8%
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British Shalom-Salaam Trust Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

How we raise funds

BSST has funders and beneficiaries of many backgrounds.

Since our formation, thousands of I really like the way money to your trust is individuals have donated to us: “ allocated, very hands on to smaller Jews, Christians, Muslims, and Palestinian enterprises. Good Shabbos, those asserting no religious belief and have a pleasant weekend! or identity. Faith organisations and peace groups also support — Donor to our Liberation Seder Covid emergency appeal[”] us, and we raise significant sums from other charitable trusts.

As we have no endowment, every penny we donate we first have to raise, so our life-blood is the donations you give to us. We are hugely grateful to all our supporters, large and small, individuals and grant-making organisations, whose generosity enables us to contribute to building a just peace in Israel/Palestine.

Major donations to general funds came from a legacy of Carole Underwood and the following organisations:

Balcombe Charitable Trust, Barham Charitable Trust, Bernard Gold Foundation, Blue Moon Trust, Calpe Trust, Community of the Presentation Trust, Funderbirds, IHL Trust, John and Susan Bowers Fund, Just Trust, MSN, Newcastle Reform Synagogue, Open Gate Trust, Stonehage Fleming Charitable Foundation, Thomas Sivewright Catto Charitable Settlement, WF Southall Trust and three trusts that prefer not to be identified.

Along with regular income, in 2020 BSST launched an emergency Covid appeal, which netted £17,000, including a generous matching-funds contribution from one supporter and a substantial donation from a charitable trust.

Why we matter

BSST trustees have built up much specialist knowledge and a large network of contacts, and we are skilled in making informed judgments about groups that others might find difficult to evaluate. We have also established strong relationships with many groups we fund, supporting them through the toughest of times. We know that, overwhelmingly, these groups deliver on the projects they have proposed.

We particularly value the gratitude expressed by the

organisations that BSST assists - it goes beyond appreciation of the financial aid the BSST has made. The groups are committed to building democracy, justice and peace between Israel/Palestine’s different communities, and are grateful to receive support from an international donor with a Jewish identity.

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British Shalom-Salaam Trust Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

COVID and BSST

In this unprecedented year, BSST worked hard to help our beneficiaries through the Covid crisis. Happily, only a few of these groups had to suspend activity entirely, but most did have to rejig their work, and confront new demands.

Emergency Support

BSST responded to the necessity of socially distanced communal events by quickly organising an online ‘Liberation Seder’. Jointly sponsored by Jewish Voice for Labour, Jews for Justice for Palestinians, and the Jewish Socialist Group, it attracted over 200 British and overseas participants.

BSST Patron, Rabbi Danny Rich, presided magnificently, while our muchappreciated readers included Nizar Ayoub from Al-Marsad, a BSSTsupported Syrian project in the Occupied Golan, and Hisham Qawasmeh, teenage son of Hamed, the founder of longstanding BSST partner, the Hebron International Resource Network.

Magician Ian Saville hid - and later found - the Afikomen, while, as usual, Elijah didn’t appear! Instead, another BSST Patron, comedian and author Alexei Sayle, made a wonderful Covid Seder Emergency Appeal.

BSST distributed seventeen emergency £1,000 grants. All recipients bar Bethlehem University were current or former recipients of BSST support, with two desperate groups in Gaza each getting two grants.

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British Shalom-Salaam Trust Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

Projects BSST supported in 2020-21

In addition to the organisations BSST provided with emergency Covid support, we continued to assist via our regular grant programme and by Post Box transfers.

AFAQ JADEEDA ASSOCIATION (NEW HORIZONS) is a small community group in Gaza's Nuseirat refugee camp, where over 80,000 people live in extreme poverty. AFAQ JADEEDA provides a mix of social welfare, education and leisure, including a kindergarten; library; computer lab; drama space; football team; and summer and winter camps for the most deprived children and their mothers.

BSST funded AFAQ JADEEDA’s three-month winter camp. Beside fun activities, 200 mothers and their pre-school children learned how to stay safe from Covid and received health protection kit and a daily fruit and juice ration.

—facebook.com/afaq-jadeeda-association

Bread making at the Afaq Model Kindergarten

ARTEAM: THE GARDEN LIBRARY is a welcoming community centre in Levinski Park, south Tel Aviv. Some 80% of local residents are migrant workers and African asylum-seekers. In an

area scarred by deprivation, ARTEAM's Garden Library is an oasis of hope. For adults it provides evening classes and family support, while children use its openair multilingual library and homework space and take part in afterschool and holiday activities.

This year BSST helped fund ARTEAM’s new project, Promoting the Educational Rights of Children. Though pupil

segregation is unlawful, mainstream schools routinely refuse to admit asylum-seeker children who end up in inferior institutions, which ignore their specific needs.

… many asylum-seeker children reach high school with poor language skills – “ they can barely read and write. Verbal skills in Hebrew and mother-tongues are ” poor, and often their cognitive and emotional development is severely impeded.

ARTEAM’s new project supports parents committees that are campaigning to integrate asylum-seeker children into Israeli mainstream schools.

—thegardenlibrary.org

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AZ THEATRE / THEATRE FOR EVERYBODY (AT/TE) is a partnership between projects in Britain and Gaza, long supported by BSST. This year, we helped fund a new, first-time Arabiclanguage adaptation of The Emigrants by Polish emigre writer Stanislaw Mrozek.

We want to take part in society through art. Through plays, we can contribute to “ change attitudes, to shake preconceived ideas. We do not lecture, we just stimulate ” people, question them about themselves. Our theatre is committed to life in its fullness but is not directly political: we do not deliver messages. —Theatre for Everybody, Gaza

Rehearsal of The Emigrants

Described by AT/TE as portraying ‘the illusions and smashed dreams of two emigrants to the rich world … absurdist and slapstick, tragic and comic by turn', it is planned for The Emigrants to reach hundreds of Gaza 18-25 year olds who dream of emigration. Using performance along with post-show international Zoom discussion, AT/TE aims to help their audiences express their frustration, while also making international friends and contacts, and rethinking whether emigration is really a solution.

—aztheatre.org.uk

BOZOUR (SEEDS) THEATRE is new to BSST. The only women's theatre project in Gaza, its three members trained in Poland, Egypt and Jerusalem. They have worked with women and children in Gaza theatres for two decades. With no theatre of their own, this director, cartoons/animation specialist, and scriptwriter/production designer, raise one-off grants for each of their projects.

BSST funded Our Children Love Life, a mix of storytelling, drama and drawing, where over two hundred children aged 9 to 15 created stories about their lives, and learned how to turn their words and pictures into an animated film.

An animation workshop

We need to enhance the role of women, children and youth through theatre, conveying their “ societal issues. We must establish a drama school to raise generations capable of creating ” artistic works so theatre in Gaza will become significant. —Wissam Dirawi, Director

—facebook.com/bozourtheater

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FRAGMENTS THEATRE is an ambitious community arts project that introduces children and young people in Jenin City to theatre, film and circus. Though run on a shoestring, it delivers a huge range of activities: plays and workshops, drama therapy, film festivals, stand-up comedy training, and Palestine’s first comedy club.

Fragments strives to provide a safe space for children, women and youth … to “ develop the chance of building a career in the arts, support marginalized ” artists in Jenin, and promote the arts as a vehicle for community change.

FRAGMENTS’ safe space brings respite from the high levels of family stress and domestic violence in Jenin, which Covid restrictions badly exacerbated. BSST partfunded an Egyptian and a Welsh professional storyteller to ‘zoom in’ to Jenin, to teach children puppet-making and puppetry skills and the art and techniques of storytelling.

Fragment’s Contemporary Art Exhibition

—fragmentstheatre.com

FREDDIE KRIVINE INITIATIVE (FKI) expressly acknowledges Israel’s ethnically-divided,

hugely unequal and discriminatory society and sees tennis as a vehicle for some positive change. Its biggest project is in Jisr al-Zarqa, Israel's poorest Palestinian town, where other Jewish organisations rarely venture. Yet every year, along with Jisr’s local council, FKI recruits hundreds of young Palestinians to play tennis in school and in schemes hosted by a Jewish farm cooperative. FKI also supports an afterschool homework club and English tutoring.

BSST helped fund a Jisr Tournament Team for the most promising children. During Covid lockdown, FKI moved online, setting up WhatsApp groups for children and coaches to message each other and for parents to post photos and videos of their children practising. FKI also kept close tabs on the impact of Covid on Jisr’s children.

… continuing lockdowns for families living in cramped conditions in a small “ Arab village is stressful, both mentally and physically. Many parents have menial ” jobs, and cannot work from home, leaving children alone for many hours … we have been cooperating with the Jisr municipality to roll out an additional program for the most at-risk kids, aged 12-14, led by our club coach.

—fkf-tennis.org

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British Shalom-Salaam Trust Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

FUTURE ASSOCIATION FOR DEVELOPMENT AND ENVIRONMENT (FADE) , a community group in Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp, runs an annual summer camp that BSST has funded for several years. This year FADE wanted something very different – fire prevention.

Yusef, Muhammad and Mahmoud Al-Hazin (4, 5, 6 years old) died in their “ bedroom because of a candle, a light which turned into fire … this hungry fire is telling us: ‘I warn you not to continue the silence about deep problems in Gaza, preventing the entry of gas and diesel to run the electricity stations’. —Director of FADE[”]

Installing an LED panel

Gaza’s electrical supply is notorious for being unreliable and, mostly, unavailable. This results in frequent fires: from system overload when power comes on, or from use of candles or kerosene during the 18-22 hours daily when it doesn’t. Lack of power also harms children’s ability to study.

BSST paid for a hundred batterypowered and rechargeable LED panels – each giving at least eight hours continuous lighting per full charge - to go to the poorest families. This benefitted at least 500 children.

— facebook.com/the.futuer.gaza

GRASSROOTS ACCOMPANIMENT & LANGUAGE EXCHANGE / THIS IS NOT AN ULPAN (GALE/TINAU) is a new human rights and language programme in the South Hebron Hills in Area C of the West Bank, where villages are at constant risk from settler and IDF violence.

GALE was initiated by Palestinian non-violent resisters Youth of Summud; the Israeli Jewish villager-support group Ta’ayush; the international Centre for Jewish Non-Violence; and villagers from A-Twaneh, Susya and Umm al-Kheir. GALE’s partner, TINAU, is Israel’s only language school run by Jews, Palestinians, locals and newcomers teaching both Hebrew and Arabic.

In a pilot, TINAU trained local teachers to teach Arabic as a second language, while GALE recruited Israeli ‘human rights defenders’ (HRDs) to live and work in the South Hebron Hills villages for three-month periods. Using TINAU’s specially designed programmes, the Israeli HRDs learned Arabic from the local teachers, and villagers learned Hebrew from a GALE member.

BSST covered 60% of the expenses in the pilot project.

A Palestinian child from Susya teaches a project participant Arabic

—thisisnotanulpan.com

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British Shalom-Salaam Trust Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

GOOD SHEPHERD COLLECTIVE (GSC) is based in the South Hebron Hills. In non-Covid times GSC supports olive tree planting; opposition to home demolition; a guesthouse; beekeeping; and a greenhouse. They also facilitate workshops on subjects as disparate as Bedouin bread-making and textile production; the history of shepherding in Israel/Palestine; and indigenous Bedouin conflict resolution. We provide GSC with the BSST Post Box service.

Our workday in the “ South Hebron Hills is not ” only a small step into building a livelihood for Palestinians in this area … working for the very basic needs of those who are denied, it is a small but practical step towards justice.

—goodshepherdcollective.org

Examining an aerial photograph of Umm al-Khair produced by Bimkom, an Israeli planning and zoning rights group

HARABA ASSOCIATION FOR ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND EDUCATIONAL EMPOWERMENT is a new,

Walking in the Negev

Negev-based Bedouin group. It aims to create a sustainable ‘Desert Tourism’ celebrating Bedouin culture, in contrast to the Negev’s burgeoning mass tourism industry run by Israeli Jewish companies, which either ignores or romanticises the traditional Bedouin way of life. This mass tourism neither threatens state policies of Bedouin eviction and forced urbanisation, nor contributes to Bedouin economic development.

HARABA is targeting ‘solidarity visitors’ who wish to learn about and support the local people. Its programme centres around the Negev’s ‘unrecognised’ villages, home to some 70,000 Bedouin. HARABA intends several unrecognised villages to become ‘alternative’ tourist locations, with tours led by young Bedouin men and women, trained in Bedouin history, identity and heritage, desert sustainability, and in the English language.

We oppose the overexploitation of local resources, but we consider desert “ tourism a natural source of livelihood … enabled and organized for the ” benefit of the most dispossessed Bedouin communities … We see unrecognized villages as ideal for tourist hubs – oases in the middle of the Naqab Desert. We also believe Arab youth are the most capable of designing a nomadic tourist experience and present Bedouin culture to visitors.

—haraba.org

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British Shalom-Salaam Trust Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

HEBRON INTERNATIONAL RESOURCES NETWORK

(HIRN) is an audacious Palestinian community group with a long and close relationship with BSST. It develops projects, especially promoting girls’ education, in those parts of the West Bank where the Occupation is most harsh: Hebron City and its surrounding villages, and in the Gush Etzion area now dominated by Jewish settlements.

We have provided HIRN with the BSST Post Box service for many years; although we no longer collect the bulk of HIRN’s UK donations, we continue to pass on occasional contributions. In addition, BSST has given many project grants; in 2020 we assisted a joint HIRN/Rural Women’s Association scheme to provide catch-up classes for children whose schooling was severely damaged because of Covid restrictions.

—facebook.com/HIRN-388180624554795

Lessons during Covid

ISRAEL SOCIAL TV (ISTV) is a web-based media group that covers stories rarely reported by Israel’s press and television: the Occupation, asylum-seekers, the environment, the Nakba, LGBTQ+ rights, racism and general socio-economic issues. It has made over 5,000 films in Hebrew, with most also translated into English and/or Arabic. It reaches some 100,000 viewers monthly in Israel/ Palestine and further afield.

In the last few years, ISTV’s finances and activities have been fiercely attacked by the Israeli government. BSST has long supported ISTV and again provided core funding.

Still from ISTV’s article ‘Remote Learning – A fantasy’

We want to promote a society where the media is democracy's watchdog – “ that motivates citizens to be involved and become activists. We see ” ourselves as part of the human rights and social change community in Israel.

—tv.social.org.il/en

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British Shalom-Salaam Trust Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

‘JEREMY HARDY’S OLIVE GROVES’ is BSST’s tribute to the British comedian and passionate supporter of Palestinian rights – and of BSST – who died in February 2019.

The obsessive destruction of ancient olive trees by Israeli settlers and the IDF is one of the most visible ways the Occupation attacks Palestinian lives and livelihoods: an assault on both a Palestinian national symbol and on an essential food source and income generator for rural Palestinians. After Jeremy’s death, we appealed through the Guardian newspaper for donations to help Palestinians replace wrecked olive groves. In our second year, we were delighted that IDF hostility could not stop RABBIS FOR IDF obstructs planting olive trees HUMAN RIGHTS from planting 100 new trees.

The planting took place in the West Bank village of Burin. We would like to report “ it was uneventful, but that is a blessing we have yet to encounter … on this day too our volunteers encountered violence on the part of the security forces. In spite of unprovoked confrontation, RHR brought 150 volunteers to plant over 100 trees and to stand up for peace and human rights! —Rabbis for Human Rights[”]

— Rabbis for Human Rights: rhr.org.il/eng

JERUSALEM AFRICAN COMMUNITY CENTRE (JACC) is the only charity solely focused on

Loading food supplies

the city's 3000+ asylum-seekers. It provides support and education, including kindergarten music classes, and adults’ Hebrew, English and computer lessons. It also runs a Rights Advocacy Centre (RAC) safeguarding users' employment, healthcare and residency rights. The RAC is professionally managed, but staffed by dozens of trained volunteers. Our grant helped pay for the manager’s salary.

Coronavirus has exacerbated existing problems and created new ones. 90% of asylum“ seekers are out of work … many still missing wages from before lockdown. The Deposit ” Law required employers to put 20% of each asylum-seeker’s salary in a fund, accessible only on leaving the country. Now that law is overturned, people need our assistance to claim … we suspect the money was often pocketed by the employer.

—jacc.org.il/home-eng

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KAFA ASSOCIATION FOR SOCIAL CHANGE IN THE NEGEV

supports the people of Rahat, Israel’s largest Bedouin city, home to over 70,000 Bedouin, divided among many clans. Previously, self-contained desert communities, these clans are now forced together into a crowded alien urban environment. The Israeli government aims to transfer to Rahat the remaining thousands of Bedouin still living their traditional way of life in the Negev’s ‘unrecognised’ towns and villages.

In spite of extreme poverty, huge unemployment, fierce communal tensions, high crime and little hope, KAFA has forged

a visionary community organisation, confronting clan divisions and running an ambitious city-wide social activism programme creating ‘a cohesive, politically confident Bedouin community, able to negotiate with the Israeli state’

Every year KAFA trains two dozen 16 and 17 year olds, two thirds girls, in community development, where each participant must develop and implement a social initiative. As well as acquiring vital personal skills (e.g. public speaking, creative problem solving) the project helps build a professional political culture.

KOTOF EL-KHAIR ASSOCIATION is a community group in the central Gaza city of Deir alBalah. With a tiny budget, it provides an impressive range of activities: cultural events; a safe space for children to play and learn; women’s rights workshops; capacity-building classes for women and young graduates; training for families with disabled members in how better to support their relatives; medical days when local people can access free and specialist healthcare; children’s summer camps; and humanitarian aid.

BSST funded the purchase and installation of a solar energy unit for KOTOF’s building.

Installing the solar energy unit

—facebook.com/kotofAssociation

Kotof’s Mind and Body Centre treats psychological stress

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LADA’AT – CHOOSE WELL is an Israeli women’s project offering information, counselling and support on contraception and unplanned pregnancy. It runs healthysexuality workshops for teenagers, trains medical and psychosocial professionals, and lobbies policy makers. Based in Jerusalem, it serves thousands of clients annually - religious and secular Jews, Palestinians, African asylumseekers, foreign workers, and tourists.

BSST renewed our funding for workshops for African asylum-seeking women, plus face-to-face and phone counselling for African and Palestinian women, the latter in Arabic. African women users have great difficulty accessing Lada’at’s flier announcing that it family planning and abortion services, while Palestinian now offers services in Arabic women’s overriding concern is secrecy.

We recruited an Arabic-speaking volunteer counsellor … We have greatly expanded our social media activity and are improving our website’s Arabic content.

AL MARSAD – ARAB HUMAN RIGHTS CENTRE IN THE GOLAN HEIGHTS is a Syrian campaigning and service organisation, working in an area that was occupied in 1967, then annexed in 1981, and since treated as part of Israel. 130,000 former residents fled, and the IDF destroyed nearly all their villages and farms. The remaining 26,000 Syrians live in the far north on 5% of the Golan, with the other 95% home to 23,000 Israeli settlers.

To operate at all, AL MARSAD had to register as an Israeli NGO, so cannot access the extensive European support available to groups elsewhere in the Occupied Territories. Yet its determined fundraising - including our repeated grants for core costs - delivers an impressive range of services for the Golan’s remaining Syrian population:

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Golan families peer through binoculars and talk on the
phone to relatives across the fortified ceasefire line
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British Shalom-Salaam Trust Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

MIN EL BAHAR is a joint Tel Aviv/West Bank project which every year brings some 1,500 especially disadvantaged Palestinian children and their mothers from their West Bank towns and villages for day trips to Jaffa beach.

As for many years past, we approved a BSST grant but in spite of the organisers’ efforts, Covid rendered these cherished annual outings impossible. We expect them to resume next year.

—en.minelbahar.com

West Bank women enjoying a rare experience at the sea

NEW PROFILE (NP) is a feminist group opposed to Israel’s promotion of military service from kindergarten onward.

Israel’s social system is structured on militarized hierarchical status, which directly “ affects women, Palestinian citizens of Israel, and other minority sectors. These patriarchal values are everywhere: home, workplace, politics… They promote values that continue to sanction combat, violence, and gender-based hierarchies. —Ruth, an NP founder, whose four sons refused to be conscripted[”]

Not entering the army can blight education and job prospects. Even so, about half of 18-year-olds now avoid conscription, while serving soldiers (especially from poor homes) often cut service short and many reservists refuse recall. Though non-serving school-leavers are still mostly ultra-Orthodox, mental health exemptions and conscientious objections are increasing.

It is claimed that the IDF is Israel’s great leveller. Yet NP says that widespread sexual harassment reinforces gender inequality, while soldiers from Israeli children are introduced to guns at an early age. poor families often get the Photo: Activestills.org worst postings, ensuring continuing disadvantage when their service ends. NP provides free counselling to around a thousand teenagers facing the draft each year as well as legal help and specialist antimilitarism training for those working with young people. It also works with ‘refusenik’ and other anti-military groups. BSST repeated our core funding grant.

—newprofile.org/English

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PALESTINE TRAUMA CENTRE (PTC) is a therapeutic group, going out from its Gaza City base to work locally with those traumatized by ongoing conflict and Occupation. PTC usually delivers family therapy, rapid intervention trauma relief, and professional training. Its popular Friday of Joy initiative brings drama, games, painting and music into schools, playgrounds and streets throughout Gaza.

Covid forced a major reorganisation, with the focus shifting to health information, disease prevention and tackling poverty. Its anti-Covid campaign included training volunteers in hygiene and social distancing messaging; organising specialist online training for professional staff; making health information radio broadcasts; providing phone counselling; an emergency hotline; children’s exercise videos; and delivering food, hygiene packs and children’s clothing to those most in need.

Distributing Corona virus information to Gazan families

—ptcuk.org

PHYSICIANS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS – ISRAEL (PHRI) is a campaigning and serviceproviding medical human rights organisation. Its aim is that everyone that the State is responsible for – Israeli citizens from all ethnicities and communities, non-citizen residents, migrant workers, asylum-seekers, and those in the Occupied Palestinian Territories – has equal access to healthcare.

PHRI holds a south Tel Aviv clinic for asylum-seekers and foreign workers excluded from mainstream Israeli services, and provides free weekly clinics in West Bank villages where access to medical services is most limited. It has close links to

Palestinian health providers, bringing medical supplies into the Occupied Territories during crises, and negotiating permits for Palestinians to cross into Israel for specialist treatment.

BSST provided our Post Box service in addition to an emergency Covid grant.

Last week we released a report that has kept us up at night. A Life Exposed - “ Military Invasions of Palestinian homes in the West Bank was produced by Yesh Din, ” PHRI and Breaking the Silence … with no advance warning, warrant or legal basis, Israeli soldiers raid the homes of Palestinian families … more than 200 invasions every month … They take a heavy toll on mental health: many parents spoke about (their children’s) behavioural changes, irritability, anger outbursts, breaking their toys, sleep disruptions, separation anxiety … and one suicide attempt.

—phr.org.il/en

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RURAL WOMEN’S ASSOCIATION (RWA) is based in the South Hebron Hills villages, in ‘Area C’ of the West Bank, and so entirely subject to Israel’s control. For the last thirty years, Israel has used repeated home demolitions to try to force the residents out. So far, this strategy has failed in the face of fierce women-led resistance that has resulted in extensive international support for the villagers.

RWA runs many projects: handicrafts; poultry and beekeeping; nursery provision; a transport service so the older children reach school safe from attack by settlers; and annual camps bringing some fun in the long summer break. This year, along with HIRN, RWA delivered catch-up classes to reduce the impact of Covid restrictions on primary children’s schooling.

—theruralwomenassociation.wordpress.com

SADAKA REUT – ARAB JEWISH PARTNERSHIP (SR) brings Palestinian and Jewish young people together to create social and political change. It emphasises marginalized groups – Bedouin Palestinians, and Ethiopian, Russian and Mizrachi Jews – and works in universities where there is normally little Jewish/Palestinian student interaction.

A Sadaka Reut tour in Lod

For thirty years, SR has developed new generations of young campaigning activists and leaders promoting ‘a shared society based on equality, solidarity, and justice’. Unlike many Palestinian/Jewish projects, which prioritise learning about the other’s culture, SR confronts the tougher issues of conflict and unequal power relations. BSST supports SR with our Post Box service.

—reutsadaka.org

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British Shalom-Salaam Trust Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

SCHOOLHOUSE provides tailor-made education every year for six hundred asylum-seekers aged 18 to 50. Mostly from Sudan and Eritrea, its students include university graduates and those with no schooling at all. Many are traumatised by experiences in their home countries, exacerbated by hostility since reaching Israel. Most find it tough tackling basic literacy, especially through a second language and a foreign culture.

SCHOOLHOUSE teaches study techniques and

provides practical information about living in Israel. It also teaches computer skills, Hebrew and English. For the fourth year, BSST contributed towards teacher training and curriculum development.

—schoolhouse.org.il

SOLIDARITY ARTS, ACTIVISM AND HUMAN RIGHTS ASSOCIATION unites art with

commitment to social justice. Each December Tel Aviv Cinematheque hosts the Solidarity Festival with films tackling globalisation, the Occupation, women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, and climate change. The festival also holds a competition and debates with film-makers, incuding online participation from Gazan film activists who are prevented from attending in person. Its parallel programme, Solidarity in the Periphery, provides free screenings and workshops in remote and disadvantaged areas.

Still from Ido Chen’s film ‘Fluently Stumbling’ shown in the festival

SOLIDARITY is the only entirely trilingual Israeli film festival. BSST helped fund the Arabic/Hebrew/English branding, marketing, publicity and subtitling.

—solidaritytlv.org

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British Shalom-Salaam Trust Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

ST JOHN EYE HOSPITAL is the only charitable provider of specialist eye care in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, treating patients regardless of ethnicity, religion or ability to pay. It benefits from the BSST Post Box service.

—stjohneyehospital.org

TISHREEN is a Palestinian community group, committed to social transformation. Based in Taybeh, an economic and cultural hub city in the mostly Palestinian Triangle region of Israel, the group focuses especially on women, young people and children and those engaged in the arts. It promotes Triangle artists’ creative work so as to enhance the community’s sense of self-worth and Palestinian cultural identity.

Tishreen’s Cultural Café uses arts as an agent of social and political change

Its Cultural Café - an art gallery, coffee shop and work spaces - is central to its ambitious plan to become the go-to Triangle meeting space and resource for artists to produce and exhibit; it is also a space where the community can meet, eat, and enjoy cultural and political discussion, book events, lectures, exhibitions, music performance, theatre, and cinema. TISHREEN wants the Cultural Café to encourage Palestinian artists to remain in the Triangle rather than flocking to the big cities in Israel and abroad. BSST provided core funding.

… arts and culture can promote enlightened, progressive and democratic values “ and be a major driver of social change … The arts are not independent of the ” social, political and economic spheres where they are created … we aim to support local artists so they produce works critically reflecting life in the Triangle.

—tishreen.net

Video production at the Triangle Cinema Forum

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British Shalom-Salaam Trust Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

TOHU MAGAZINE is a young arts organisation with an international editorial board of Jews and Palestinians. It organises events, screenings, workshops, and talks, but its core project is a free online magazine in Hebrew, Arabic and English. This highlights work from Israel/Palestine while situating itself within the wider Middle East. TOHU encourages young writers in Hebrew and Arabic, and showcases visual content created by Israeli, Palestinian and international artists.

This year TOHU began collaborating with writers from Morocco, Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Egypt. It also launched podcasts of discussions with artists and recordings of published texts. BSST provided core funding which will enable further development of the Arabic section of the magazine.

Part of Iris Hassid's monograph: A Place of Our Own, by Schlit Publishing. See Tohu article by Reem Ghanayem: Neither Here nor There: The Voice of Young Arab Women on the Border Line Between Perilous Identities

We represent a non-violent resistance and support for Palestinian culture and the “ Arabic language. The magazine does not follow the normal Israeli discourse: while ” openly against the Occupation, we are not a ‘coexistence’ project.

— tohumagazine.com

TAG MEIR (BRIGHT TAG) unites over 50 groups across Israeli Jewish life, from Orthodox to secular. It describes itself as the only organisation fighting racism in Jewish society specifically with a Jewish voice.

TAG MEIR’s activities normally include visits to Palestinian victims of racist attacks; seeking compensation for these victims; providing racism awareness education to religious Jewish and Palestinian teachers; election campaigning against racism; and legal action against religious leaders who incite hatred.

When Israel entered Covid lockdown, TAG MEIR told BSST it could work effectively entirely online. For example, video conferences and letters from the public replaced its visits to victims of hate crimes.

Once again, BSST provided core funding.

—tag-meir.org.il/en

After days of riots and violence, Jewish and Arab residents of Akko come together to clean their streets

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British Shalom-Salaam Trust Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

+972 MAGAZINE is a free online publication run by Israeli and Palestinian journalists committed to ending the Occupation, advancing human rights, challenging the mainstream discourse about Israel/Palestine, and reporting those voices overlooked by mainstream media. +972 has an annual readership of around one million. Its impact is international; the New York Times, CNN, the Guardian, BBC, and Le Monde Diplomatique pick up its stories and regularly interview its writers, while embassies frequently request briefings.

+972’s work can be dangerous. Israeli police and soldiers and the Palestinian police often threaten violence and destroy journalists’ From +972 editors picks: Palestinian activists destroy part of the equipment; reporters have been separation wall in Bir Nabala. Photo: Activestills wounded and killed. +972 has upgraded staff protection, raised insurance cover, offered extra cyber-security training, and built reserves against possible SLAPP lawsuits (‘strategic lawsuits against public participation’ – intended, as the acronym indicates, to intimidate and silence critics). BSST gave core funding to help pay legal, insurance and security costs. BSST also provided our Post Box service.

— 972mag.com

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British Shalom-Salaam Trust Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

Statement of Trustees’ Responsibilities

The charity trustees are responsible for preparing a trustees’ annual report and financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice). The law applicable to charities in England and Wales requires the charity trustees to prepare financial statements for each year which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charity and of its incoming resources and application of resources of the charity for that period.

In preparing the financial statements, the trustees are required to:

The trustees are responsible for keeping proper accounting records that disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charity and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Charities Act 2011, the applicable Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations and the provisions of the Trust deed. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charity and taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities. The trustees are responsible for the maintenance and integrity of the charity and financial information included on the charity’s website in accordance with legislation in the United Kingdom governing the preparation and dissemination of financial statements.

Approved by the trustees on 13[th] September 2021 and signed on their behalf by:

Dr Gill Yudkin, Chair

Colin Wainwright, Treasurer

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British Shalom-Salaam Trust Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

Independent Examiner's Report to the Trustees of the British Shalom-Salaam Trust

I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the British Shalom-Salaam Trust for the year ended 28 February 2021.

Responsibilities and basis of report

As the charity trustees of the Trust you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (the Act).

I report in respect of my examination of the Trust's accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145 (5) (b) of the Act.

Independent Examiner's statement

I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention giving me cause to believe in any material respect:

  1. accounting records were not kept as required by section 130 of the Act; or

  2. the accounts do not accord with those records; or

  3. the accounts do not comply with the applicable requirements concerning the form and content of accounts set out in the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 other than any requirement that the accounts give a "true and fair view" which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination.

I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.

Ruth Naftalin FCA 14 Park Crescent London N3 2NJ

13[th] September 2021

Accounts for the Year Ending 28 February 2021

STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES

2020-21 2019-20
Note Unrestricted Restricted Total Unrestricted Restricted Total
£ £ £ £ £ £
Income
Donations received 127,368 57,229 184,597 105,344 57,932 163,276
Gift Aid on donations 673 495 1,168 3,376 546 3,922
Bank interest 11 - 11 41 - 41
Total income 128,052 57,724 185,776 108,761 58,478 167,239

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British Shalom-Salaam Trust Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES (continued)

2020-21 2019-20
Note Unrestricted Restricted Total Unrestricted Restricted Total
£ £ £ £ £ £
Expenditure
Charitable Activities 2 103,585 65,660 169,245 126,087 57,483 183,570
Publicity/Fundraising
3		 550 - 550 2,657 - 2,657
Administration 4 82 - 82 72 - 72
Total Expenditure 104,217 65,660 169,877 128,816 57,483 186,299
Net income / (expenditure) 23,835 (7,936) 15,899 (20,055) 995 (19,060)
Reconciliation of funds
Funds brought forward 35,078 19,674 54,752 55,133 18,679 73,812
Funds carried forward 58,913 11,738 70,651 35,078 19,674 54,752

BALANCE SHEET

BALANCE SHEET
As at 28 February 2021
28/2/2021 28/2/2020
£ £
Assets
Cash at bank 62,812 48,082
Debtors (HMRC Gift Aid) 7,839 6,670
Total Assets 70,651 54,752
Reconciliation of funds
Unrestricted funds 58,913 35,078
Restricted funds 11,738 19,674
Total Charity Funds 70,651 54,752

Notes to the Accounts

2020-21 2019-20
Unrestricted Restricted Total Unrestricted Restricted Total
2 Charitable activities
Grants made 102,697 65,660 168,357 124,971 57,483 182,454
Direct bank charges 888 888 1,116 1,116
103,585 65,660 169,245 126,087 57,483 183,570

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British Shalom-Salaam Trust Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

Notes to the Accounts (continued)

2020-21 2019-20
Unrestricted Restricted Total Unrestricted Restricted Total
3 Publicity / Fundraising
Printing postage stationery 358 - 358 555 - 555
Website and leaflet 192 - 192 2,102 - 2,102
550 - 550 2,657 - 2,657
4 Administration
Bank charges 72 - 72 72 - 72
Sundry expenses 10 - 10 - - -
82 - 82 72 - 72

5 Trustee expenses

There were no expenses paid to trustees in either 2020/21 or 2019/20.

6 Restricted Funds (including Post Boxes)

6
Restricted Funds(including Post Boxes)
1/3/20
Income		 Expenditure 28/2/21
Children's Fund 3,270 20,225 (23,400) 95
Christian Peacemaker Teams 725 - - 725
Gaza Fund 3,000 0 (3,000) -
Good Shepherd Collective 1,351 2,670 (2,420) 1,601
Green Olive Collective 95 - (95) -
Hebron International Resource Network – HIRN - 1,050 (1,025) 25
Al Marsad - 12,540 (12,540) -
New Profile - 9,500 (9,500) -
Olive Grove Fund 6,194 95 (3,000) 3,289
Physicians for Human Rights Israel 625 1,500 (1,000) 1,125
Sadaka Reut - 7,000 (7,000) -
St. John's Eye Hospital 750 375 (1,125) -
Tent Of Nations 1,473 679 - 2,152
Tent Of Nations UK Friends - FOTON 1,000 - - 1,000
Villages Group 563 775 - 1,338
+972 Magazine 629 1,410 (1,650) 389
7
Grants and Post Box Transfers Made
Organisation £000s Organisation £000s
Az Theatre / Theatre for Everybody 4.0 Lada'at 5.0
Afaq Jadeeda 7.0 Al-Marsad 17.5
Arteam Garden Library 6.0 Min el Bahar 5.0
Bazour Theater 5.0 Negev Coexistence Forum (NCF) 1.0
Citizens Build a Community 1.0 New Profile 14.5
Domari Society of Gypsies in Jerusalem 1.0 Al-Nour Association for Community Development 1.0
Fragments Theatre 3.0 Palestine Trauma Centre 6.0
Freddie Krivine Initiative 4.5 Physicians for Human Rights – Israel 2.0
Friends of Bethlehem University 1.0 Rabbis for Human Rights (Jeremy Hardy Olive Groves)
3.0
Future Association for Development and Environment 7.0 Rural Women's Association 4.4
Grassroots Language Programme / This is not an Ulpan 5.0 Sadaka Reut Youth Partnership 7.0
Good Shepherd Collective 2.4 Sanad Association 1.0
Haraba Association for Economic, Social and Educational 5.0 Schoolhouse 5.0
Hebron International Resources Network 1.0 Solidarity Human Rights Film Festival 4.0
Hope Flowers School 1.0 St. John of Jerusalem Eye Hospital 1.1
Israel Social TV 5.0 Tishreen 5.0
Jerusalem African Community Center 5.0 Tohu Magazine 3.0
Kafa Association for Social Change in the Negev 4.0 Yod Bet B Heshvan - Tag Meir 5.0
Kotof el-Khair Association 4.2 +972 Magazine 6.7

Page 26

BSST Governance

Staff

BSST has no paid staff, premises or equipment. The trustees, each with extensive voluntary sector experience and in-depth expertise on Israel/Palestine, carry out all functions including appointing and training new Board members. New trustees are recruited by personal contact and by advertisement.

Trustee meetings are held every four to six weeks, where general policy, income generation and grant decisions are made.

Administrative Details

Registered Charity Name The British Shalom-Salaam Trust Charity Registration Number 1103211 Registered Address PO Box 39378, London SE13 5WH Bankers HSBC, 85 Lewisham High Street, London SE13 6BE Independent Examiner Ruth Naftalin FCA, 14 Park Crescent, London N3 2NJ E-mail bsst@bsst.org.uk Website bsst.org.uk

BSST Trustees

BSST Patrons

BSST Advisory Group