Posted by: Kitty Moses
| Urgent Action Item |
| The Campaign to Defund Racism, a Palestinian call from the ground for solidarity groups to challenge the flow of money to Israeli settler organizations, continues to gain momentum. Following a joint protest in the South Hebron Hills with Youth of Sumud (YoS), Hamoudi Huraini was arrested twice, once after the demonstration and once on Wednesday. Despite this traumatic and baseless harassment, he has been released at the time of this email. But one thing that is clear is that Palestinians continue to risk incredible amounts for their fundamental freedoms—such as routine beatings, incarcerations, or killings. Hamoudi, a member of YoS, continues to resist Israel’s system of domination by calling for the dismantling of one of the structures that underpin it: the NY-based charities funneling money to the Israeli settler movement. You can support this Palestinian call by going to defundracism.org, signing the petition, sharing it, and getting your networks prepared for the next steps. This campaign targets the funding of Ateret Cohanim, Regavim, Ir David/Elad, Israel Land Fund, and Hebron Fund. All five organizations are registered or have fiscal sponsors in the same state—New York—where the coalition will file complaints against each organization to the New York State Attorney General Letitia James. From 2014 to 2019, these organizations had $319,921,483.00 in gross receipts on their charitable tax forms. While this specific element of the campaign is focused in New York, there are multiple ways to get engaged in the overall strategy to dismantle the charitable structures that not only finance Israeli apartheid, but anti-Muslim initiatives, anti-LGBTQ bigotry, and the domination of Black and Brown communities in the United States. We can quickly scale up this campaign by taking the lead from Palestinians, particularly Reps. Rashida Tlaib. Tlaib, Ocasio-Cortez, Carson, Betty McCollum, Pocan, Pressley, and Bush, who have issued a collective statement to investigate the Central Fund of Israel—one of the charities that the Defund Racism campaign takes aim at. We can collectively put pressure on Letitia James’ larger political ecosystem—the liberal to progressive Democratic base—and urge party donors and leaders to demand that dismantling these charities financing white supremacy and imperialism be a crucial point of our collective liberation strategy. As James continues to position herself within the larger Democratic party platform, now is the time for us to set our demands. Now is the time to build a cross-movement strategy to break apart these funding structures that support white supremacy and domination. This campaign isn’t just about the decolonization of Palestine; it’s about collective liberation. As we continue to build out the US organizational endorsement list and sort out who our working partners will be on the ground, there are several learning opportunities you can take advantage of immediately.  The South Florida Coalition for Palestine is coordinating the Boycott Duty-Free Americas campaign, the company the Falic family utilizes to fund Palestinian dispossession. An Associated Press investigation shows that the family has donated at least $5.6 million to settler organizations in the West Bank and East Jerusalem over the past decade, funding synagogues, schools and social services as well as far-right causes considered extreme even in Israel. The coalition consists of Al-Awda South Florida, Students for Justice in Palestine South Florida, Jewish Voice for Peace South Florida, Dream Defenders, CAIR Florida, and South Florida Muslim Federation. The coalition will be holding a webinar Sunday, September 12 (4- 5:00 PM ET). If you’re in South Florida or just want to know how you can further support their efforts, they can be reached at sflcoalition4palestine@gmail.com. Additionally, if you’re in the Boston area, a group of organizations calls for fiduciary responsibility from the Fidelity Charitable Donor-Advised Fund. Their coalition, Unmasking Fidelity, is taking aim at Fidelity’s role in fueling anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim, and anti-LGBTQ+ groups. For example, Fidelity Charitable funneled $4,737,502 to the Central Fund of Israel according to their almost 25,000-page 990 form filling. The Central Fund of Israel is one of the main targets in the Campaign to Defund Racism as well. We understand that dismantling the 501(c)(3) charitable structures financing the erasure of Palestinian communities isn’t just about Palestine. It’s about all people who are being subjugated. In calling on NY Attorney General Letitia James to use her power to revoke the charitable licenses of those culpable in these crimes, we also understand that in order to win, it will take a multi-prong, multi-campaign approach to win. Mobilization will need to happen outside of the geopolitical borders of New York and intersect with other movements fighting white supremacy and imperialism. Join at defundracism.org to be part of this campaign. Support Consider making a monthly contribution to our work. We premise our work on individual monthly donations rather than relying on the neoliberal NGO funding model of politically restrictive grants. Join us by supporting the movement monthly here. If you are a UK citizen and would like to utilize GiftAid, you can do so here. If you’re a US citizen and plan on making a large contribution and need a charitable receipt, you can make that donation through our fiscal sponsors here. As always, keep resisting and fighting for justice. In solidarity, Cody  Cody O’RourkeCommunications & Fundraising |
