Last week, the Steering Committee for EPF PIN voted unanimously to endorse the Palestinian Letter to Congress issued by the Invest in Justice for All Coalition. The letter, signed by dozens of Palestinian leaders in the work for justice, is meant to send a message from the Palestinian American community to the members of Congress demanding an end to US military funding for Israel and to support the struggle for Palestinian rights. 

Those leaders then asked their own and other Palestinian-led organizations to endorse the letter. Nearly 50 organizations have done so by the time of this writing. With Palestinian voices representing both the authorship and endorsement of the letter, your EPF PIN and nearly 40 other allied organizations raising consciousness about, and support for, justice and human rights for Palestinians also agreed to endorse the letter. EPF PIN is excited to lend its support and encouragement to these US-based Palestinian leaders. 

We agree with the letters’ authors that our elected officials have “excluded Palestinians from policy conversations,” continue to “sideline and dehumanize the Palestinian people” and are increasing efforts in this country to “criminalize any resistance to Israel's ongoing military occupation and dispossession” of Palestinian lands.  The result of this undemocratic exclusion of Palestinian voices has lead our government to support a foreign policy which “perpetuates violence and prevents a just resolution for all.” 

EPF PIN encourages its members and friends to support this effort to raise the voices of Palestinian-Americans concerned for justice. The letter, we note, was signed by Rep. Rashida Tlaib, the first Palestinian American elected to Congress. It builds on grassroots efforts supported by EPF PIN earlier this year to oppose Israeli threats of de jure annexation of additional Palestinian land, for legislators to end US military funding to Israel, and to reinvest in local community needs. The letter also follows efforts by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, leading lawmakers in committing to introduce legislation to reduce Israeli military funding, as well as Rep. Betty McCollum’s recent bill to prevent US funding of further Israeli land theft in Palestine. 

The Invest in Justice for All Coalition including the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR), the Adalah Justice Project, Eyewitness Palestine, MPower Change, Friends of Sabeel North America (FOSNA), and the Democratic Socialists of America Palestine Working Group.    The link to sign on can be found here.