Activities

• The US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR) is a “national coalition of hundreds of groups working to advocate for Palestinian rights and a shift in US policy.”
• According to its “Common Principles,” “We oppose U.S. military, diplomatic, financial, corporate, and all other forms of support for Israel’s occupation and apartheid policies toward Palestinians.”
• USCPR is active in lobbying the US Congress.
  • In April 2019, USCPR published “A Guide to Taking Our People Power to Congress,” instructing people how to “move Congress from complicity in Israeli abuses to holding Israel accountable.”
• In 2020, the Jewish National Fund brought a lawsuit against USCPR “for conspiring to give financial and other means of assistance to terror organizations active in the Gaza Strip.” In March 2021, the lawsuit was dismissed.

Political Advocacy

• USCPR rhetoric includes accusations of “apartheid,” “ethnic cleansing,” “genocide,” “war crimes,” and “colonialism,” as well as supporting a Palestinian “right of return.”
• Exploits the US civil rights struggle by accusing Israel of maintaining a “matrix of control” over the Palestinian population and enacting “laws that discriminate against [Palestinians], much as Black Americans had been treated during the Jim Crow era.”
• In January 2023, USCPR was a signatory on a letter to the American Bar Association stating that “the clear objective behind the promotion of the IHRA definition is the suppression of non-violent protest, activism, and criticism of Israel and/or Zionism…in practice the IHRA definition has been used consistently (and nearly exclusively) not to fight antisemitism, but rather to defend Israel and harm Palestinians – at the cost of undermining and dangerously chilling fundamental rights of free speech, freedom of assembly and protest, and academic freedom.”
  • The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism, adopted by nearly 30 countries and counting, represents the international consensus definition of antisemitism, as well as how to distinguish between legitimate criticism of Israel and antisemitism. An example of the latter includes denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.
• In February 2022, USCPR called on Congress to vote no on the Israel Relations Normalization Act (H.R. 2748), as “There’s nothing normal about Israel’s ongoing ethnic cleansing and apartheid.”
• In January 2022, USCPR endorsed “Global Days of Action for Palestine” meant to “intensify protests against Israel’s dramatic escalation of violence and ethnic cleansing across Historic Palestine.”
• In August 2022, USCPR signed a joint statement condemning the decision by the Israeli Ministry to designate six Palestinian NGOs as terrorist organizations. The statement called for the international community to “take effective measures to end all other actions that deny Palestinians their inalienable human rights” and to “their support and increase funding to the organizations and engage with financial institutions to ensure the transfer of funds to the organizations.”
• In April 2021, USCPR welcomed the decision of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to launch a formal investigation into alleged war crimes committed by Israel in the “State of Palestine.” According to USCPR, “This is a long-awaited and a critically important step towards ensuring the rule of law and ending impunity, while ensuring accountability for Israel’s crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court.”
• During the 2018 violence on the Gaza border, USCPR urged people to call on their members of Congress to “open an investigation into Israel’s unlawful killing of Palestinian demonstrators in Gaza.” According to USCPR, “US laws are supposed to prevent these weapons from being used to commit human rights abuses. It is past time to end Israel’s impunity to using excessive force against Palestinians” (emphasis in original). USCPR ignored the violent nature of the protests, which have consisted of an organized armed attack on the Israeli border and IDF positions, attempts to destroy and breach the border fence, and sustained arson, rocket, and mortar attacks on Israeli civilian communities.
• In 2018, USCPR created a “political education curriculum” titled “Together We Rise: Palestine as a Model of Resistance” meant to “strengthen liberation struggles from the U.S to Palestine.”
• To mark “50 years of Israel’s military occupation…70 years since the Nakba and ethnic cleansing of Palestine” (emphasis in original), USCPR organized a “Week of Action June 5-10” in which it calls upon followers to “Join 50 actions nationwide June 5-June 10, 2017 on this 50th anniversary to demand an end to Israel’s brutal military occupation.” Suggested activities include organizing a demonstration, protest, “Mock wall,” “Mock checkpoint,” and “Die-in” outside of Consulates, Congressional offices, and stores that sell “boycotted products.”
• In July 2015, USCPR sponsored a congressional briefing to “examine Israel’s misuse of U.S.-supplied weapons in Gaza and call on lawmakers to hold Israel accountable for its violations of U.S. and international law.” The briefing featured speakers from Adalah, American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), and Defense for Children International- Palestine (DCI-P).

Apartheid Rhetoric

• USCPR is part of a network of NGOs that promote artificial and manufactured definitions of apartheid to extend the ongoing campaigns that seek to delegitimize and demonize Israel. (Read NGO Monitor’s Policy Papers “False Knowledge as Power: Deconstructing Definitions of Apartheid that Delegitimise the Jewish State” and “Neo-Orientalism: Deconstructing claims of apartheid in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.”)
• On April 21, 2021, a coalition of American NGOs, including USCPR, launched a campaign titled “End Medical Apartheid from the US to Palestine: a call to action.”
• In January 2020, USCPR referred to the newly-released President Trump “Peace Plan” as an “apartheid plan.” According to Executive Director of USCPR Yousef Munayyer, “Donald Trump, the White Supremacist-in-Chief, is rolling out a plan to whitewash the apartheid reality alongside his Israeli partners-in-war-crimes.”
• In May 2017, USCPR published “50 Years of Israeli Military Occupation – FAQs” accusing Israel of “ethnic cleansing” and “apartheid” and stating that “Even though the  United  States has consistently opposed Israel’s building of settlements for the past fifty years…the United States has worked to ensure that   the   international   community   does   not impose sanctions  on Israel  for  its  continued  illegal  colonization of Palestinian land.”

No Way to Treat a Child

• USCPR is a “National campaign partner” for the campaign “No Way to Treat a Child,” a vehicle for exploiting children for political warfare against Israel. The campaign was initiated by PFLP-linked Defense for Children International- Palestine and BDS organizer American Friends Service Committee. A February 20, 2017 exposé in the Jerusalem Post revealed the central claims of this campaign to be false.
  • Other “National campaign partners” include Amnesty International, American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), Christian Peacemaker Teams, Friends of Sabeel North America, Jewish Voice for Peace, and Mennonite Central Committee US.
• In 2017, 2019, and 2021, USCPR endorsed US Congresswoman McCollum’s proposed legislation endorsed US Congresswoman McCollum’s proposed legislation meant to advance BDS and demonization of Israeli companies and defense forces. The entirety of the proposed bill is premised on factually inaccurate claims from anti-Israel advocacy NGOs, including direct quotes from DCIP’s “No Way to Treat a Child” 2016 report and website.

BDS Activities

• A leader and mobilizer of anti-Israel BDS (boycotts, divestment and sanctions).
• Organizes campaigns to boycott and divest from companies including HP, G4S, Ben & Jerry’s, and Airbnb.
• US Campaign regularly lobbies the United States government to end military and financial aid to Israel that supports a “brutal military occupation of the Palestinian West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip.”
• USCPR published a “BDS Toolkit” to “help you organize effective boycott, divestment, and sanctions campaigns in your communities.”
• Provides resources for students who are interesting in “pursuing BDS campaigns on their campuses.”
• Publishes “Policy Agenda[s]” calling for the US government to oppose Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza and challenge anti-BDS legislation.
• USCPR is a member of the Stolen Homes Coalition which called for Airbnb to “stop listing vacation rentals in Israeli settlements, all of which were built on stolen Palestinian land and deemed illegal under international law.”
  • In November 2018, following Airbnb’s announcement that it was “removing listings” in “Israeli settlements in the Occupied West Bank,” Ramah Kudaimi, USCPR’s Director of Grassroots Organizing, stated that “Airbnb’s decision today to remove listings from illegal, Jewish-only settlements in the occupied West Bank is proof that support for Israel’s separate-and-unequal apartheid regime is becoming more and more untenable…This moment underscores the importance of continuing to push boycott, divestment, and sanctions campaigns that hold Israel and all institutions profiting from its oppression of the Palestinian people accountable until freedom, justice, and equality is achieved.”
• In August 2022, USCPR held a webinar titled “United for Justice Across Palestine: Defund Israel’s Bombs, Blockade, and Bulldozers.”
• In August 2021, USCPR signed a letter to the States Parties to the Arms Trade Treaty calling to “put an end to Israel’s notorious use of arms and military equipment…by immediately imposing a comprehensive two-way arms embargo on Israel.” According to the letter, “This systematic brutality, perpetrated throughout the past seven decades of Israel’s colonialism, apartheid, pro-longed illegal belligerent occupation, persecution, and closure, is only possible because of the complicity of some governments and corporations around the world.”
• In June 2021, USCPR published a statement calling to “End the Flow of U.S. Tax Dollars to Israel’s Genocide of the Palestinian People” and to “immediately stop funding Israel’s ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people.”
• In May 2021, USCPR launched a campaign titled “Rise Up With Palestine: Tell Congress to Sanction Israeli Apartheid.”
• In October 2020, Executive Director Ahmad Abuznaid was a signatory on a letter to Congress calling for the U.S. to “stop funding Israel’s military, which regularly engages in violations of human rights and international law without accountability.”
• In June 2020, during the Black Lives Matter protests, USCPR signed a letter to congress calling to “divest from militarism and policing, from the US to Palestine.” According to the letter, “Just as we join in the demand for our tax dollars to be divested from brutal police violence and a repressive military response to protesters asserting that #BlackLivesMatter, we call for an end to U.S.-funded violence abroad.”
  • In December 2019, USCPR and the Adalah Justice Project launched a project titled “Justice for All” that “aims to end U.S. military funding to Israel and uphold progressive policies rooted in historical justice.” According to Executive Director of USCPR Yousef Munayyer, “The Movement for Black Lives’ principle of invest-divest frames the overarching demand – that we must demand our government divest from Israel’s human rights abuses against the Palestinian people and instead invest those resources in community needs at home, so everyone can live with safety, dignity, and justice.”
• In December 2018, USCPR launched a “Holiday Season Boycott Action Kit” calling for people to take action against “brands complicit in Israeli Apartheid” and “Israel’s denial of Palestinian rights through the complicity of corporate brands.”
• In June 2018, USCPR launched a project titled “Cities for Palestine” that offers resources to help people launch their own municipal campaigns against Israel. Campaigns include ending trips to Israel, aiding in passing legislation affirming the right to boycott, ending weapon sales to Israel, and divesting from companies involved in “Israel’s apartheid regime.”
• In January 2018, then USCPR Policy Director Josh Ruebner delivered a lecture titled “Israel – Democracy or Apartheid State?” During the lecture, Ruebner supported BDS campaigns saying, “I believe Israel’s apartheid regime over the Palestinian people will not last…because BDS is winning and efforts to repress BDS are failing…As long as we continue to engage…in these campaigns for BDS, and Israel continues to delegitimize itself through its racist policies, then I have no doubt, no doubt that Israel’s separate and unequal policies towards the Palestinian people will collapse.”

Staff

• Yousef Munayyer
  • Munayyer, Executive Director of USCPR, was formerly the Executive Director of the Jerusalem Fund and Palestine Center.
  • In October 2018, following US Congresswoman Betty McCollum (D-MN) referring to Israel’s nation-state law as “apartheid,” Munayyer sent an email to supporters praising McCollum for “openly, and correctly, nam[ing] Israel for what it is… this moment is a benchmark in a narrative shift we have all been working towards for a long time.”
  • In February 2018, Munayyer demonstrated support for BDS, tweeting “It is exciting and refreshing to see all of these people who support boycott tactics.”
  • In November 2014, Munayyer gave a lecture titled “The Quest for a Just Peace: Connecting Liberation Struggles,” stating that Palestinians experienced the “transition between one form of colonization to another form of colonization… the transfer of power between the British imperial enterprise in Palestine and the adoption of that imperial enterprise by the Zionist movement.”
• Karl Anderson
  • Anderson, USCPR Development Associate, previously worked for the Rachel Corrie Foundation.
  • In March 2016, Anderson accused Israel of being an “apartheid state.”
  • On July 25, 2014, Anderson participated in a protest and “die-in” outside the Washington State Capitol building opposing the 2014 Gaza War. Anderson held a sign that read: “End U.S. Military Aid to Israel.”
• Ramah Kudaimi
  • Kudaimi, the Director of Grassroots Organizing for USCPR, has promoted incitement to violence against Israelis, urged the inclusion of Holocaust deniers into mainstream media, and has called for the destruction of Israel — tweeting: “F**k Israel every day until the fall of the zionist regime.”
  • In July 2016, Kudaimi was denied entry into Israel for security reasons and was banned from entering the country for 10 years. 

Members

• Member organizations include leaders of BDS campaigns against Israel and highly biased NGOs.
• Jewish Voices for Peace (JVP)
  • Promotes political warfare strategy against Israel, including BDS, sustained campaigns of demonization alleging “apartheid” and “racism,” and support for a Palestinian claim to a “right of return” with the ultimate goal of dismantling Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.
  • In June 2017, started a campaign called “Deadly Exchange” that aims to “end police exchange programs between the US and Israel.” JVP claims that “‘worst practices’ are shared to promote and extend discriminatory and repressive policing in both countries including extrajudicial executions, shoot-to-kill policies, police murders, racial profiling, massive spying and surveillance, deportations and detention, and attacks on human rights defenders.” The campaign also invoked antisemitic tropes.
• American Muslims for Palestine (AMP)
  • AMP provides “advocacy training” including instruction on how to lobby politicians, and produces media and activism guidebooks, such as campus activism resources including fact-sheets, anti-normalization material, and Power Point presentations that parrot the Hamas narrative of the 2014 Israeli-Hamas conflict in Gaza, claiming that “Palestinian resistance was born out of the occupation and the siege, plain and simple.”
  • AMP is involved in a campaign targeting Airbnb to end “illegal rentals in the West Bank,” and a 2016 campaign titled “This Ramadan, Make a DATE with Justice: Choose Occupation- Free Dates” calling on “Muslims to uphold the ethics of our faith, and to refuse to buy or sell dates that are profiting from Israeli occupation.”
• American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)
  • AFSC is a leader of BDS campaigns on campuses and churches in the United States.
  • Dalit Baum, director of AFSC’s Middle East program, is co-founder of Coalition of Women for Peace’s flagship BDS project “Who Profits?” Baum lobbies international audiences on how best to promote the global BDS campaign against Israel. AFSC materials include an online investment screening tool aimed to “help individuals and institutions identify companies on their investment portfolios that are directly complicit in ongoing severe violations of human rights and international law.”
  • AFSC promotes “anti-normalization,” rejecting dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians.
• CODEPINK
  • COPEPINK, together with Interfaith Peace-builders and other highly biased and politicized groups, launched a campaign to “End US Military Aid to Israel,” urging followers to “stop funding weapons to Israel.”
  • In 2014, launched a “Boycott Sodastream” campaign, alleging that “SodaStream enjoys cheap land and water, confiscated from the indigenous Palestinian owners; a captive Palestinian labor force; tax benefits; and lax regulation of environmental and labor protection laws.” The campaign called on supporters to “Send a letter telling Scarlet Johansson to drop SodaStream” and “Send letters to SodaStream retailers.” It also publicized a video, “BDS Brides Boycott SodaStream and Ahava Sales at Bed Bath & Beyond,” as well as downloadable “Slogans & Chants for Protesting SodaStream.”
• Christian Peacemakers Teams (CPT)
  • On February 7, 2017, CPT was a signatory on a call to “end the European complicity – marking 100 years of injustice against the Palestinian people.” The call “solemnly reaffirm[ed] that in 2017, after 100 years of dispossession, denial and ethnic cleansing, the rights of the Palestinian people must, at last, be respected.”
  • CPT encourages “individuals, companies and states to engage in divestment and in an economic and commercial boycott of everything produced by the Israeli occupation.”
• Friends of Sabeel
  • Sabeel supports the “one state solution,” meaning the elimination of Israel as a Jewish state.  Its “Vision for the Future” states: “The ideal and best solution has always been to envisage ultimately a bi-national state in Palestine-Israel… One state for two nations and three religions.” (emphasis added).
  • In June 2017, was a signatory to an “Open Letter” from the National Coalition of Christian Organizations in Palestine to the World Council of Churches that accuses Israel of “Discrimination and inequality, military occupation and systematic oppression.” The letter calls upon the WCC to “recognize Israel as an apartheid state,” and “unequivocally condemn the Balfour declaration as unjust, and that you demand from the UK that it asks forgiveness from the Palestinian people and compensates for the losses.” The letter also defends “our right and duty to resist the occupation creatively and nonviolently,” through “economic measures that pressure Israel to stop the occupation…in response to Israel’s war on BDS. We ask that you intensity those measures.”
• Grassroots International
  • Grassroots International engages in advocacy and “seek[s] to influence US citizens and policy negotiators who have the power to create policies that uphold rather than undermine basic human rights.”
  • Is running a campaign, with accompanying fact sheets, to “Tell TIAA-CREF to stop investing in the Separation Wall,” and to Elbit Systems Ltd., as Elbit “Directly profit[s] from or contribute[s] to the Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.”
• Interfaith Peace Builders
  • Sends “3 – 4 delegations to Israel/Palestine every year” intended to expose the “everyday violence of war and occupation and learn from those committed to nonviolent struggle, human rights and peace with justice.”
  • Interfaith Peace-Builders signed on a call to thank “the National Council of the American Studies Association (ASA)… decision to endorse the Palestinian call for the academic boycott of Israel.”
• Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA)
  • MECA organizes delegations to “Palestine/Israel” where participants can “witness the impact of the Israeli occupation and…learn about refugees, land confiscation, political prisoners…” Trip highlights include learning “about the origins of the Palestinian refugees and the Right of Return, and how it can be implemented” (emphasis added).
  • In September 2015, MECA signed on a letter to the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon urging the UN to terminate its contracts with international security company G4S, as the company is “complicit with Israel’s human rights violations.”
  • MECA lists Union of Health Work Committees (UHWC), is a PFLP-affiliated health committee active in Gaza, as identified by USAID and in Palestinian documents. as an organization “we support.”
• Rebuilding Alliance
  • Regularly lobbies the U.S. Congress and State Department, promoting the Palestinian narrative of victimization and Israeli aggression.
  • On May 16, 2017, Rebuilding Alliance participated in a petition to PayPal “urging that PayPal services be made available to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza” as “PayPal has a discriminatory policy of serving Israeli settlers in the West Bank, but not the Palestinians next door… PayPal risks becoming the target of boycotts by offering services to settlers and thereby profiting from the Occupation. Extending PayPal to Palestinians makes it not only the right decision morally, but financially as well.”
• WESPAC Foundation
  • Refers to US-funded “atrocities” in “our homeland” and demands the US “end all aid to Israel, diplomatic, economic, military… to this apartheid, racist state.”
  • According to WESPAC, “Boycott/Divestment/Sanctions are appropriate and legitimate weapons to wage peace” and the NGO campaigns for boycotting and divesting from Caterpillar.
• Other members include Nonviolence International, National Lawyers Guild, Israel Palestine Mission Network – Presbyterian Church (U.S.A), US Campaign for Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, and Students for Justice in Palestine.