Ahead of Israel’s 2026 general election, dozens of non-governmental organizations are mobilizing on the ground to help the opposition bloc defeat the governing right-wing coalition.
Prominent among them is “Centers for Social Justice” (Merkazim LeTzedek Hevrati), an organization established by alumni of the Hashomer Hatzair youth movement who previously served as central figures in the controversial V15 campaign.
2+The NGO was launched after Hashomer Hatzair operatives concluded that their electoral defeat a decade ago stemmed from the left’s detachment from traditional hubs of Israeli society.
To counter this, they established community branches nationwide designed to draw local populations toward left-wing socio-political ideals.
From an initial budget of a few tens of thousands of shekels in its early years, the organization’s annual revenue grew to about 16 million shekels in 2025.
The left-wing organization has received nearly one million shekels in statutory government allocations through the Ministry of Settlement in recent years, supplemented by funds from municipal authorities, grants from the New Israel Fund, and foreign government contributions.
Among the donors to the V15 alum initiative is left-wing activist Yaya Fink, who facilitated funding transfers from the Histadrut labor federation to the Centers for Social Justice.Observers note a clear rationale: the organization functionally acts as an outsourced field apparatus aimed at restoring left-wing parties to political power through localized ground operations.
2+In practice, the NGO acts as an operational surrogate for left-wing party field workers.
Rather than limiting its scope to municipal affairs, its veterans—recalling their active mobilization during V15—have integrated their infrastructure into the 2026 national election cycle.
Among the joint initiatives coordinated with Kaplan protest organizers is an “Election War Room.”This operation oversees the “Let’s Talk Democracy” project, which runs under the auspices of the Centers for Social Justice and is directed by Roei Malka, an activist in the newly formed Democrats Party.
Senior figures within the Centers for Social Justice have explicitly urged Kaplan Street demonstrators to defeat the right electorally.
Yonatan Maklis, a senior leader within the NGO, appeared at a Kaplan rally in Haifa where he exhorted the crowd to mobilize and defeat right-wing parties at the ballot box. The organization also announced plans to deploy volunteers to monitor polling places under the banner of preserving “electoral integrity”—raising questions about whom they claim to be guarding ballot boxes against and why they allege the vote’s legitimacy is threatened.
2+Critics argue this constitutes another mobilized political entity operating in defiance of statutory intent, alongside dozens of aligned organizations, to secure an opposition victory.
While lawmakers took legislative action in 2015 to restrict illicit third-party campaign intervention, V15 alums have devised pathways in 2026 to navigate existing legal constraints and marshal resources for the left.Response from Centers for Social Justice:
“Ce”ters for Social Justice is a nationwide movement of local communities dedicated to advancing equality, democracy, and social justice in Israel. In all our pre-election civic events, we ensure broad representation across the entire Israeli political spectrum. Preserving election integrity is an essential democratic interest shared by every political party and voter alike.