Don’t give up hope!
by Ori Kol
Last October, Eran Nissan and his wife, Shir, were in the supermarket when they heard gunfire. Eran, who leads Mehazkim, called the police and stepped outside. In a nearby shop, he saw a young girl lying on the floor with a gunshot wound. He quickly realised this wasn’t just another local crime. Trained as a volunteer medic and ambulance driver, he quickly helped carry her to safety and treated her injuries until emergency services arrived.
Later that evening, a photo Shir had taken of Eran, his shirt stained with blood, went viral. Soon after, he was inundated with requests to speak on the news. “Jaffa is a place where Jews and Arabs live together, sometimes feel fear together, and take shelter from rocket fire together,” he told a panel of visibly stunned anchors on Channel 12 news. “In the ambulances, and in the hospital where the victims are now being treated, Arabs and Jews work and volunteer side by side to save lives,” he added, speaking from experience. “All of us know there are those who want us to hate and fear one another. But the real struggle isn’t Jews versus Arabs. It’s Jews and Arabs who believe in a shared future, against those, Jewish and Arab, who believe in violence and in a place where there’s room for only one people.”
Eran’s speech went viral almost instantly, helped along by the fact that he appeared on television wearing a “FCK BNGVR” shirt, a clear jab at the far-right national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir. Over the past two years, Mehazkim has produced and distributed thousands of these shirts.
Mehazkim was founded in 2016, just as social media began playing a more influential role in Israeli politics. Since then, it has grown into the country’s leading progressive, digitally focused, movement. Built around a big-tent vision that includes Jews, Palestinians, progressives, activists and concerned citizens, Mehazkim runs campaigns, mobilises communities, and reaches more than 1.5 million Israelis each month with its content, all organically. Combining on-the-ground protest with digital strategy, Mehazkim works to strengthen the pro-democracy base in Israel. Its model aims to energise the progressive camp and, from that position of strength, persuade more mainstream audiences to connect the dots and imagine a different political future.
Mehazkim has collaborated with dozens of groups, organisations and protest movements to improve their digital communication and organising efforts. It has partnered with the Israeli Women’s Protest, anti-occupation groups such as Peace Now and Breaking the Silence and with pro-democracy protests during the Netanyahu government’s attempted “judicial coup”. It also supports and empowers individual activists and local groups to lead their own campaigns, providing infrastructure for civil society, while delivering expertise, mentoring, workshops and training.
Our message to Britons who still believe in the possibility of peace in Israel and Palestine is simple: don’t give up hope. Don’t stop engaging with, and supporting, those in the region who are fighting for a shared future. Believe in the possibility of change, and in reason overcoming sectarian hatred. In Hebrew, “Mehazkim” literally means “to strengthen”. We believe that, only with outside support, from Jews and non-Jews alike, can Israel’s progressive camp help lead the region towards a more peaceful future. We call on you to help us fortify our voices, amplify our messages, and stand alongside us against those radical forces that seek only destruction. We call on you not to cower in the face of those extremists, such as in the current Israeli government, who falsely label any criticism of the Netanyahu government as “antisemitism”. And we call you on you to join us, and stand with the millions of Israelis and Palestinians who have hope for a better future.
Mehazkim amplifies the voices of activists and campaigners across all major social media platforms. We have over 70,000 people in our WhatsApp groups and broadcast lists, more than 50,000 on our mailing list, 140,000 followers on Facebook, a monthly reach of over 350,000 on Instagram, and more than 15,000 followers on TikTok.
During the war, Mehazkim has been spearheading protests calling for the release of the hostages and opposing the messianic far-right’s plans for mass deportation and resettlement in Gaza. Together with the hostages’ families, we have organised thousands to demonstrate in support of ending the war. In the face of rising death and hatred across the region, Mehazkim has worked to uphold the moral lesson of our history: that only peace can guarantee real security, for both Israelis and Palestinians.
We have been at the forefront of challenging the think tank network behind the “judicial coup” plan in Israel, a campaign aimed at dismantling the Israeli state from within. On key player behind the planned overhaul, the right-wing, free-market Kohelet Policy Forum, which has links to settler groups, was the focus of a sustained and highly effective campaign by Mehazkim and its partners launched even before their plans were made public. This helped put the largest protest movement in Israel’s history in the most effective political context.
We have campaigned heavily for Jewish–Arab partnership in resisting the occupation and opposing extremist government policies aimed at fuelling religious conflict. We’ve placed both Israeli and Palestinian flags across the country and fought back against government-backed voter suppression efforts. And we have consistently pushed for diplomacy and agreements with the Palestinian Authority, even when politicians from our own camp chose to sideline the issue.
We call on all supporters of a liberal Israel in the UK to join us in the fight for a fair and free future in the region, with peace and equality for all.
Ori Kol is the founder of Mehazkim
