Organize
Attend the AFSC Action Hour, every Friday at noon. It is incredible. There are guest speakers, news updates, group sharing, and time to call our representatives.
Engage with Palestinian, Jewish, Muslim and Arab neighbors and community organizations working for peace in your area.
Join an organization like the Quaker Palestine Israel Network (QPIN), Philadelphia Yearly Meeting’s Middle East Collaborative, Jewish Voice for Peace, If Not Now, Christians for a Free Palestine, Friends of Sabeel North America (FOSNA), or the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights.
Contact Congress
- Ceasefire: Write, email, or call your Senators and Representative. You may phone the United States Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121. A switchboard operator will connect you directly with the office you request. You can also look up the phone numbers for your Congressperson here and your Senators here.
- Restore Congressional Funding to UNRWA, the larger provider of humanitarian assistance in Gaza: See the bill for UNRWA Restoration Act in the House (HR 9649) and in the Senate (S 5388). Here’s some background on the bill. Use FCNL’s Action Alert to ask your Representatives to support the bill. Read Odeliya’s piece on the importance of the bill. Hassan Al-Tayyab from FCNL has also written this piece in The Hill. Read more about Israel’s recent ban on UNRWA from AFSC here.
- End US Weapons to Israel: The Fight to Stop US Arms to Israel is Gaining Momentum, Odeliya Matter, FCNL, December 18, 2024
Lobby
Consider joining the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL), which advocates on the Hill for peace and justice at home and abroad and has been active on Israel/Palestine. You can start or join a local advocacy team! You can also join an Intro to Advocacy training. Check out the advocacy team toolkit here.
Write
Write a minute or statement in support of peace & justice in Israel/Palestine with your Quaker Meeting, place of worship, or organization. For inspiration, see the Montclair Friends Minute and other Quaker Meetings’ minutes.
Write a letter to the editor of your local paper. As an example, see this letter to the editor a Quaker wrote in the Houston Chronicle.
Protest
Protest for a ceasefire and equal rights in Israel/Palestine, safely & effectively.
Allocate Your Finances
Did you know that American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) — a Quaker service organization — is providing emergency aid to Palestinians in Gaza? In fact, AFSC was the first humanitarian organization on the ground in Gaza. In 1948 as the ethnic cleansing (Nakba) was ongoing, the UN asked AFSC to provide aid to the displaced people arriving in Gaza. AFSC accepted. Consider supporting AFSC monetarily if you are able and led to do so.
There are several other great humanitarian organizations on the ground in Palestine today. There is the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), Save the Children, Palestine Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF), American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA), Doctors Without Borders (MSF), World Central Kitchen, etc. There are also wonderful Palestinian institutions such as Ramallah Friends School (RFS), Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center, Palestinian House of Friendship (PHF), etc.
In addition to donating, you can also hold corporations accountable and consider divesting from companies complicit in human rights violations. Check out this helpful corporate research tool from AFSC.
Give a listen to this podcast on “Solidarity as a tool for defending Palestinian rights” with Omar Barghouti, who discusses the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
Stand Up
Be an upstander for Palestinian rights:
- in community, e.g., by encouraging your institution or place of worship to join the Apartheid-Free Communities Pledge
- in individual conversations with others — see helpful book, When They Speak Israel, by Quaker author Alex McDonald