Two rising stars of human rights activism in Israel have been honoured at an awards ceremony in London.
The New Israel Fund UK’s Human Rights Awards gave recognition to Rawyah Handaqlu, head of the Emergency Headquarters to Combat Crime and Violence in Arab Society, and Eran Nissan, CEO of digital activism movement Mehazkim at their annual event.
Handaqlu, a lawyer and Palestinian citizen from Jatt, was honoured for her work leading a new task force devoted to combating crime and violence in Arab society.
Nissan, a Jewish-Israeli, was recognised for his work with Mehazkim, a digital movement reaching 1.5 million Israelis a month to strengthen the progressive opinion.
“Receiving this award is not only my personal honour, for me it is also a mission and responsibility, so I want to dedicate this award to everyone who has to struggle every day to be heard, to achieve justice and safety,” said Handaqlu.
“I’m a girl from the Jatt triangle, a minority Arab woman, so I never dreamt I’d be here.
“I’m an Arab, I’m Palestinian, I live in Israel. I belong to this place. I can’t emigrate. There is something about the warmth of the people here that attracts me.”
“We have a leadership deficit in Israel in the last couple of decades, and when you don’t have someone to look up to, you lower your sights and you look around you,” said Nissan. “There are a lot of good, inspiring people around who are doing amazing work.”
The NIF event was hosted by the Israeli comedian and activist Noam Shuster-Eliassi.
David Davidi-Brown, chief executive of NIF UK, said:“When many are divisive and hateful, when people insist we choose a side, being together tonight and supporting our work with Eran and Rawyah and hundreds of leaders from all different communities across Israeli civil society shows determination to be on the side of all people, Israelis and Palestinians, Arabs and Jews, suffering during this conflict.”
