Haifa Women's Coalition

The exact name “Haifa Women's Coalition” appears in a National Library of Israel catalog record and in an acknowledgment naming Hannah Safran as being “of” the coalition.[1][2] NGO Monitor also reproduced an undated planning notice that placed a meeting at “Haifa Womens’ Coalition, 118 Arlozorov st., Haifa.”[3] None of these references provides bylaws, a founding date, a membership list, or evidence of a separately registered body.

A 2010 publication by Isha l'Isha identifies the Haifa Feminist Center's address as 118 Arlozorov Street, the same address used in the meeting notice.[4] This overlap, together with the chapter title “Isha l'Isha and Haifa Women's Coalition,” supports an association between the names but does not by itself establish that they denoted the same legal or organizational entity.[1]

No available source gives a founding date for the Haifa Women's Coalition. Isha l'Isha was established in 1983 as a feminist collective, but the source documenting that date does not say that the coalition was founded at the same time.[4] The earliest dated publication among the cited materials is NGO Monitor's report of December 30, 2008, although the meeting announcement reproduced within it was explicitly listed under “Urgent activities, no date.”[3]

The name later appeared in the National Library of Israel's catalog for the 2013 volume Isha l'Isha: 30 Years of Feminist Action. The catalog lists a chapter by Shirin Batshon and Hala Sabri titled “Isha l'Isha and Haifa Women's Coalition,” without explaining the relationship between the two.[1] A separate National Library article thanked Hannah Safran of the coalition for assistance with an account of Israel's first shelter for battered women.[2] These references document use of the name but not the coalition's formation or institutional history.

The available sources do not attribute a program directly to a demonstrably separate Haifa Women's Coalition. They instead document the activities of Isha l'Isha, whose shared address and appearance alongside the coalition's name provide relevant organizational context.[1][4]

An Israeli CEDAW report identifies Isha l'Isha as the Haifa Feminist Center. It describes the Center's aims as combating physical, sexual, and psychological violence against women, improving services for women's specific needs, and fostering cooperation among women from different social groups and backgrounds.[5] Its programs served adult immigrants from Russia, Ethiopian women immigrants, Palestinian women, women of Mizrahi or “oriental” origins, and women returning to work. Courses included mechanics, car maintenance, self-defense, and basketball.[5]

The Center launched an anti-trafficking project in 2001. During its first eight years, the project reported providing help and support to more than 1,600 women trafficked into Israel.[4] Staff visited women in immigration detention, informed them of their rights and the procedures they faced, assisted women who wished to testify against traffickers, and helped arrange returns to their countries of origin when requested.[4] The project also sought policy change and developed working relationships with the police, courts, hospitals, welfare institutions, and other human-rights organizations.[4]

In August 2003, Isha l'Isha sought assistance for a woman believed to be imprisoned in a brothel. A rescue operation found her and ten additional Moldovan women at the site. Police investigators then asked the project coordinator what should be done with the eleven women because no shelter for trafficking victims was available.[4]

Isha l'Isha also participated in broader campaigns by Israeli women's organizations. In 2006, a coalition of groups encouraged a woman to run for Israel's presidency. The Jerusalem Post listed Kol Haisha, described in the article as the Haifa Feminist Center, alongside the Ahoti Movement for Women in Israel, the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel, the Coalition of Women for Peace, the Women's Parliament, and Asvat.[6] The report did not call this campaign the “Haifa Women's Coalition” or describe it as a permanent body.

In 2020, five Haifa women's organizations—Itach-Maaki, KEN We Power, Isha l'Isha, the Sexual Assault Victims Support Center, and WIZO Haifa—asked the municipality to cancel singer Eyal Golan's participation in a city-supported Independence Day broadcast and not use municipal funds for his appearance.[7] Ynet reported that the municipality had invested approximately NIS 100,000 in the event, rather than stating that this sum was payment solely for Golan's performance.[7] The organizations described the allegations surrounding him as “a moral and public indictment that still stands,” while the report stated that no criminal indictment had been filed against him and that the criminal allegations had been canceled.[7] The five organizations were not identified as a formally named Haifa Women's Coalition.

The principal unresolved issue is whether “Haifa Women's Coalition” denoted a distinct organization, an informal network, or a designation associated with Isha l'Isha. Sources use the names Isha l'Isha, Haifa Feminist Center, Kol Haisha, and Haifa Women's Coalition in related contexts, but no verified source establishes that all of these terms were coextensive.[1][6] The NGO Monitor notice establishes that the coalition's name was used for a meeting location, but it does not say whether the coalition organized the event or merely hosted it.[3]

The Center's rejection of the terms “voluntary prostitution” and “choosing prostitution” represents Isha l'Isha's stated advocacy position. Its 2010 account says the organization concluded that no woman enters prostitution by choice and that women should be supported in leaving it.[4] This position should not be presented as an independently established finding or automatically attributed to a separate Haifa Women's Coalition.