US Campaign for Palestinian Rights

Last updated

US Campaign for Palestinian Rights
Type Advocacy group
Website uscpr.org

The US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR), formerly known as the US Campaign to End Israeli Occupation, [1] is a pro-Palestinian advocacy group advocating for the rights of Palestinians. [1] [2] [3] [4] The organization was founded in 2001 after the second Intifada and is now made up of more than 300 member groups in the US working for Palestinian advocacy. [2] USCPR was created with the goal to focus on "denied human rights" instead of focusing explicitly on Palestinian statehood. [2]

Contents

Activities

USCPR advocates for multiple campaigns, including BDS, providing a "BDS toolkit" and "Divestment toolkit" on its website. [1] [3] It also advocated for prison abolition during COVID-19 and called for a ban of US funding of imprisoning of Palestinian children in the occupied territories. [5]

USCPR has also helped organize pro-Palestinian protests, including a march in DC, in light of the 2023 war in Gaza. [6] [7] USCPR is seen as among the largest groups supporting the Gaza War protest movement. [8] USCPR has also encouraged student activism for ceasefire, and has supported such student groups. [8]

In September 2018, USCPR invited United States Representative Betty McCollum to an event to thank her for sponsoring a bill, Promoting Human Rights by Ending Israeli Military Detention of Palestinian Children Act. At this event, McCollum became the first representative in the United States to characterize Israel as an apartheid state. [9]

During the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip (2023–present), USCPR helped train and support protesters during the 2024 pro-Palestinian protests on university campuses. [10] It has also organized an emailing and call campaign for local representatives that sent nearly 1 million emails, and more than 100,000 calls urging for a ceasefire. [10]

Membership

Notably, USCPR includes both Palestinian-Americans, Jewish-Americans, and other allies working in solidarity with campus groups to create programs highlighting what they consider as Israeli apartheid. [3] For example, USCPR held an event with Jewish Voice for Peace and Georgetown SJP discussing Israeli birthright trips and their context within what they consider Israeli settler-colonialism. [3]

Reception

USCPR is considered one of the foremost pro-Palestinian organizations in the United States. [11] As of 2020, USCPR is one of the organizations blacklisted by Israel, such that its activists are deported from that country. [12]

In 2019, USCPR was sued by Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund and 12 American-Israeli citizens for allegedly providing material support through BDS for terrorist activities during the 2018 Great March of Return. [4] [13] [14] Critics argued the lawsuit was frivolous and designed to combat BDS through "lawfare". [4] [13] The suit was later dismissed, as judges ruled that plaintiffs had failed to provide any sufficient link to terrorism. [14]

In 2023, in light of the October 7 attacks by Hamas, USCPR annual conference was canceled by Hilton hotels due to alleged safety and security concerns. USCPR said that the cancellation was discriminatory. [15] [16] The event had generated conservative media attention, which called for a pressure campaign to ask Hilton to cancel the event. [16]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jewish Voice for Peace</span> American anti-Zionist advocacy group

Jewish Voice for Peace is an American anti-Zionist left-wing Jewish advocacy organization that is critical of Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories, and supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Israel Football Association</span> Association football governing body of Israel

The IsraelFootball Association is the governing body of football in Israel. It organizes a variety of association football leagues where the highest level is the Israeli Premier League; as well as national cups such as the Israel State Cup, the Toto Cup, and the Israel Super Cup; also, the Israel national football team. The IFA was founded in 1948 as the Palestine Football Association and is based in the Tel Aviv District city of Ramat Gan, Israel. The Association is controversial due to its inclusion of clubs playing in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Huwaida Arraf</span> Palestinian-American lawyer and activist

Huwaida Arraf is a Palestinian American activist and lawyer who co-founded the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a Palestinian-led organization using non-violent protests and international pressure to support Palestinians.

StandWithUs (SWU) is a nonprofit right-wing pro-Israel advocacy organization founded in Los Angeles in 2001 by Roz Rothstein, Jerry Rothstein, and Esther Renzer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Israel on Campus Coalition</span> American pro-Israel umbrella organization

The Israel on Campus Coalition (ICC) is a United States pro-Israel umbrella organization founded in 2002 with funding from the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies and Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life. ICC's chief executive officer since 2013, Jacob Baime, is a former national field director for AIPAC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Independent Jewish Voices Canada</span> Advocacy organization

Independent Jewish Voices Canada (IJV) is an organization that describes itself as representing Canadian Jews who have a strong commitment to social justice and universal human rights. The organization was founded in 2008 as a result of a national conference called on behalf of the Alliance of Concerned Jewish Canadians. Though the membership is not public, in a letter written to a local municipality in 2022, they claim to have over 1,000 members across Canada of the approximately 335,000 Canadian Jews. Their unofficial association with the organization Samidoun has been a source of criticism from both within and outside of the Jewish community. IJV was founded in 2008 as a result of a national conference called on behalf of the Alliance of Concerned Jewish Canadians.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Norman Finkelstein</span> American political scientist (born 1953)

Norman Gary Finkelstein is an American political scientist and activist. His primary fields of research are the politics of the Holocaust and the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ministry of Strategic Affairs</span> Israeli government office

The Ministry of Strategic Affairs and Public Diplomacy is an Israeli government ministry responsible for leading the campaign of expanding the Abraham Accords and the handling of ties on White House matters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Palestine lobby in the United States</span> Pro-Palestine American individuals and groups

The Palestine lobby in the United States is organized by a number of pro-Palestinian advocacy groups seeking to influence the United States government, institutions, and citizens to actively oppose Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories, many of them members or cooperating with the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights. These organizations include peace and anti-war, human rights, anti-Zionist, and Arab- and Muslim-American groups. Groups against occupation also include Jewish Voices for Peace and Students for Justice in Palestine, among others. Their tactics include education, protest, civil disobedience and lobbying.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions</span> Palestinian-led movement demanding international sanctions against Israel

Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) is a nonviolent Palestinian-led movement promoting boycotts, divestments, and economic sanctions against Israel. Its objective is to pressure Israel to meet what the BDS movement describes as Israel's obligations under international law, defined as withdrawal from the occupied territories, removal of the separation barrier in the West Bank, full equality for Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel, and "respecting, protecting, and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties". The movement is organized and coordinated by the Palestinian BDS National Committee.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jewish left</span> Movement of activists whose Judaism informs their support left-wing or liberal causes

The Jewish left consists of Jews who identify with, or support, left-wing or left-liberal causes, consciously as Jews, either as individuals or through organizations. There is no one organization or movement which constitutes the Jewish left, however. Jews have been major forces in the history of the labor movement, the settlement house movement, the women's rights movement, anti-racist and anti-colonialist work, and anti-fascist and anti-capitalist organizations of many forms in Europe, the United States, Australia, Algeria, Iraq, Ethiopia, South Africa, and modern-day Israel. Jews have a history of involvement in anarchism, socialism, Marxism, and Western liberalism. Although the expression "on the left" covers a range of politics, many well-known figures "on the left" have been of Jews who were born into Jewish families and have various degrees of connection to Jewish communities, Jewish culture, Jewish tradition, or the Jewish religion in its many variants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adalah-NY</span> American anti-Israel organization

Adalah-NY: The New York Campaign for the Boycott of Israel is a New York-based organization that campaigns for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel. “Adalah” is the Arabic word for “justice.”

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Palestine Solidarity Campaign</span> UK advocacy organisation

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) is an activist organisation in England and Wales. It was founded in the UK in 2004 and incorporated that year as Palestine Solidarity Campaign Ltd. In 2023, The Guardian described it as "Europe’s largest Palestinian rights organisation".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boycotts of Israel</span> Aspect of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict

Boycotts of Israel are the refusal and calls to refusal of having commercial or social dealings with Israel in order to influence Israel's practices and policies by means of using economic pressure. The specific objective of Israel boycotts varies; the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement calls for boycotts of Israel "until it meets its obligations under international law", and the purpose of the Arab League's boycott of Israel was to prevent Arab states and others to contribute to Israel's economy. Israeli officials have characterized the BDS movement as antisemitic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Students for Justice in Palestine</span> Pro-Palestinian BDS activism organization

Students for Justice in Palestine is a pro-Palestinian college student activism organization in the United States, Canada and New Zealand. It has campaigned for boycott and divestment against corporations that deal with Israel and organized events about Israel's human rights violations. In 2011, The New York Times reported that "S.J.P., founded in 2001 at the University of California, Berkeley, has become the leading pro-Palestinian voice on campus."

The American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) is an American nonprofit organization founded in 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">We Are Not Numbers</span> English writing program for Palestinian youths

We Are Not Numbers (WANN) is a project established in 2015 by Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor to provide English-language writing workshops for young Palestinians in Gaza. It provides each participant with six months of training and mentoring with experienced English writers, professional authors, reporters and communicators. The features, stories, news reports and social media content produced as part of the program have been featured by various media outlet, among them HuffPost, Mondoweiss, The New Arab, Palestine Chronicle and +972 Magazine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canary Mission</span> Website established in 2014

Canary Mission is a website established in 2014 that compiles dossiers on student activists, professors, and organizations, focusing primarily on those at North American universities, which it considers be anti-Israel or antisemitic, and has said that it will send the names of listed students to prospective employers. Canary Mission listings have been used by the Israeli government and border security officials to interrogate and deny entry to pro-Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) American citizens, and by potential employers.

Within Our Lifetime - United For Palestine (WOL), is a pro-Palestinian and anti-Zionist activist organization primarily active in New York City. The group, which notably expresses support for Hamas and the Palestinian resistance against Israel, has been one of the key organizers in the city's ongoing Israel-Hamas war protests.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Oxnevad, Ian (2023). The Company They Keep: Organizational and Economic Dynamics of the BDS Movement (PDF). National Association of Scholars. pp. 17–18, 109–110.
  2. 1 2 3 Munayyer, Yousef (2021-10-26), "Defending Palestinian Rights in the Trump Era and Beyond", Rethinking Statehood in Palestine: Self-Determination and Decolonization Beyond Partition, University of California Press, pp. 127–149, doi:10.1525/luminos.113.f, ISBN   978-0-520-38562-7 , retrieved 2023-12-29
  3. 1 2 3 4 Hitchcock, Jennifer (2023-03-15). "Framing Palestinian Rights: A Rhetorical Frame Analysis of Vernacular Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) Movement Discourse". Rhetoric Society Quarterly. 53 (2): 87–103. doi:10.1080/02773945.2022.2095422. ISSN   0277-3945.
  4. 1 2 3 "A US human rights group is being sued by pro-Israel organizations over an alleged connection to 'balloon terror'". Mondoweiss. 2019-12-05. Retrieved 2023-12-29.
  5. ↑ Roth-Rowland, Natasha (2020-05-14). "'A different world is possible': Palestine advocates step up fight under COVID-19". +972 Magazine. Retrieved 2023-12-29.
  6. ↑ "The largest Palestine protest in U.S. history shut down the streets of D.C." Mondoweiss. 2023-11-05. Retrieved 2023-12-29.
  7. ↑ "National March on Washington: Free Palestine". The People's Forum. Retrieved 2023-12-29.
  8. 1 2 Sánchez-Vallejo, María Antonia (2023-12-30). "The Gaza conflict prompts the largest mobilization on US campuses since the Vietnam War". EL PAÍS English. Retrieved 2023-12-30.
  9. ↑ Ben-Youssef, Nadia; Tamari, Sandra Samaan (1 November 2018). "Enshrining Discrimination: Israel's Nation-State Law". Journal of Palestine Studies. 48 (1): 73–87. doi:10.1525/jps.2018.48.1.73.
  10. 1 2 Mordowanec, Nick (2024-05-02). "What is the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights? Group training protesters". Newsweek. Retrieved 2024-05-07.
  11. ↑ Awad, Ramah (November 2021). "BDS as the baseline of solidarity: toward a model of co-struggling with Palestinians in their movement for justice and liberation". Human Geography. 14 (3): 362–373. doi:10.1177/1942778620972354.
  12. ↑ Berger, Elizabeth; Jabr, Samah (June 2020). "Silencing Palestine: Limitations on free speech within mental health organizations". International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies. 17 (2): 193–207. doi:10.1002/aps.1630.
  13. 1 2 Iraqi, Amjad (2020-04-06). "Jewish National Fund joins campaign to quash Palestine advocacy in the U.S." +972 Magazine. Retrieved 2023-12-29.
  14. 1 2 "U.S. appeals court upholds dismissal of lawsuit linking American Palestinian group to "terrorism"". ArabAmericanNews. 2023-05-06. Retrieved 2023-12-29.
  15. ↑ "Hilton hotel in Texas cancels Palestinian rights group's conference, citing safety concerns - CBS News". www.cbsnews.com. 2023-10-19. Retrieved 2023-12-29.
  16. 1 2 "Galleria-area hotel cancels pro-Palestinian conference, citing safety concerns". khou.com. 2023-10-17. Retrieved 2023-12-29.

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.