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
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. Subscribe to the weekly round-up on Middle East-related developments on Capitol Hill from the Foundation for Middle East Peace. You can track your representatives’ acceptance of money from AIPAC here.
- No War on Iran!
- On June 13, Israel launched airstrikes against Iran. This attack further threatens global and regional security. It comes as Israel continues its genocide in Gaza. Urge Congress to take steps to end Israeli acts of aggression and work toward lasting peace and security for all. Here’s AFSC’s press release on the strikes.
- The Friends Committee on National Legislation’s (FCNL) War Powers Resolution activist toolkit is here. Learn more about War Powers Resolutions!
- Please call your Senators to support Sen. Kaine’s Iran War Powers Resolution, S.J.Res.59 as well as the House version, H.Con.Res.38, introduced by Reps. Massie and Khanna, with over two dozen other cosponsors.
- Senator Sanders has also introduced a bill against U.S. involvement in Israel’s attacks on Iran, S.2087. Call in support, especially if you live in Idaho or New Hampshire, as Sens. Risch and Shaheen oversee the Foreign Relations Committee where the bill has been referred.
- Learn more about US involvement in Israel’s attacks on Iran. Read more about an opinion poll showing more in the US oppose strikes on Iran than support them. Here is an article written by Phyllis Bennis about Israel’s strikes on Iran.
- Conservative commentator Tucker Carlson interviewing US Senator Ted Cruz about Iran, link here.
- Check out this Instagram account honoring the lives of the people killed in Israeli strikes on Iran.
- Send more letters against U.S. involvement in Israel’s war on Iran here and here.
- Stop the Starvation: Urge your senators to support S.R. 224 introduced by Senator Welch calling for the immediate delivery of lifesaving aid into Gaza in the midst of the Israeli government’s starvation campaign
- 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.
- Protect Free Speech: Learn about H.R.1007, with this helpful explainer from Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP). This bill has been defeated in the past and we hope it will continue to be defeated in the 119th Congress. Here’s a sample script:
- Dear Representative: I’m asking you to oppose H.R 1007, the Antisemitism Awareness Act, because it is dangerous and does not protect Jewish students. Federal law already prohibits antisemitic discrimination and harassment by federally funded entities. H.R. 1007 is therefore not needed to protect Jewish students, and would only serve to police and censor speech critical of the Israeli government and state. H.R. 1007 would enshrine the IHRA definition of antisemitism that conflates criticism of Zionism with antisemitism. Instead, I encourage you to promote protections for Jews that are based on the actual definition of antisemitism as discrimination, prejudice, hostility or violence against Jews as Jews (or Jewish institutions as Jewish). I encourage you to read the The Jerusalem Declaration On Antisemitism.
- End US Weapons to Israel: The Fight to Stop US Arms to Israel is Gaining Momentum, Odeliya Matter, FCNL, December 18, 2024. In your calls/letters to Congress, you can reference recent polling indicating that a majority of Americans want to stop using U.S. tax dollars to arm Israel. You can also reference that it is in politicians’ political interest to support Palestinian life — a recent poll indicates that 6 million fewer people voted for Kamala Harris than for Joe Biden citing U.S. support for Israeli violence against Palestinians as the reason. Reach out to Congress to ask your reps to support the Joint Resolutions of Disapproval (JRD’s) for U.S. weapons to Israel. Here is Sen. Sanders’ press release. In the Senate, bill numbers are S.J. Res. 20-23 & 32-35. In the House, the JRDs are H.J. Res. 68-71. You can use this Action Alert to send a message to your members of Congress.
- H.J.Res. 68: 10,000 155mm High Explosive artillery shells ($312.5 million);
- H.J.Res. 69: 2,166 Small Diameter Bombs (GBU-39), 2,800 500-pound bombs (MK-82) and tens of thousands of fuses and JDAM guidance kits for use on bombs (6.75 billion);
- H.J.Res. 70: 15,500 additional JDAM guidance kits for use on bombs and an additional 615 Small Diameter Bombs (GBU-39) ($688 million);
- H.J.Res. 71: 3,000 Hellfire Air-to-Ground Missiles ($660 million).
- Promote international legal accountability for war crimes through the indictments of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and oppose legislation to sanction the ICC, which has passed in the House and may come up in the Senate. Find more information on the bill to sanction the International Criminal Court (ICC) here. See if your Representative voted to sanction the ICC. Read the context here.
- Recognize the Nakba: Rep. Rashida Tlaib has introduced HR 409. Encourage your representative to support recognition of the ethnic cleansing catastrophe of 1948.
- End the Apartheid: support potential new anti-apartheid legislation in the works.
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 AFSC corporate research tool from AFSC, which has detail on complicit companies like Chevron.
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
- on social media — feel free to share these amazing graphics from Visualizing Palestine
Travel & Bear Witness
You may have privilege to travel where so many Palestinians cannot. Do an ethical tour, perhaps with the Quaker Living Letters group, FOSNA/Sabeel, or Eyewitness Palestine, and bear witness to apartheid for yourself and others in your community to know and take action.