Draft:Israeli Aids Task Force
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The Israeli AIDS Task Force, founded in 1985, is the oldest and largest organization in Israel dedicated to the fight against AIDS.
Objectives of the Israeli AIDS Task Force
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The Israeli AIDS Task Force has two main objectives: first, to promote awareness and public health with regard to AIDS, with the aim of halting the spread of the disease; and second, to protect and advance the interests of people living with HIV and of AIDS patients in Israel. To further these two objectives, the Task Force maintains ongoing contact with government authorities and health services through its management, and conducts continuous public communication activities in order to raise awareness of the disease, improve the medical and social services provided to those infected with the virus, address complaints from people living with HIV and AIDS patients, and provide them with social support.
The Task Force is a voluntary membership nonprofit organization, operating in part through a small paid staff and through a large number of volunteers, many of whom are engaged in providing support to people living with AIDS and to their relatives. In addition, the Task Force operates centers offering anonymous and simple HIV testing.[1]
Most of the Task Force’s budget is derived from donations. For many years, the Task Force held large fundraising events based on the sale of Israeli works of art, organized on its behalf by public relations professional Rani Rahav.
In 2002, following a vote held among the members of the organization Bela Da’at, Bela Da’at merged with the Israeli AIDS Task Force, and since then it has served as the Task Force’s outreach and advocacy arm for members of the LGBTQ community.
As of 2023, the Chief Executive Officer of the Task Force is George Avni.
In recent years, the advertising agency Y&R Israel has been working with the Israeli AIDS Task Force on a voluntary basis. During this period, campaigns were created to increase awareness of AIDS, promote HIV testing, and disseminate information about methods of preventing infection. Some of these campaigns received international recognition, and one of them was awarded a special prize by the United Nations.[2]
History
[edit]Establishment of the Organization
[edit]
The initiative to establish the Israeli AIDS Task Force was led by Yaakov (Gerry) Gladstone, a Canadian Jew and a committed Zionist activist. Gladstone was among the founders of the Association for the Protection of Individual Rights and the founder, in 1983, of the Social and Cultural Group of Homosexuals in Israel – G(e)ay Veys. In January 1985, Gladstone initiated a conference at the B’nai B’rith House in Tel Aviv for activists from the Circle and the Association, intended to provide an update on AIDS. Dr. Ze’ev Handel of Kaplan Hospital was invited to speak at the conference. At that time, Dr. Handel, together with Prof. Zvi Bentwich, was engaged in research on the disease at Kaplan Hospital and was regarded as one of Israel’s leading AIDS experts. At the opening of the conference, Gladstone called for the establishment of an organization that would focus on caring for AIDS patients in Israel, in light of the severe hardships they faced, and on education and prevention activities within the homosexual community.[3]
At the same conference, Micha van Dijk, a Jerusalem-based social worker of Dutch origin, announced that he would take responsibility for establishing an organization to address the needs of patients and to conduct educational activities within the community.[4][citation needed] Over the following six months, van Dijk recruited two additional activists from Jerusalem: David Erlich, a writer and the owner of the café Tmol Shilshom in Jerusalem, and Mike Svirsky. They were joined in June 1985 by Shlomi Patia, a finance professional at IBM Israel, a leading activist in the Association for the Protection of Individual Rights (LGBT organization) during the preceding two years, and a member of the Social and Cultural Circle. In December 1985, the Israeli AIDS Task Force was registered as a nonprofit organization with the Registrar of Associations under the name: "הוועד למלחמה באיידס - הסברה וסיוע לחולים" -The Committee for the Fight Against AIDS – Education and Assistance to Patients (a name chosen by Shlomi Patia). Micha van Dijk was elected Chair of the Task Force and served in that role until 1988; he was also responsible for training volunteers who worked with patients and people living with HIV until 1990. Shlomi Patia managed all of the Task Force’s activities, including fundraising, financial administration, and public relations.[5] During the first year, David Erlich was responsible for educational activities and later coordinated the activities of the Jerusalem branch. Shlomi Patia managed the Israeli AIDS Task Force on a voluntary basis from its establishment and for six years, until his resignation in June 1991. In November 1988, Prof. Shlomo Shibolet was elected Chair of the Task Force, a position he held until his resignation in June 1991.
In December 1987, the Task Force received recognition from the Income Tax Commission as a “public institution for donation purposes,” enabling donations to the Task Force to be recognized for tax-deduction purposes.
Among the central volunteers from the early days of the Task Force and throughout its initial years were: Gershom Shibolet, Yaakov Pazi, Shmuel Einav, Yigal Markovitz, Nahum Lavi—a member of the Task Force’s board, Ofir Nissim—a registered nurse and coordinator of the Task Force’s Haifa branch, Shimon Gavzo—a member of the board, Dr. Iris Kalka—a board member, and many others.
Activity – The Early Years
[edit]In November 1985, even before the organization was formally registered as an association, its founders published a notice in the press announcing its establishment, together with a call to recruit volunteers who felt close to the cause, for the purpose of caring for patients and providing outreach and information to the community. By that month, approximately 20 AIDS patients had been identified in Israel, and in the same month the department at Kaplan Hospital closed the option of performing blood tests for gay men due to lack of funding [6].
In December 1985, the organization held its first conference at the B’nai B’rith House in Tel Aviv, aimed at fundraising for the organization's activities [7].
In January 1986, the organization held its first training course for volunteers caring for patients and accompanying carriers — “buddies” [8]. In the early years, the volunteer training courses were held in a hall donated for this purpose by the Basel Hotels chain. In 1989 and 1990, the training courses were held at Beit Europa, in a hall donated for this purpose by IBM Israel.
In February 1986, the first information leaflet about the disease intended for the community was issued and distributed in clubs, at association activities, in the sauna, and in other venues. The leaflet was written by David Erlich with the assistance of Dr. Avi Hassner of Ichilov Hospital [9]. About a month later, the organization published a second information leaflet.
In March 1986, the organization held a “Bediko Disco,” a party at which anonymous tests for detecting the virus were conducted, in cooperation with Prof. Zvi Bentwich of Kaplan Hospital. A mechanism was established that protected the privacy of those tested while allowing contact with them in the event of a positive result. Through these tests, carriers were identified and, with their consent, were accompanied and supported by organization activists.
At the same time, the organization began establishing contact with the heads of hematology departments at the major hospitals: Dr. Israel Just of Ichilov Hospital and Beilinson Hospital; Prof. Rubinstein of Sheba Medical Center, Tel HaShomer; Prof. Zvi Bentwich; Prof. Avraham Morag; and Dr. Shlomo Maayan of Hadassah–Ein Kerem Hospital, as well as Rambam Hospital in Haifa, in order that they would refer to the organization patients who came under their care and were in need of accompaniment and support.
In June 1986, the organization's director contacted Arthur (Avi) Strikler, president of Congregation Beit Simchat Torah, the LGBTQ synagogue in Manhattan, with the aim of raising donations to support the organization's activities. Arthur Strikler responded immediately and issued a moving appeal to members of Congregation Beit Simchat Torah to donate to the organization; the community’s response was swift, and $10,000 were raised and transferred to support the organization's work. Arthur Strikler was the one who proposed the organization's English name for fundraising purposes, and this name was adopted: Israeli AIDS Task Force. In 1989, Arthur Strikler raised an additional donation for the organization from members of Congregation Beit Simchat Torah.
This funding made it possible to rent the organization first office for its activities and to locate the telephone information hotline at 84 Ahad Ha’am Street, Tel Aviv. The Ministry of Health provided one-time funding for the office furniture and equipment, following extensive lobbying by the organization with the Ministry of Health’s spokesperson at the time. (This support, amounting to approximately 4,500 shekels, was the only support provided by the Ministry of Health to the organization from its establishment until 1993.)
In April 1987, representatives of the organization participated in a study day held at Hadassah–Ein Kerem Hospital on the topic of “The Social Aspects of AIDS,” organized by Prof. Avraham Morag, and presented the problems faced by gay men in the shadow of the disease [10].
In May 1987, the director of the AIDS Task Force announced that the organization would begin distributing syringes to drug users, even in contravention of the Ministry of Health’s policy, which prohibited this, due to the complete lack of action by the ministry among this at-risk population. In response, the Ministry of Health, in the name of Minister of Health Shoshana Arbeli-Almozlino, announced that legal action would be taken against the AIDS Task Force should it proceed (this announcement was reported in the Kol Yisrael news broadcast). As a result, the organization was forced to freeze its plan; however, media pressure and public criticism of the Ministry of Health on this issue later led the ministry to change its policy. (In August 1989, the Minister of Health announced that she would consider distributing syringes to drug users, but only to those attending rehabilitation centers.)
service included two telephone lines, staffed by volunteers of the organization, who manned the lines once a week during evening hours. For this purpose, the volunteers received training from activists of the “White Line” (the information hotline of the Association for Civil Rights) and from trained counselors of ERAN.
In addition, the service included a recorded message that operated 24 hours a day and provided basic information about the disease and ways of protecting oneself against it, in Hebrew, Arabic, and English; the recorded message enabled people to contact the hotline and receive information anonymously [11]. On 27 July 1987, the organization published paid advertisements in several newspapers to inform the public about the telephone information line operating around the clock [12]. (Until the launch of the organization’s telephone information service, the organization made use of the “White Line” operated by the Association for Civil Rights and referred people to it for information about AIDS.)
At one of the meetings of the National AIDS Steering organization in which he participated, Shlomi Patia criticized the Ministry of Health for its complete lack of public information and outreach activities, and warned that the requirement imposed on those tested for AIDS to identify themselves would deter people from coming forward for testing. “We want an AIDS clinic that we will run; we demand a medical staff that will be acceptable to us and new testing and treatment protocols, which we will design together with the physicians” [13].
On 26 August 1987, the organization’s anonymous testing center was opened in the building of Clalit Health Services in Neve Sha’anan, Tel Aviv. Prof. Zvi Bentwich took the initiative to approach the management of Clalit Health Services and enlisted its support to allow the AIDS Task Force organization to use the facility for the establishment of the center. Initially, the center operated every Wednesday evening.
The testing was anonymous; those tested received a number with which they could obtain their test results from Kaplan Hospital. The identities of those tested were not disclosed even to the organization, and the decision whether or not to contact the organization after receiving the test results was left entirely to the individual tested [14]. The AIDS Task Force organization announced that clean syringes for drug users and condoms would be distributed free of charge at the testing center. Among the volunteer physicians who initially staffed the testing center were Dr. Yuri Miron, Dr. Chen Kugel, Dr. Amir Mendel, Dr. Barak Shasha, and other physicians.
The need to establish the testing center arose in light of the small number of people being tested at hospital testing centers, where full identification was required and the details of those tested were transferred to the Ministry of Health. The Ministry of Health criticized the organization for conducting anonymous testing; however, the organization made clear to the ministry that the option of anonymous testing led many people to be tested who otherwise would not have been tested at all.
At a meeting with the National Steering Committee for the Fight Against AIDS, chaired by Prof. Avraham Morag, the director of the organization expressed unequivocal opposition to the Ministry of Health’s demand that those tested identify themselves, emphasizing that imposing such a requirement would prevent the relevant populations from coming forward for testing.
In August 1987, the Israeli AIDS Task Force announced that it was operating support groups for carriers, for their parents, and for relatives of people who had died of AIDS. These groups were run by a psychologist and a social worker [15].
On 17 December 1987, the Task Force received recognition as a “public institution for the purpose of donations” from the Income Tax Commission, an approval that facilitated fundraising efforts.
In March 1988, shortages emerged in many hospitals of the experimental drug AL-721, developed at the Weizmann Institute. The Task Force, headed by its chair Micha van Dijk, issued a notice calling on carriers to contact the Task Force so that it could assist in obtaining the drug, including by referring them to Ichilov Hospital.
In the same month, the Task Force announced its intention to petition the High Court of Justice, with the assistance of the Association for Civil Rights, against the IDF policy of discharging conscripts from compulsory service and dismissing career soldiers who were found to be carriers [16].
On 20 October 1988, the first art exhibition of the Task Force opened, with the aim of raising funds for its activities [17]. The exhibition was held at the Hors-Richter Gallery in Jaffa, whose space was donated to the Task Force by the gallery owners. The opening evening was held under the patronage of the wife of the Dutch Ambassador to Israel and with the participation of members of the embassy staff.
The exhibition featured 140 paintings by more than 130 artists, including some of Israel’s leading artists, who donated their works in support of the Task Force’s activities. The response from the artists was overwhelming, even though for most of them the Task Force had been entirely unfamiliar until then. Among the artists who contributed works was Yigal Tumarkin, who also designed the exhibition poster [18]. Most of the works donated to the exhibition were original pieces.
The exhibition, initially intended to run for four days, was extended to two weeks, courtesy of the gallery owners, in light of the considerable public interest it generated. The proceeds from the exhibition enabled the Task Force to significantly expand its activities.
On 1 December 1988, the Israeli AIDS Task Force marked World AIDS Day for the first time in Israel. Information booths were set up in the city centers of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, where educational materials intended for the general population were distributed, as part of the Task Force’s effort to raise awareness of the disease and to sever its association with any specific population group.
In addition, as part of the media pressure exerted by the Task Force on the Ministry of Health in light of the ministry’s complete lack of public information activities, the Task Force addressed a letter to the Minister of Health, Shoshana Arbeli-Almozlino, demanding that the ministry begin acting to prevent infection among all risk groups. A copy of the letter, which was signed by physicians from AIDS centers across the country, was also sent to Dr. Jonathan Mann, head of the Global Programme on AIDS at the World Health Organization [19].
In October 1989, the Israeli AIDS Task Force organized outreach and educational activities on the campus of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in cooperation with the university’s Labor Party student organization. Posters prepared by the Task Force were displayed across the campus under the headline: “A Condom — the Thin Line Between Life and Death.” In addition, information booths were set up, and educational materials prepared by the Task Force, along with condoms, were distributed [20].
Ahead of World AIDS Day on 1 December 1989, the Task Force printed a poster titled “Dressed for the Occasion,” depicting a naked man wearing a condom on an erect penis. It was decided that the poster would be displayed only in Tel Aviv; however, the municipality refused to approve its posting on municipal billboards. Task Force activists nevertheless decided to put up the poster on various notice boards throughout the city, and these were subsequently removed by the municipality. At the same time, information booths were set up at central locations in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv [21].
In the run-up to World AIDS Day in 1989, and in light of the increase in the number of women who tested HIV-positive, the Committee produced, for the first time, an informational leaflet for women, in cooperation with Na’amat and under the auspices of Knesset Member Emanuel Zisman (Likud). The Committee’s leadership maintained close ties with MK Zisman in his capacity as Chair of the Knesset Lobby for the Fight Against AIDS, which he had established in the 12th Knesset. MK Zisman opened doors for the Committee within the Knesset and sought to advance its causes; however, this did not translate into the allocation of state funds to the Committee.
On May 20, 1990, the Committee for the Fight Against AIDS marked, for the first time, the AIDS Memorial Day for those who had died of AIDS. The Committee held a rally in front of the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, protesting the lack of allocation of resources for combating the disease. Ehud Olmert, the Minister coordinating health affairs, told members of the Committee that “the issue is not at the top of the national priorities list”[22].
On May 21, 1990, the Committee held a memorial rally for those who had died of AIDS at Kings of Israel Square in Tel Aviv (today Rabin Square), attended by approximately 2,000 people. Various artists appeared on stage on a voluntary basis, among them Arik Lavi and Miri Aloni.
In July 1990, the organization for the Fight Against AIDS staged the performance “Taking a Step”, a dance production intended to raise funds for the Committee. The performance was initiated by dancer Ido Tadmor on behalf of the Committee. He was joined by the poet and dance critic Hazi Leskli (who died of AIDS in 1994). Each of them created choreography for a dance piece presented in the performance, alongside works by additional choreographers. The poster for the performance was designed by Yigal Tumarkin, and it was presented twice at the Suzanne Dellal Center in Tel Aviv.
Beginning in 1989, the organization operated the “Names Project”—the Quilt—for the commemoration of the names of those who had died of AIDS, in cooperation with the support group. Danny Kent coordinated the project on behalf of the organization for the Fight Against AIDS. Starting in 1990, Danny Kent began working for the organization on a half-time basis, becoming the first salaried employee of the organization in light of the expansion of its activities. In 1990, approximately 120 volunteers were active in the organization, and during that year the organization also began a process of reorganization to improve its operations, in cooperation with Itzik Carmel, a psychologist and organizational consultant.
The 1990s
[edit]
Following the resignation of Shlomi Patia in June 1991, the management of the organization was temporarily assumed by Shimon Gabzu, the organization's treasurer. From him, management passed to Miki Goldstein and to Serge Dichas, the partner of one of the Committee’s activists who had died of AIDS. Serge Dichas and Miki Goldstein managed the organization until 1993, operating from an office rented by the organization on Allenby Street. One of the members of the organization's board was Niv Sever, and the organization's secretary was Ahuva Simon. For a period of time, the organization encountered difficulties in renting an apartment. Eventually, the organization succeeded in renting an office in an apartment on Allenby Street, on the condition that people receiving services from the organization would not visit it[23].
In preparation for World AIDS Day in December 1991, the Israeli Aids Task Force produced a poster exhibition on AIDS. The exhibition was shown at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque and subsequently at the Jerusalem Cinematheque.
In 1993, four members of the association who declared that they were living with HIV were elected to the executive board: Shosh Newman, the late Mario Dvir, the late Ricardo Schneider, and his partner Patrick Levy. Patrick Levy was elected Chair of the organization. Additional individuals were appointed to the executive board, including Professor Avi Hesner, Head of the Department of Infectious Diseases at Ichilov Hospital and later Deputy Director of the hospital. Professor Hesner supported the Committee’s activities and accompanied it from 1988 onward.
The organization focused on supporting AIDS patients and on educational and awareness-raising activities, including the operation of HIV prevention booths at various events. Support for AIDS patients was provided through the Buddies / Friends Project, led by Zavik – “the Green Man.” In addition, the organization operated two support groups for patients and carriers: one in Jerusalem and one in Tel Aviv, accompanied on a pro bono basis by social worker Rita Abramov from the Department of Infectious Diseases at Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem.
In 1994, the organization established its educational outreach system with pro bono accompaniment by Dr. Robert Ziloni, then Director of the Sexual Education Unit within the Family Planning Unit of the New York Federation. As part of this framework, a program of educational workshops accompanied by a personal narrative was launched. The target audiences of the workshops were adolescents within schools, as well as soldiers and prisoners within the Israel Prison Service. Similar workshops were facilitated and delivered by Robert Ziloni and Patrick Levy in Eastern European countries at the invitation of various United Nations bodies. That same year, Patrick Levy was appointed, on behalf of the Committee for the Fight Against AIDS, as a member of the intersectoral forum led by Dr. Zvi Ben-Yishai (Buki), Deputy Director General of Rambam Hospital.
In that year, the organization began publishing a monthly newsletter titled “Berosh Hiyuvi” (“Positive Outlook”), intended to provide information and a platform for people living with HIV, and distributed to various stakeholders. The first issue was published on May 1, 1994, and was edited by Patrick Levy and Mario Dvir.
At the same time, the organization began cooperating and forging ties with various international organizations active in the field: Patrick Levy was active in ICASO (International Council of AIDS Service Organizations); Shosh Newman was active in ICW (International Community of Women Living with HIV); and Ricardo Schneider was active in GNP+ (Global Network of People Living with HIV). All three served on the governing boards of these organizations. In addition, Patrick Levy was appointed as the first representative of people living with HIV from developed countries on behalf of UNAIDS, an organization established during those years by the United Nations for people living with HIV from developing countries. Patrick served alongside Dorothy Odiambo from Kenya. In 1995, Patrick addressed the UN ECOSOC Assembly (Council of Economic and Social Affairs) in Geneva regarding the state of AIDS in Israel, placing particular emphasis on the blood donations affair of that year, when it was revealed that the Ministry of Health was discarding blood donations from Israeli citizens of Ethiopian origin. Representatives of the Committee presented their work at various conferences abroad, annually at the World AIDS Conference and at other professional conferences.
Following a hospitalization at Ichilov Hospital, during which Patrick Levy experienced blatant discrimination—including the marking of “HIV” on his door and inappropriate treatment by staff—Patrick and his partner, the late Ricardo Schneider, decided to publicly disclose that they were living with HIV through an article in Yedioth Ahronoth. Until then, aside from Yoram Hattuel, who anonymously wrote a weekly column in a Tel Aviv local newspaper about his complex experiences as an AIDS patient, Patrick and Ricardo were the first in Israel to agree to speak openly and publicly about their experiences as people living with HIV. The article caused a public uproar, and in its aftermath the couple were subjected to death threats and the destruction of the apartment in which they lived. Following the publication and under pressure from parents, Patrick Levy was forced to cease his employment with the Ministry of Education as a teacher at a school in Tel Aviv.
After being compelled to leave the Ministry of Education against his will due to his HIV status, Patrick Levy was elected to the position of director of the organization in the summer of 1995, a position he held until 1998. Patrick was the first salaried director of the Committee, following the successful raising of donations that made this possible. Shosh Newman was elected Chair of the Committee. The Committee moved to a more spacious office in an alleyway in Tel Aviv, hired a small staff—including a social worker who worked with Israeli citizens of Ethiopian origin—and significantly expanded its budget. During this year, the organization's activities were expanded nationwide. The activities of the organization's Haifa branch were expanded; until then it had been coordinated by Ofir Nissim, and responsibility for the branch was transferred to Neil Harris. In 1999, a Committee branch was opened in Be’er Sheva, during the tenure of Eran Aviv Yifrach as director of the organization (1998–1999). One of the organization's central messages during these years emphasized that AIDS affects the entire population, and that infection depends on sexual behavior rather than membership in any particular group. The policy was to avoid publicly associating AIDS with any specific community, out of concern that doing so would reinforce stigma toward that community. Nevertheless, educational outreach activities were conducted within organizations representing various target audiences, including the LGBT Association.
The campaign to include the “cocktail” in the national basket of medicines
[edit]
At the end of 1996, treatment with what came to be known as “the cocktail” (antiretroviral combination therapy) began—a combination of three medications that constituted a genuine revolution in the treatment of and support for people living with HIV. As a result of this treatment, the disease became a chronic condition that made it possible to maintain a normal lifestyle alongside it. Treatment with “the cocktail” was approved for use in Israel immediately after its approval by the FDA, and physicians at AIDS clinics in Israeli hospitals decided to issue prescriptions to carriers and patients.
During the first year, three health funds agreed to cooperate and provide the innovative treatment from their own budgets, based on the assumption that the Government of Israel would add “the cocktail” to the national basket of medicines within a short time: Clalit Health Services, Maccabi Healthcare Services, and Meuhedet Health Services. One fund refused—Leumit Health Services. Since the national basket of medicines is determined by the Ministry of Health, and the budget for financing the basket is transferred accordingly to the health funds, it was clear that the health funds would not be able to finance the treatment from their own budgets over time without budgetary backing within the national basket of medicines.
At the end of the summer of 1997, Minister of Health Yehoshua Matza agreed to include “the cocktail” in the national basket of medicines and fought to obtain additional government funding for this purpose; however, Minister of Finance Yaakov Neeman strongly opposed an increase in the basket’s budget for this medication (this was the second year of Benjamin Netanyahu’s term as prime minister). As a result, one year after “the cocktail” had been provided to patients and carriers, the Ministry of Health decided not to continue subsidizing it, and the health funds stopped dispensing the medications. The first to announce this decision, on October 1, 1997, was Meuhedet Health Services, which stated that it would stop distributing the cocktail. On December 1, 1997—World AIDS Day—Clalit Health Services joined this decision as well[24]. This sudden step caused the condition of many people living with HIV who had been taking “the cocktail” to deteriorate significantly and rapidly.
In light of these developments, and in order to confront these measures, the members of the Committee for the Fight Against AIDS decided to take action. In consultation with Shatil (Support and Consultation Services for Organizations of the New Israel Fund), they initiated the establishment of a campaign headquarters in cooperation with a coalition of health and patient organizations, out of concern that, following people with AIDS, individuals living with other illnesses would also suffer similar decisions. For the purposes of the campaign, the New Israel Fund donated NIS 15,000 to the Israeli Aids task Force.
Other stakeholders joined the campaign headquarters initiated by the organization, including Avinov Fromer, founder of “Cafe+” and founder of “Bella Daa’gat”; Dr. Gideon Hirsch (later director of the organization ), who returned from the United States where he had studied medicine and had been a member of Act Up; Rami Hasman, a marketing strategy expert, advertising professional, and later a lecturer at Reichman University; and others. Rami Hasman was appointed to head the campaign headquarters of the AIDS organizations, which operated from the end of September until the end of December 1997, when the campaign was crowned a success[25]. From 1998 to 2001, Rami Hasman served as Chair of the Executive Board of the organization.
At the initial stage, the campaign headquarters understood that there was a fundamental problem with the National Health Insurance Law, which came into force in January 1995: no medical or constitutional mechanism had been created within it for adding medications to the national basket of medicines. The immediate problem was not only that of the campaign headquarters and the “cocktail” medications, but also that of women with ovarian cancer and of people with juvenile diabetes. Accordingly, the campaign headquarters added the Israel Cancer Association and the Juvenile Diabetes Association to its coalition of organizations.
The campaign headquarters began formulating a strategy and tactics for the campaign, an organizational structure for the headquarters, funding sources and a budget, and set the campaign in motion. It also mobilized the community of people living with HIV, the LGBT community in Israel and worldwide, the medical community, and health and human rights organizations. Activities included lobbying Members of Knesset (delegations of people living with HIV/AIDS) and government ministries and participation in Knesset deliberations; work with journalists and media outlets; petition drives; a fax campaign targeting the office of the Minister of Finance; a conference of carriers—the first of its kind—held at Tel HaShomer Hospital; a demonstration on World AIDS Day at the Rose Garden in Jerusalem; activism by Act Up Tel Aviv, which organized “guerrilla” actions outside the Ministry of Finance (such as closing the ministry’s gates and painting them red); and more. A group of women was even summoned to the home of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In addition, the campaign headquarters prepared legislative proposals and parliamentary questions and distributed them among Members of Knesset, and ultimately filed a representative legal action against the Government of Israel.
The campaign developed gradually—slowly at first and then gaining momentum: from local press to national press; from a crisis over AIDS medications to a crisis of the national basket of medicines; from an issue that interested no one to a state budget crisis that threatened to halt deliberations on the 1998 budget in Knesset committees. This point merits further elaboration. The campaign led to a crisis in budget approval, since at that time the Knesset was engaged in discussions to approve the state budget. Raising the issue to public awareness and among ministers and Members of Knesset led to a confrontation between the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Health, which demanded an addition to the national basket of medicines.
Initially, discussions were held in the Labor, Welfare and Health Committee, later in the Finance Committee, and also in the Knesset plenum. After no agreement was reached regarding the overall budget of the Ministry of Health, and as the issue reached the front pages of newspapers and opened television news broadcasts, the Finance Committee decided to suspend budget deliberations until the government found the NIS 150 million required as an addition to the national basket of medicines. The main support for the campaign headquarters came from Members of Knesset of Meretz; however, the headquarters cooperated with all Members of Knesset from the coalition factions of Netanyahu’s first government, since decision-making power rested with them and with the government. Minister of Finance Yaakov Neeman, who refused to include the required budget in the national basket of medicines, was declared persona non grata by the public, the media, and Members of Knesset.
When the campaign headquarters realized that all these steps had not changed the position of the Ministry of Finance, the Committee for the Fight Against AIDS, together with the campaign headquarters, filed a petition with the Tel Aviv Labor Court against the government, through attorney Arna Lin of the law office of Eli Zohar (who submitted the petition pro bono). The petition to the Tel Aviv court was filed on behalf of ten people living with HIV, two of whom were named publicly—Ricardo Schneider and Patrick Levy, members of the Executive Board of the Committee for the Fight Against AIDS—on the grounds that it deprived Israeli citizens living with HIV of the right to live.
The Labor Court accepted the petition and rendered a sweeping decision applicable to all Israeli citizens living with HIV. The court’s ruling obligated the government to provide, free of charge, all essential treatments to all Israeli citizens living with HIV/AIDS, and guaranteed continuous and future access to any innovative drug treatment against the virus. This precedent-setting ruling was published worldwide and served as a model for other countries in similar situations and for patient organizations dealing with other diseases in Israel (for example, the approval of Herceptin for women with breast cancer, within the framework of the activities of the association “One in Nine”).
Thus, after seventy days of intensive campaigning that ended with the Labor Court’s ruling, the Minister of Finance reversed his position and agreed to allocate the required budget to finance the cocktail. AIDS was recognized by the Ministry of Health as a severe disease. The National Health Insurance Law was amended, and a new mechanism was established for updating the national basket of medicines for the benefit of all Israeli citizens. Nevertheless, for some people living with HIV the decision came too late, as in their cases the virus had become resistant to medications. Ricardo Schneider died two years later, in December 2000, and his funeral was the first at which it was officially announced that someone had died of AIDS (until then, people had not dared to disclose the cause of death)[26].
Following the death of Ricardo Schneider, his partner, Patrick Levy, approached the Mivtachim pension fund with a claim to receive survivor’s benefits from the fund. The pension fund conditioned this on Ricardo and Patrick being recognized as common-law partners by a court. Following Patrick Levy’s petition to the Regional Labor Court on this matter, a precedent-setting decision was issued by a judicial instance in Israel, recognizing a gay couple as common-law partners[27].