American Charities for Palestine(ACP) [1] is a charitable 501 (c) (3) nonprofit organization based in Washington, DC that supports the development of Palestine's education and health sectors.
![]() | |
Founded | Washington, DC (2007) |
---|---|
Type | Non-profit, 501 (c) 3 |
Services | Enabling safe giving for health care and education in Palestine. |
Website | http://www.americaforpalestine.org/ |
American Charities for Palestine was established in June 2007. In August 2008, American Charities for Palestine signed a Memorandum of Understanding [2] with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) ensuring that all recipients of American Charities for Palestine donations in Palestine are fully vetted and approved by USAID. This is the first such agreement between USAID and any private organization, and it was described by USAID Administrator Henrietta Fore as a “historic step.” [3]
Since signing its partnership agreement with USAID, American Charities for Palestine spearheaded three charitable initiatives worth more than $600,000, which benefited Palestinians in the West Bank.
In 2008, American Charities for Palestine, the Palestinian Ministry of Education, and USAID distributed 1,000 laptop computers that were donated by One Laptop per Child. The laptops were delivered to schools managed by the Palestinian National Authority (PA), United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), and the private sector.
In 2009, American Charities for Palestine presented the Spafford Children’s Center [4] with a contribution of $5,000 for the well-being of the children of Jerusalem.
Also in 2009, American Charities for Palestine partnered with CHF International and the Sheikh Mohammed Shami Foundation to initiate a $300,000 development project in the West Bank village of Beit Ur Al-Tahta, installing streetlights along all village roads and making structural improvements to the main road and that leading to the new girls’ high school already donated by the Shami Foundation. [5]
The Palestinian territories are the two regions of the former British Mandate for Palestine that have been occupied by Israel since the Six-Day War of 1967, namely the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has referred to the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, as "the Occupied Palestinian Territory", and this term was used as the legal definition by the ICJ in its advisory opinion of July 2004. The term occupied Palestinian territory was used by the United Nations and other international organizations between October 1999 and December 2012 to refer to areas controlled by the Palestinian National Authority, but from 2012, when Palestine was admitted as one of its non-member observer states, the United Nations started using exclusively the name State of Palestine. The European Union (EU) also uses the term "occupied Palestinian territory". The government of Israel and its supporters use the label "disputed territories" instead.
Arab–Israeli peace projects are projects to promote peace and understanding between the Arab League and Israel in different spheres. These are part of a broader attempt at a peace process between Palestinians and Israelis. Sponsors of such projects can be found both in Israel and Palestine.
War on Want is an anti-poverty charity based in London. War on Want works to challenge the root causes of poverty, inequality and injustice through partnership with social movements in the global South and campaigns in the UK. War on Want's slogan is "poverty is political" and its stated focus is on the root causes of poverty rather than its effects.
The American religious foundation and philanthropy that informally became known as the American Colony of Jerusalem, was established in the Ottoman Empire in 1881 as a "Christian utopian society" led by American religious leader Horatio Gates Spafford and his Norwegian wife Anne Tobine Larsen Øglende. Largely concerned with providing social services, education, meeting spaces, and medical care, it became known for producing and publishing an important documentation, photographic series of the area of Jerusalem starting in the early 1900s. The community lasted until the 1950s.
Children International is a global nonprofit humanitarian organization that helps children break the cycle of poverty. It addresses children’s critical needs through early intervention and regular interaction in community centers. The goal is to help children overcome the effects of poverty, support their education, and prepare youth to contribute to society.
The Sharm El Sheikh Memorandum, full name: The Sharm El Sheikh Memorandum on Implementation Timeline of Outstanding Commitments of Agreements Signed and the Resumption of Permanent Status Negotiations, was a memorandum signed on September 4, 1999, by Prime Minister of Israel Ehud Barak and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat at Sharm el Sheikh in Egypt, overseen by the United States represented by Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. The memorandum was witnessed and co-signed by President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and King Abdullah of Jordan.
Abu Dis or Abu Deis is a Palestinian village in the West Bank, in the Jerusalem Governorate of the State of Palestine, bordering Jerusalem. Since the 1995 Oslo II Accord, Abu Dis land has been mostly part of "Area B", under Israeli military control and Palestinian civic control. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) census, Abu Dis had a population of 12,251 in 2017.
Interpal is the working name for Palestinian Relief and Development Fund, a British charity founded in 1994 that describes itself as a non-political charity to alleviate problems faced by Palestinians, and focused solely on the provision of relief and development aid to the poor and needy Palestinians the world over, but primarily in the Palestinian territories, Lebanon and Jordan.
International aid has been provided to Palestinians since at least the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. The Palestinians view the aid as keeping the Israeli–Palestinian peace process going, while Israelis and other foreign policy authorities have raised concerns that it is used to fund terrorism and removes the imperative for Palestinians to negotiate a settlement of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. As a provision of the Oslo Accords, international aid was to be provided to the Palestinians to ensure economic solvency for the Palestinian National Authority (PA). In 2004, it was reported that the PA, within the West Bank and Gaza Strip, receives one of the highest levels of aid in the world. In 2006, economic sanctions and other measures were taken by several countries against the PA, including suspension of international aid following Hamas' victory at the Palestinian Legislative Council election. Aid to the PA resumed in 2008 following the Annapolis Conference, where Hamas was not invited. Aid has been provided to the Palestinian Authority, Palestinian non-governmental organizations (PNGOs) as well as Palestinian political factions by various foreign governments, international organizations, international non-governmental organizations (INGOs), and charities, besides other sources.
The Palestine–Israel Journal is an independent, non-profit, Jerusalem-based quarterly that aims to shed light on and analyze freely and critically, the complex issues dividing Israelis and Palestinians. In 2006 it was a candidate for the UNESCO-Madanjeet Singh Prize for the Promotion of Tolerance and Non-Violence and was recognized with a mention of honor for "its outstanding contribution to this great cause". In 2012, co-editors Hillel Schenker and Ziad Abuzayyad were awarded the Outstanding Contribution to Peace Award at the eighth International Media Awards held on May 5.
American Near East Refugee Aid (Anera) is an American 501(c)(3) non-governmental organization that provides humanitarian and development aid to the Middle East, specifically the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, Lebanon and Jordan. Founded in 1968 in the aftermath of the Six-Day War, Anera initially sought to help the hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians by providing emergency relief. While still providing crisis response, Anera now also addresses the long-term economic and social needs of Palestinians, Lebanese and Jordanians through its health care, education, and job creation programs.
The American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP) is an organization founded in 2003 to advocate that it is in the American national interest to promote an end to the Palestinian–Israeli conflict through the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. It has not been active since 2016.
The U.S.-Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) is a United States State Department program that fosters meaningful and effective partnerships between citizens, civil society, the private sector, and governments in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region to resolve local challenges and promote shared interests in the areas of participatory governance and economic opportunity and reform.
The water resources of Palestine are de facto fully controlled by Israel, and the division of groundwater is subject to provisions in the Oslo II Accord.
Rawabi is the first planned city built for and by Palestinians in the West Bank, and is hailed as a "flagship Palestinian enterprise." Rawabi is located near Birzeit and Ramallah. The master plan envisages a high tech city with 6,000 housing units, housing a population of between 25,000 and 40,000 people, spread across six neighborhoods.
The Mujama' al-Islami is an Islamic charity founded in 1973 in Gaza by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, who had been involved with the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood's Palestinian branch. Mujama started to offer clinics, blood banks, day care, medical treatment, meals and youth clubs. Mujama plays an important role for providing social care to the people, particularly those living in refugee camps. It also extended financial aid and scholarships to young people who wanted to study in Saudi Arabia and the West.
Qatar Charity is a humanitarian and development non-governmental organization in the Middle East. It was founded in 1992 in response to the thousands of children who were made orphans by the Afghanistan war and while orphans still remain a priority cause in the organization's work with more than 150,000 sponsored orphans, it has now expanded its fields of action to include six humanitarian fields and seven development fields.
The Qatar Fund for Development is a government entity in the State of Qatar, which is responsible for Qatar's international development and foreign aid; it was established by Law 19 of 2002. The QFFD also coordinates with the country's charitable and development institutions regarding the implementation of Qatari foreign policy and aid strategy through their work in foreign relief and development assistance.
Yadin B. Kaufmann is an Israeli-American technology investor, social entrepreneur and writer.
The Sheikh Jarrah controversy, which has been described as a "property/real estate dispute" by the Israeli government and its supporters, and as an "expulsion", "displacement" or "ethnic cleansing" event and a matter of international law by Palestinians and their supporters, is a long-running legal and political dispute between Palestinians and Israelis over the ownership of certain properties and housing units in Sheikh Jarrah, East Jerusalem. The evictions are considered a contributory cause of the 2021 Israel–Palestine crisis.