Violence against women is on the rise in Israel, exacerbated by increased gun ownership and stresses from the ongoing war. Male allies are needed, which is exactly what ASLI: Israel White Ribbon Organization, a grant recipient of the Hadassah Foundation, is working to produce.

On November 25, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, and in the period immediately before and after, ASLI partnered with the City of Tel Aviv-Yafo in a multifaceted campaign to reach millions of people. Dozens of bus stations and billboards in some of Tel Aviv’s busiest intersections displayed the campaign’s tagline “Don’t Shut Your Eyes,” calling on men not to look away when they suspect intimate-partner violence near them and directing them to a website where they can learn how to help.

The municipality and ASLI’s joint campaign included social media promoting awareness of economic violence, controlling behavior, and calling on men to do more than stand by. Within a week, the videos had more than one million views. Watch the videos (in Hebrew). Both the videos and the billboard campaign were created collaboratively by ASLI and the creative teams of the Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality. The campaign also had an educational leg, with approximately 20,000 high school students participating in an ASLI-created lesson plan at their schools. Watch the educational video (in Hebrew) that helps teachers use this lesson plan.

In addition to partnering on the campaign around International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, Tel Aviv-Yafo is partnering with ASLI on a program training male leaders to speak out about preventing violence towards women. More municipalities are expected to join the program in the coming months.

ASLI: Israel White Ribbon is a Spark grant recipient. Hadassah Foundation Spark grants allow for increased risk-taking and appropriately sized support for newer organizations that are meeting pressing and emergent needs. Each grant is $20,000 awarded over 18 months. We will be announcing a new cohort of Spark grant recipients by the end of February

Learn more about ASLI: Israel White Ribbon and meet all Hadassah Foundation grant recipients.