Women Lawyers for Social Justice

Together with the Heschel Center for Sustainability, Civic Leadership, and the Heinrich Bőll Foundation, Itach Ma'aki is working to promote the 2030 Agenda in Israel. Activities include the November 2018 milestone conference, attended by 120 civil society delegates and the issuing of the July 2019 Government Report, drafted by an inter-ministerial task force appointed by the Prime Minister, and which will be submitted to the United Nations.

Legal advocacy

Itach Ma’aki acts in the areas of public housing, social security, collections, and other rights of women in low-wage employment, as well as issues of sexual harassment and sexual violence in the workplace. The Association provides legal advice, and represents women in legal cases, while also working to create policy change for various legal issues. A hotline is available for women to call regarding any legal issue they face.

In the public advocacy sphere, Itach Ma'aki joined a group of Israeli organizations in 2009, which approached the Attorney General to examine whether the IDF violated international law during the 2008-2009 Gaza War. Following the establishment of the Turkel Commission to investigate the 2010 flotilla to Gaza, Itach Ma'aki petitioned the High Court of Justice against the Government of Israel and the Turkel Commission due to the absence of women on the Government appointed Public Commission (HCJ 5660/10 Itach-Ma'aki v Prime Minister). The petition argued that the absence of women on the Commission dealing with such an important issue contravenes International Law and Section 6c1 of Israel's Women's Equal Rights Law; therefore, the High Court of Justice is required to intervene. The High Court ordered the Government to appoint a woman to the Commission, and the Court's ruling on this matter constitutes, still to date, one of the legal foundations for appropriate representation of women. The Association also asked to be allowed to submit to the committee a report from a gender perspective, so that the probe would include "the perspective of women peace activists, who are seeking to protest nonviolently, as well as the reality of women in Gaza, who are living under siege."

Additional legal achievements

The National Labor Court upheld Itach Ma'aki's appeal and ruled that the shared household of a woman in a polygamous relationship will be assessed individually, when examining her eligibility for income support benefits In the 2016 the Association filed an appeal against the regional Labor Courts decision in Abu Jaber v. The National Insurance Institute, which rejected the right of a woman living in a polygamous and violent marriage to receive income support. The National Labor Court, which heard the appeal, ruled that the reality of life in a polygamous and violent marriage, where one is under the constant threat of having to relinquish parental rights, should not be seen the same way as the shared life of a nuclear family model couple living together, and therefore, the appellant was entitled to separate income support benefits.

Revocation of rule denying income support stipends for women with cars The National Insurance Institute prohibited single mothers from receiving basic income support benefits if they owned a car or had regular use of one. In one of several successful appeals on this issue, in the 2005 case TSJ 3282/05 Meirav Ben-Nun v National Insurance Institute, Itach Ma'aki filed a petition to the High Court of Justice on behalf of five single mothers against the National Insurance Institute policy and the Income Support Law. Following numerous hearings, in 2012, in an acclaimed final ruling by Supreme Court President, Justice Beinish, the High Court of Justice ruled that the law should be revoked because it restricted the right to minimum dignity of those living in poverty in Israel and that women who are eligible for income support should be permitted to own/use a car.

Cancellation of the employment test exemption for single mothers of children above the age of two In January 2003 Itach Ma'aki filed a High Court of Justice petition (HCJ 1433/03 Svetlana Bajtin v Minister of Finances et al) against the Economic Policy Law, which cancelled the exemption from the employment test for eligibility of single mothers of children above the age of two to receive income support. Under the contested section of the law, in order to receive an income assurance stipend, single mothers of children above the age of two were required, in addition to the income test, to report to the Employment Bureau and to accept any work offered. After the Employment Bureau amended its procedure for the employment of mothers of minor children according to the court's decision, in 2008 a binding ruling was handed down, stipulating that if a single parent has objective difficulty in finding reasonable supervision arrangements for the children, the term "appropriate work" is to be determined in view of this difficulty.

Supreme Court ruling to remove a discriminatory clause against women from the Agudat Yisrael platform Following a prolonged struggle on behalf of the rights of women to be members of the ultra-Orthodox political parties, in January 2019 the High Court of Justice, in case HCJ 1823/15 Tamar Ben-Porat v Registrar of Political Parties, ordered the ultra-Orthodox party, Agudat Yisrael, to remove the discriminatory clause in its platform that bans women from being members of the party. Itach Ma'aki, together with Prof. Neta Ziv, represented 10 women's organizations that joined the petition filed by attorney Ben Porat. The petition includes a plea that the court stipulate that once the change in the platform has been made, the discrimination and ban on women joining the party must also be lifted in practice. This decision may directly affect all discriminatory policies of political parties in Israel.