Other Faith-based and Secular Partners (US)


On this page:

American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)
American Muslims for Palestine (AMP)
Defense for Children International-Palestine
Friends of Tent of Nations North America (FOTONNA)
Eyewitness Palestine
The Jerusalem Fund
Jewish Voice for Peace
Palestine Legal
U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights

American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)

Founded in 1917, the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) is a Quaker organization that promotes lasting peace with justice, as a practical expression of faith in action. Drawing on continuing spiritual insights and working with people of many backgrounds, we nurture the seeds of change and respect for human life that transform social relations and systems.

Vision
AFSC envisions a world in which lasting peace with justice is achieved through active nonviolence and the transforming power of love. We work toward a world in which:
• All persons affirm the common good and recognize our mutual interdependence
• Societies steward resources equitably
• Caring, respectful economic development, including work with dignity, promotes well-being for all
• Communities and societies fractured by exclusion and marginalization are healed and transformed, embracing inclusion and equality
• Conflicts are resolved through restorative means and without force or coercion
• Governments and societal institutions are fair and accountable

Advocating for Peace in Israel-Palestine
Drawing on continuing spiritual insights and working with people of many backgrounds, we nurture the seeds of change and respect for human life that transform social relations and systems. Since 1948 AFSC has worked with Palestinians, Israelis, and the international community to realize a just and lasting peace between Palestinians and Israelis. In the United States, AFSC works to educate audiences about Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory and supports activist efforts to change government policies and corporate/institutional practices that support inequality and the ongoing Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territory.  AFSC also supports the implementation of international humanitarian and human rights law in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory, promotes implementation of Palestinian refugees’ right of return, and calls for full equality between Palestinians and Israelis.

Website: https://www.afsc.org/
Email, form on Contact page: https://www.afsc.org/contact
Subscribe: https://www.afsc.org/signup
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AmericanFriendsServiceCommittee/
Twitter: @afsc_org


American Muslims for Palestine (AMP)

The American Muslims for Palestine is an American organization founded by Americans in 2006. Our sole purpose is to educate the American public and media about issues related to Palestine and its rich cultural and historical heritage.

The mission of the American Muslims for Palestine is to educate the public about the just cause of Palestine and the rights of self-determination, liberty and justice. Through providing information, training and networking with like-minded individuals and organizations that support peace, AMP will raise awareness of the issues pertaining to Palestine and its rich cultural heritage.

We work to put a human face on Palestinians so the public will come to know them as people with the same aspirations, hopes and dreams for freedom and justice that we as Americans hold dear. We also work to educate the public and media about Israel’s occupation of Palestine, the last and longest-lasting occupation in the world. We shed light on the plight of the more than 7 million Palestinian refugees, the largest and longest-lasting group of refugees in the world. We work to highlight Israel’s flagrant and continual violations of international law and human rights abuses of Palestinians in the construction of settlements, the apartheid wall and the more than 600 checkpoints, obstacles and other barriers to the freedom of movement. We expose Israel’s denial of civil rights to its Palestinian citizens, including a segregated school system, the denial of services to Palestinians living in so-called ‘unrecognized villages,’ and the prohibition of certain fields of study and careers.

We do all this in the fervent belief that when Americans come to know about Israel’s occupation of Palestine and how our tax dollars support it, they will not stand for it and will pressure Congress to create a more balanced Middle East foreign policy that grants equal rights for everyone who lives in the Holy Land.

Contact: [email protected]
Website: http://www.ampalestine.org
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ampalestine
Twitter: @AMPalestine


Defense for Children International – Palestine

Defense for Children International Palestine (DCIP) is committed to securing a just and viable future for Palestinian children in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

For more than twenty years, we have supported and advocated for this child population: investigating and documenting grave human rights violations, holding both Israeli and Palestinian authorities to account, and providing legal services to children in urgent need. We will continue to demand national and international bodies enact stronger measures to safeguard this vulnerable demographic of Palestinian society.

Since DCIP’s inception in 1991, we remain the only Palestinian human rights organization specifically focused on child rights. Our highest value is the pursuit of each child’s best interests. To this end, we are guided by the United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), as well as other international, regional and local standards.

As a national section of Defense for Children International (DCI), an international child-rights movement and non-governmental organization established in 1979, we pledge to follow DCI’s mandate to “promote and protect children’s rights in accordance with international standards.” At the same time, DCIP autonomously develops its own programs in response to contextual needs.

Contact: [email protected]
Contact offices in Palestine: Contact page at website
Website: www.dci-palestine.org
Facebook: www.facebook.com/DCIPS
Twitter: @DCIPalestine


Friends of Tent of Nations North America (FOTONNA)

Mission Statement:  Friends of Tent of Nations North America (FOTONNA), an all-volunteer corporation, has been established to create a living bridge to Tent of Nations (TON), a peace project located in the West Bank.

Goals:

  • Support the Nassar family’s use of legal and non-violent resistance tactics in order to develop and maintain the family’s ancestral lands and to continue the work of TON;
  • Raise funds for TON projects;
  • Raise awareness of TON’s efforts to be a role model for solving the Israeli/Palestinian conflict through the use of non-violent methods;
  • Assist in shaping U.S. policy in the region by sharing information with members of Congress and the State Department that has been gathered through personal visits to the land and from stories told by Palestinians and Israelis currently struggling for a just peace;
  • Build “bridges of understanding” by raising awareness in the United States about the conditions of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and the extremely negative impact that living under Israeli Occupation has on all people in the region; and
  • Help build “bridges of peace” and work to bring dignity and sustainability to all of the Palestinian people when the Israeli Occupation of Palestinian land is ended.

Implementation Strategies to carry out the Mission and Goals of FOTONNA:

  • Initiate fact-finding activities, including site visits to TON on a regular basis;
  • Provide materials/packets for educational and fundraising activities by ‘Friends’ in their own communities who have witnessed the conditions under the Occupation or who have attended formal tour presentations;
  • Partner with other peace and justice organizations for outreach purposes;
  • Plan two tours a year (spring and fall) in order for the Nassar family to share their story and educate people to the reality on the ground;
  • Review and adopt fundraising and networking technologies (website, Face book, etc.) to help spread the word about our work; and
  • Work with the Advisory Council that was established in 2011 to support FOTONNA’s goals and mission by broadening knowledge of TON and encouraging direct action on behalf of TON through use of our Emergency Response Plan (ERP).

Contact: [email protected]
Website: fotonna.org
Facebook: www.facebook.com/Friends-of-Tent-of-Nations-North-America-107340499312794/


Eyewitness Palestine

Eyewitness Palestine fosters a network of informed and active individuals who understand the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the United States’ political, military, and economic role in it. To build and nurture such a network, we lead delegations of people from diverse backgrounds to Israel/Palestine. These delegations emphasize listening to and learning from those immersed in the reality of the conflict, and advancing the work of Israelis and Palestinians committed to nonviolent struggle and peace with justice. We seek to empower delegates to educate their local communities and the media, counter unfair or inaccurate stereotypes, and advocate for a more just US foreign policy that:

  • actively promotes civil, political and human rights
  • affirms political self-determination for Palestinians and Israelis
  • fosters economic and environmental sustainability in the region
  • supports a diplomatic resolution to the conflict rather than one imposed by force of arms.

Eyewitness Palestine sends delegations to Israel/Palestine so that residents of North American can see the conflict with their own eyes. Participants have the opportunity to learn directly from Israeli and Palestinian nonviolent peace/human-rights activists, to spend time in Palestinian and Israeli homes, and to experience the situation of Palestinians living under military occupation. The delegations focus on seeing, listening to, and recording the experiences and perspectives of a wide range of Palestinians and Israelis.

Eyewitness Palestine describes our work as “delegation based education and advocacy.”  This phrase embodies our commitment to be more than just a delegation program.  In fact, participants in delegations know that their on-the-ground experience is only the beginning.  Eyewitness Palestine’s Education and Advocacy Program promotes movement building and civic engagement by empowering delegation participants to become forces for change in their own communities. Eyewitness Palestine emphasizes continued engagement, activist skills training, and empowerment to ensure that the delegation experience becomes a transformational event and a building block in the larger movement for Israeli-Palestinian peace and a just application of US policy in the region.

Contact: https://eyewitnesspalestine.org/contact
or [email protected]
Website: https://eyewitnesspalestine.org
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eyewitnesspalestine
Twitter: https://twitter.com/EyePalestine


The Jerusalem Fund

The Jerusalem Fund for Education and Community Development, a 501c3 nonprofit organization, was founded in 1977. Originally, it provided scholarships to Palestinian university students for study in Israel, the West Bank, and abroad. Between 1978 and 1992, nearly 8,000 scholarships were awarded totaling over $4 million in aid.
When Israeli measures to suppress the first intifada in the Occupied Palestinian Territories in the late 1980s and early 1990s led to new suffering by the Palestinian people, The Jerusalem Fund initiated its Emergency Relief Assistance Program to provide Palestinian victims with medical care, rehabilitation, food, and shelter. Since then, hospitals, clinics, schools, orphanages, charitable societies, human rights groups, and numerous other nonprofit civil society organizations have received Jerusalem Fund emergency and humanitarian grants. This program is now called the Humanitarian Link.

In 1991, the Fund established the Palestine Center, an educational and policy analysis resource for current information on Palestine. The Center studies the relationship between the United States and the Middle East, with particular emphasis on Palestine and the Arab-Israeli conflict. It focuses on the implications of specific U.S. policies with regard to Palestine, providing a much-needed Palestinian/Arab perspective to the political, academic, and media establishments of Washington, D.C. and the Arab world. It sponsors conferences, panel discussions, lectures, and other events and contributes to the national discussion on Palestine and the Palestinians.

In 1998, the offices of The Jerusalem Fund were expanded and renovated extensively to build a large conference facility, with seating for 150 people. The renovation made possible the establishment of a 3,700-volume library and a gallery for art exhibits. The Fund then began to organize cultural events and to sow the seeds of a cultural program. Today, Gallery Al-Quds reaches out beyond its physical space through the Fund’s website, featuring world renowned artists. Other cultural activities, such as film series, poetry readings, and musical concerts, complement the Gallery’s offerings.

Website: http://www.thejerusalemfund.org/
Email: [email protected]
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jerusalemfund
Twitter: @PalestineCenter


Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP)

JVP opposes anti-Jewish, anti-Muslim, and anti-Arab bigotry and oppression.  JVP seeks an end to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem; security and self-determination for Israelis and Palestinians; a just solution for Palestinian refugees based on principles established in international law; an end to violence against civilians; and peace and justice for all peoples of the Middle East. Current mission statement adopted in 2009.

JVP is a national organization closely connected to a growing grassroots base. We have 200,000 supporters on our email list, 10,000 individual donors, over 60 chapters across the United States, a staff of 25; a Rabbinic Council; an Artists’ Council; an Academic Advisory Council; a youth wing; and an Advisory Board consisting of some of the best-known Jewish thinkers of our time.

JVP is a community of people dedicated to supporting and leading winnable campaigns to change US policy, shift US discourse, and even the playing field in order to create the political conditions that will allow Israelis and Palestinians to achieve a just and lasting peace. Jewish Voice for Peace members are inspired by Jewish tradition to work together for peace, social justice, equality, human rights, respect for international law, and a U.S. foreign policy based on these ideals.

Contact: [email protected]
Website: https://jewishvoiceforpeace.org
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JewishVoiceforPeace
Twitter: @jvplive


Palestine Legal

Palestine Legal is an independent organization dedicated to protecting the civil and constitutional rights of people in the US who speak out for Palestinian freedom. Our mission is to bolster the Palestine solidarity movement by challenging efforts to threaten, harass and legally bully activists into silence and inaction.

We provide legal advice, Know Your Rights trainings, advocacy and litigation support to college students, grassroots activists and affected communities who stand for justice in Palestine. Palestine Legal also monitors incidents of suppression to expose trends in tactics to silence Palestine activism.

Founded in 2012, Palestine Legal is the only legal organization in the United States exclusively dedicated to supporting the movement for Palestinian rights. Our attorneys are based in Chicago, New York City and the Bay Area, and our work spans all 50 states and Washington D.C. We work closely with several organizations, including the Center for Constitutional Rights, the National Lawyers Guild and others, to provide legal support to activists around the country.
Palestine Legal is a fiscally sponsored project of the Tides Center, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.

Our Work
Advise: Provide legal advice, representation or referrals to individuals and groups.
Advocate: Engage in legal and policy advocacy to protect the movement for Palestinian rights.
Document: Track incidents of suppression experienced by advocates for Palestinian rights.
Educate: Train activists on their rights through workshops and resource materials.

Website: http://palestinelegal.org/
Email: [email protected]
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PalestineLegal
Twitter: @pal_legal


U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights

The US Campaign is a diverse national coalition of hundreds of groups and more than 100,000 individuals working to end all U.S. support for Israel’s military occupation and apartheid policies toward Palestinians.

The US Campaign endorsed the Palestinian civil society call for boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) shortly after it was issued in July 2005. Academic and Cultural Boycott were endorsed at the 2009 conference. In 2006 the US Campaign Assembly overwhelmingly resolved to adopt the language of apartheid and Jim Crow segregation in describing Israeli policies towards Palestinians.

All members of the coalition hold these principles in common:

• We support a just and lasting peace for Palestinians and Israelis based on human rights, international law, equality, and relevant UN resolutions.
• We oppose U.S. military, diplomatic, financial, corporate, and all other forms of support for Israel’s occupation and apartheid policies toward Palestinians.
• We stand in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle to achieve freedom from Israeli military occupation, justice for refugees through the implementation of their right of return, full equality for Palestinian citizens of Israel, and the right to self-determination.
• We stand opposed to Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, all forms of racism, and any other expressions of bigotry directed at any person or group. We also reject the charge of anti-Semitism when it is used spuriously to silence legitimate criticism of Israel’s policies and practices.

Contact: Form at their website – http://uscpr.org/contact
Website: http://uscpr.org
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/endthe0ccupation
Twitter: @US_Campaign