Just a couple weeks ago, the skies over Southern Israel were an incredible sight: dozens of Zazim members lit up the sky with 150 paper lanterns in solidarity with millions of Gazans living in darkness. Now, the streets of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem are plastered with more than a 1,000 posters calling the responsible ministers to renew the electricity supply to Gaza - all crowd-funded by Zazim members!

Since Israel’s government decided to cut Gaza’s electricity supply, two million women, children and men are on the brink of an unprecedented humanitarian disaster.

For the past decade, Israel has kept Gaza under siege: controlling what can enter and who may leave, and holding the power to shut off the electricity. Now, the Israeli government is cooperating with Mahmoud Abbas’ attempts to pressure Hamas, and is choosing sides in the political struggle between the Palestinian parties - leaving the lives of millions hanging in the balance.

As a result, Gazans today have less than two-hours of electricity a day, and their hospitals, clean water supplies, and wastewater treatment facilities are all crashing.

We could not stay silent. In the past several weeks, thousands of Israeli Zazim members raised their voice and joined our campaign calling the government to prevent an unprecedented disaster and to renew the electricity supply to Gaza. Last month, dozens of Israelis - including many from Southern communities on the Gaza border - participated in a well-publicized action to show solidarity and force the government to act, that was 100% funded by small donations from Zazim members. And now, over 200 Zazim members crowd-funded hundreds of posters all over Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and next to PM Netanyau’s house, with a powerful message calling on the responsible ministers and government officials to act immediately!

Thousands of Israelis are struggling to make sure Gaza will not be forgotten and ignored. Our actions have received media attention, are raising public awareness to the disaster Gaza is facing, and calling on decision makers to take responsibility. But it is still not enough - and we need your help:

https://act.zazim.org.il/cms/thanks/gaza2_en?akid=1183.2150.dPdoNk&rd=1&t=3

Click to join the crowd-funding efforts of thousands of Jewish and Arab Zazim members in Israel and support our call to prevent an unprecedented humanitarian crisis in Gaza:

Zazim's Gaza Campaign Support

In solidarity, Raluca, together with the Zazim Team: Eli, Benjy, Maayan, Shada and Gil

P.S. Most of our campaigning happens in Hebrew and Arabic, and we send occasional updates to our English-speaking friends - like the one you are reading now.

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Zazim (On the Move) is an independent people-powered movement. Our members campaign together for progressive change in Israel.

Zazim has had huge growth since it launched over a year ago: It now boasts 40,000 active members, and aims to reach as many as 80,000 (roughly 1% of the population of Israel) by the end of the year. Guided by the experience of other members of OPEN (Online Progressive Engagement Network), we know that mobilizing this percentage of progressive activists is key to achieve critical victories on the issues that are important to us.

Their work in community-and-list-building is strategic, aimed at bringing together a base of people who are committed to shared values and action. They have been able to recruit members who join campaigns across a variety of issues (not just the ones closest to their hearts), contribute financially to these campaigns (100,000+ shekels from grassroots donors so far this year), and feel a sense of ownership over the community.