Formation | 2001 |
---|---|
Type | 501(c)3 organization |
42-1636592 | |
Website | uscpr |
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 is registered as a 501(c)(3) organization called Education For Just Peace In The Middle East and was created with the goal to focus on "denied human rights" instead of focusing explicitly on Palestinian statehood. [5] [2]
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. [6]
USCPR has also helped organize pro-Palestinian protests, including a march in DC, in light of the 2023 war in Gaza. [7] [8] USCPR is seen as among the largest groups supporting the Gaza War protest movement. [9] USCPR has also encouraged student activism for ceasefire, and has supported such student groups. [9]
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. [10]
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. [11] 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. [11]
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]
USCPR is considered one of the foremost pro-Palestinian organizations in the United States. [12] As of 2020, USCPR is one of the organizations blacklisted by Israel, such that its activists are deported from that country. [13]
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] [14] [15] Critics argued the lawsuit was frivolous and designed to combat BDS through "lawfare". [4] [14] The suit was later dismissed, as judges ruled that plaintiffs had failed to provide any sufficient link to terrorism. [15]
In 2023, in light of the 7 October Hamas-led attack on Israel, USCPR annual conference was canceled by Hilton hotels due to alleged safety and security concerns. USCPR said that the cancellation was discriminatory. [16] [17] The event had generated conservative media attention, which called for a pressure campaign to ask Hilton to cancel the event. [17]
Jewish Voice for Peace is an American Jewish anti-Zionist and left-wing advocacy organization. It is critical of Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories, and supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel.
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.
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.
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Shurat HaDin, also Israel Law Center (ILC), is an Israeli non-governmental organization (NGO) founded in Tel Aviv in 2003. Shurat HaDin has been described as a civil rights organization. However, it has also been accused of pro-Israel lawfare.
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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.
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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.”
The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) is an activist organisation in England and Wales. It was founded in the UK in 1982 and incorporated in 2004 as Palestine Solidarity Campaign Ltd. In 2023, The Guardian described it as "Europe’s largest Palestinian rights organisation".
Students for Justice in Palestine is a pro-Palestinian college student activism organization in the United States, Canada and New Zealand. Founded at the University of California in 2001, 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 called it "the leading pro-Palestinian voice on campus". As of 2024, National SJP has over 350 chapters in North America.
The American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) is an American nonprofit organization founded in 2006.
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Anti-Palestinianism or anti-Palestinian racism refers to prejudice, collective hatred, and discrimination directed at the Palestinian people for any variety of reasons. Since the mid-20th century, the phenomenon has largely overlapped with anti-Arab racism and Islamophobia due to the fact that the overwhelming majority of Palestinians today are Arabs and Muslims. Historically, anti-Palestinianism was more closely identified with European antisemitism, as far-right Europeans detested the Jewish people as undesirable foreigners from Palestine. Modern anti-Palestinianism—that is, xenophobia or racism towards the Arabs of Palestine—is most common in Israel, the United States, Lebanon, and Germany, among other countries.
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The Palestine exception, otherwise known as the Palestine exception to free speech, is a term given to a described legal carve-out of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and free speech laws in Canada and Europe that allows government establishments and other institutions to suppress pro-Palestine protests. The term has been used by pro-Palestinian activists especially during the Israel–Hamas war and associated protests calling for a ceasefire, criticizing US military and diplomatic support to Israel, and Israel's invasion of the Gaza Strip and its war conduct. The term has also regularly been used by academic freedom and freedom of speech advocates to criticize policies implemented by university institutions against pro-Palestine campus protesters calling for their disinvestment from Israel.