WAC-MAAN
Profile
| Country/Territory | Israel |
|---|---|
| Website | http://eng.wac-maan.org.il/ |
| Founded | 1989 |
| In their own words | “An independent Representative Workers Organization, uniting workers regardless of nationality, religion, gender or the color of their skin. WAC seeks to organize the unorganized into a broad-based labor union.” |
Funding
- In 2014, total income was NIS 1.3 million (~$335,000); expenses were NIS 1.3 million. According to the organization’s annual report, NIS 1 million came from foreign donations.
- “Donors and supporters” include the European Union, CAFOD (Catholic Agency for Overseas Development), Presbyterian Church USA, and UNISON International Development Fund.
- WAC MAAN received $70,000 from the Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law Secretariat (joint funding from Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, and the Netherlands) in 2015-2016 for a project titled “Defending the rights of jobless and workers in East Jerusalem and Area C.”
Activities
- WAC MAAN was established in 1989 by Assaf Adiv and Wehbe Badarna. In June 1998, WAC MAAN applied for registration to the Israeli Registrar of Non Profits, however they were denied in part due to the past terror ties of Badarna. In 2000, the District Court in Jerusalem overruled the Registrar’s decision and approved WAC MAAN as a nonprofit.
- Wehbe Badarna was imprisoned in 1989 for nine months for supporting the PLO.
- In 1988, Assaf Adiv, Michal Schwartz, the Israeli peace and social justice activist for WAC MAAN, and Roni Ben Efrat, international coordinator for WAC MAAN, were arrested in 1988 for aiding and abetting the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) terror group.
Anti-Israel Activities
- Accuses Israel of “war crimes” and supports a Palestinian “right of return.”
- In April 2016, Yoav Tamir, a WAC-Maan organizer, said, “The position of WAC-MAAN is that BDS could be a good tool, but not by itself… something BDS has done that I’m in favor of, it has put the settlements on the spot.” Tamir also stated that “As a trade union, you push the point of democracy. You want democracy as well. It’s the oldest idea. You can’t occupy another people and be democratic. You can’t. This means that Left in Israel is going to fight this battle. It’s going to have to fight this, not against Palestinians, it’s going to have to fight it against its own fascists, in Israel.”
- In 2014, accused Israel of a “war crime” and an “attack on Gaza,” claiming that “The attempt to obtain a Palestinian surrender by bombing civilian targets is criminal, reckless, and pregnant with disaster.”
- In November 2012 during an Israeli military operation in Gaza, WAC MAAN issued a call titled “end to the war on Gaza, an end to the Israeli occupation,” stating that Israel “continued to expand settlements on Palestinian lands, while allowing the development of fascist gangs in these settlements.”
- In 2010, WAC MAAN sent a letter to the OECD Trade Union Advisory Committee calling on them not to accept Israel as a member of the OECD “without a clear proof that it had stopped the policy of discrimination and exploitation of Arab, Jewish and migrant workers.”
- In 2010, following Israel’s raid on the Gaza flotilla, WAC MAAN published a “position paper” stating that “Israel’s stubbornness” and its refusal to bring about “an end to the occupation and recognition of the Palestinian people’s right to a sovereign state—is the main reason for the continuing bloodshed.”
Partners
Partners include: Syndianna of the Galilee, Hanitzoz Publishing House, Kav Laoved Workers’ Rights Center, and Ir Amim.
