Tomer Avital

Tomer met his goal – to make the Knesset’s (Israeli Parliament) members more accountable an promoting a more transparent decision making process. Accomplishing that, he believes, will solve a number of other problems in his home country.

Following his Sauvé year, he returned to Israel, where he began to cover the Israeli Parliament (the Knesset) for Calcalist, a leading Israeli daily financial newspaper and online media. After exploring the Knesset’s corridors for four years, he published his first fiction book – The Parliament, a thriller. He hoped that it would not only be a fun read but would also  bring the Knesset’s flaws to the attention of the general public. He has also acquired an M.B.A (in a program for outstanding students) while working as an investigative journalist at Uvda – a popular current affairs program on Israeli television.

Today, Tomer is leading an independent journalism project called ‘100 Days of Transparency’. The project aims to make people more involved, with the goal of working together to exert pressure on Members of the Knesset  to legislate transparency laws (Sunshine laws). To create and hold elected officials to new and higher standards of accountability through transparency. The project, enabled by crowd-funding, calls on the public to take matters into their own hands in order to tell a different story – one that is not sanctioned by media outlets and the powers that run them. Tomer succeeded raising 160,000 NIS (about $41,350) from 1600 donors and its latest scoops have had coverage in all the major newspapers and on Israeli TV. (See: Tomer Avital’s “100 Days of Transparency” project)

Tomer grew up in a beautiful village by the sea – Zichron Yaakov. After serving as a medic in the Israeli army, he participated in programs that tried to bridge the gap between Palestinians and Israelis, especially One Voice, the NGO dedicated to resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Simultaneously,  he started working as a journalist. He discovered that he loved  writing and liked the idea of using his ability to bring about change. At university he led various community projects, and upon completing a B.A in Political Science and Literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem he became a Sauvé Scholar. In 2016, Tomer was chosen as one of the 100 most influential media figures in Israel .

Links: 

• Naked Government: How to Make Politics Sexy (TEDxWhiteCity)

Tomer formulated an initiative ‘Networking the Gap’, to reshape the perception of those who still see and treat their neighbors as enemies.‘Networking the gap’ is a series of workshops for journalists from conflict areas who cover non-war topics such as culture and education. By bringing together journalists from regions embroiled in conflict, the workshops aim to humanize those on the other side. Reporters will establish contacts which they will then draw upon when writing human-interest articles, thereby transforming the foreigner into a more rounded character – a neighbor. The program stems from the idea that journalists on either side of any conflict have the power to communicate on a mass scale, and a dialogue between them would help enhance durable peace. Tomer’s peace project was adopted by The Canadian International Institute of Applied Negotiation (CIIAN) which would serve as its institutional home.

In May 2015, Tomer returned to Sauvé House to participate in Sauvé Encore! 2015, as part of the Foundation’s alumni outreach program.