Watch Bibi Netanyahu, Yair Lapid, Avi Gabay and other Israeli politicians talk in sign language.
A campaign by Access Israel designed to remind politicians that making their speeches accessible to all is not an option but their duty.

The Israeli elections are in full swing and will take place in less than 40 days from now (April 9th 2019). This means that every day another politician goes on air – broadcasting live the one more dramatic announcement after the other. Unfortunately, thousands of hard-of-hearing people in Israel cannot follow the live events.

Hence, while Elections are a democratic process which by their very nature should be accessible to all, sadly, in times of elections when politician are trying to appeal to the very largest demographics, nothing could be further from their minds than making the elections accessible to the relatively small group of hearing impaired.

Access Israel – as an organization campaigning for greater inclusion of disabled people into everyday life – decided to remind politicians running for office that making their speeches accessible to all should anything but optional.

That’s why, in order to raise politicians’ awareness to the issue, we decided to use press conference snippets from speeches delivered by five of Israel’s main party leaders and political contenders and re-edit them with the hands of interpreters in place of the hands of the speakers.

The short videos all end with the same call:
“Either say it in sign language or find someone who can.

Let’s make these elections accessible to everyone with simultaneous sign language translation”.

A clear and unequivocal call on politicians to invite sign language interpreters to their political speaking events and thus make them accessible to all.

‘Bibi’ Benjamin Netanyahu (Likud party): 

Yair Lapid (Kachol Lavan Party):

Ayelet Shaked (New Right Party):

Tamar Zandberg(Meretz Party):

Avi Gabay (Labor Party):