One of the major challenges facing Israel is the economic impact of the ongoing conflict with Gaza. This problem has become more apparent as the conflict between Israel and Hamas continues and businesses in Israel’s south suffer.
Enter the student run organization Ayalim.
Ayalim, which means deer, was founded by ex-IDF soldiers to create and support housing and social opportunities in the underdeveloped Negev (southern) region of Israel.
Ayalim was created in 2002 and named after Ayal and Yael Sorek who were murdered, literally on the doorstep of their home in the Jewish town of Karmei Tzur in Judea in June of that year.
The goal of the organization is to help “strengthen existing communities and social involvement in the Negev and Galilee.” Ayalim seeks “to revive and renew the Zionist idea in the 21st century and seeks to achieve this goal through the establishment of student and entrepreneur villages. This young social entrepreneurship fosters the connection between people and the land as well as between the individual and greater society.”
Currently, there are close to 1,000 students living across 21 towns in the Negev, Galilee and the city of Lod.
Among the organization’s current social activism projects is a weekly shopping spree for citizens of the north of Israel to come shop in Israel’s south, thereby supporting the battered region. The first event, which took place last Friday, was the kickstarter for the project entitled “The Strong South”.
For last week’s event, Ayalim brought bus loads of people from the northern cities of Nahariya, Afula, Migdal Ha’Emek, and other localities to shop at one of the main thoroughfares in the city of Ashkelon, which lies in close proximity to Gaza and has been hard hit by the rocket barrage.
The street where the event took place, appropriately named “Strength Street”, was packed with volunteers and shoppers. The visitors got to see Iron Dome in action early on as air raid sirens went off just after the event began.
Israeli Deputy Minister of Interior Affairs Faina Kirshenbaum addressed the crowd a few minutes after Iron Dome successfully intercepted the rocket. “No one will frighten us away,” she said. “In the coming weeks we will bring the entire nation to come down and show their support for every city and town in the south.”
The project is being conducted together with Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman’s office, as well as local councils and organizations, and is supported by donations from friends all over the world. As part of the project, an information center and hotline as well as a website containing an online database are being created to bring exposure to stores, companies, and local businesses located in southern Israel, so that people in the rest of the country and abroad may purchase items and thereby help support the local economy.
The website will be continually updated in English and Hebrew with events and alternative ways to help support the south.
Kirshenbaum continued to express her support for the project: “I truly believe that through this undertaking, we will help the businesses, factories and companies who reside in the south of Israel and who have been severely impacted by the conflict against the terrorists. I see in this project a true expression of the mutual respect that all Israeli citizens have towards one another.”
Nechami Geines, director of Ayalim, explained some of the inspiration behind the project.
“In emergency situations like the one we are currently in, enlisting all of our help together is of utmost importance,” she said. “The solidarity and support of all of Israel’s citizens for the south, not just in words alone but also in action, is what strengthens the national and economic might of Israel. I invite everyone to come down and take part.”
Ayalim is currently planning to continue the shopping events each week at a different city or town in the south.
On a separate note, in support of the city of Sderot, Ayalim is currently building a student village in the beleaguered city, which will be open for the 2014-2015 academic year beginning in October.
To find out more information about Ayalim, the project “The Strong South” and how you can become a part of helping to support this as well as the variety of other projects that the organization is involved with, click here.
