שתיל - שירותי תמיכה וייעוץ לקידום שינוי חברתי

The government makes a decision. Social change groups organize to respond. This pattern, when carefully thought out and professionally led, can result in changes in government policy favorable to the needs of the public. When the Knesset voted to reform Israel's electric sector by privatizing the Israel Electric Corporation (IEC) two years ago, Israel's social and environmental activists saw a golden opportunity to move Israel's electric sector toward greater social responsible and environmental sustainability. They turned to SHATIL, which coalesced them into the Electricity Reform Coalition. 

On Sunday, nearly 100 activists, government officials and IEC managers and workers attended a SHATIL conference, Who Owns our Electricity? at Tel Aviv University to hear and discuss the Coalition's initial findings and to begin a public discourse about the future of Israel's electricity framework.  

Organized by the SHATIL-led Electricity Reform Coalition in collaboration with Tel Aviv University's School of Public Policy, the conference presented the Coalition report, written by the Movement for Quality Government, on the decision-making process involved in the move to reform the Electric sector. Two other Coalition members, the Israel Energy Forum and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), presented analyses of the social and environmental ramifications of the reform. 

Among the presenters were such diverse voices as MK Dov Khanin of Hadash, head of the Knesset's social-environmental lobby, MK Moshe Gafni of United Torah Judaism, an attorney from Green Peace, a representative of the IEC Workers' Committee and a leading economist who consults to the IEC.  

The conference was covered on the radio, in the daily Ma'ariv and in Calcalist, a financial newspaper.  

Said Coalition coordinator and conference organizer, SHATIL's Natan Gelman: "The conference created an opportunity to awaken the public and especially the decision-makers: It's time to take action to ensure that any reform of the electric sector take broad public, social and environmental needs into account."