Interfaith Peace-Builders (IFPB)
Profile
| Country/Territory | United States |
|---|---|
| Website | http://www.ifpb.org/ |
| Founded | 2001, with main office in Washington, D.C., and a West Coast office located in San Francisco |
| In their own words | An apolitical and non-governmental organization that fosters “a network of informed and active individuals who understand the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the United States’ political, military, and economic role in it” by “lead[ing] diverse delegations to Israel/Palestine.” |
Funding
- In FY 15-16, total income was $539,532; total expenses were $531,818, of which $383,341 was spent on the delegation program that “emphasized meetings with Israeli and Palestinian grassroots and advocates who live there.”
- According to its website, “IFPB is mainly supported financially by small individual donations,” but has also “attracted the support of several foundations. We continue to approach additional foundations for fiscal support.” (See below for list of partners.)
- These foundations are not named in the organization’s Guidestar entry or IRS 990 forms.
- From mid-2006 to mid-2009, IFPB “received substantial financial support from our parent organization and partner, the Fellowship of Reconciliation-USA (FOR). Support from FOR was instrumental in helping IFPB transition to organizational independence over this time period.” FOR is still listed as a partner organization.
Activities
- Sends “3 – 4 delegations to Israel/Palestine every year” to expose the “everyday violence of war and occupation and learn from those committed to nonviolent struggle, human rights and peace with justice.”
- Maintains that the “US gives Israel over $3 billion in direct military aid every year,” and as a result, “people from North America have a responsibility to understand the conflict and to act to change the status quo.”
- Participants of IFPB tours meet with members of highly politicized NGOs including: Coalition of Women for Peace, Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD), Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, Adalah, B’Tselem, Gisha, Mossawa, Badil, Zochrot, Physicians for Human Rights, Rabbis for Human Rights, and others. Many of these NGOs are active in BDS, lawfare, and other campaigns to delegitimize and demonize the State of Israel.
- IFBP promotes the publications of many of these NGOs, which include numerous distortions, factual errors, and fundamental political biases.
- In November 2017, IFPB “endorsed” an event titled “Building Solidarity Against Militarization: Panel on Political Prisoners and Incarceration” featuring Sahar Francis, the general director of Addameer.
- Addameer is an official Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) “affiliate,” and a number of Addameer staff members have alleged connections to terror groups. The PFLP is a terrorist organization designated as such by the US, EU, Canada, and Israel.
- In October 2017, IFPB co-sponsored the “World Without Walls” delegation featuring “grassroots leaders from and working with communities impacted by the US/Mexico border.” The delegation aimed to allow participants to “meet, learn from, and share with Palestinians resisting Israel’s apartheid wall in order to build together toward a world without walls.”
- In October 2017, IFPB’s Olive Harvest Delegation, aimed at “Learn[ing] about threats to the environment, the exploitation of natural resources, and the struggle of Palestinian communities to maintain access to land and water,” was scheduled to be led by Raed Jarrar, Amnesty-USA ‘s Middle East and North Advocacy Director. However Jarrar was denied entry in Israel for his past BDS activities with the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC). (Read NGO Monitor’s report “Amnesty International: Experts or Ideologues?”)
- In May 2017, IFPB’s delegation on “Incarceration, Detention, and Political Prisoners” was co-led by Brad Parker, International Advocacy Director for Defense for Children International – Palestine (DCI-P) and Huwaida Arraf, International Solidarity Movement (ISM) co-founder. The delegation aimed to “Connect with leaders of the No Way To Treat A Child Campaign.”
- In 2015, American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) and Defense for Children International- Palestine (DCI-P) initiated a campaign, entitled “No Way to Treat a Child,” to “challenge Israel’s prolonged military occupation of Palestinians by exposing widespread and systematic ill-treatment of Palestinian children in the Israeli military detention system.” The groups call upon the United States government to pressure Israel to end “abuse of Palestinian children,” and encourage supporters to write members of congress on behalf of their cause. (Read NGO Monitor’s reports: “No Way to Represent a Child” and “The Origins of ‘No Way to Treat a Child’.”)
- In July 2016, IFPB organized a visit by a group under the heading “Indigenous and People of Color” to Israel and the West Bank, including from the Movement for Black Lives (MBL). Details have not been released, other than a meeting with Addameer focusing on the NGO campaign on behalf of Bilal Kayad, a member of the Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). MBL released a statement regarding the trip, accusing Israel of “ethnic cleansing…genocide funded by the United States and perpetrated by Zionists vigilantes and the Israeli Defense Forces on Palestinian people.”
- From May 21-June 3, 2016, IFPB and American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) co-sponsored a tour focused on “the effects of incarceration and detention on Palestinian society… The delegation also includes meetings with Israeli military refusers, imprisoned for their opposition to military occupation.” The delegation, which featured Edith Garwood, Amnesty USA “country specialist on Israel and Palestine” with a long record of bias and hostility towards Israel, and Alicia Koutsoulieris, Amnesty USA “case coordinator on Israel and Palestine,” met with members of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), Grassroots Jerusalem, BADIL, and Omar Barghouti, co-founder of Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI).
- IFPB was a sponsor, alongside JVP, Amnesty International, Middle East Childrens Alliance (MECA), and Friends of Sabeel North America (FOSNA), of Bassem Tamimi’s 2015 U.S. speaking tour. Tamimi, a promoter of BDS, is known for his involvement in violent confrontations with the Israel army and has posted antisemitic content on social media. In March 2016, the U.S. government cancelled Tamimi’s visa for lying on his application form, specifically for “failure to expose prior arrest and conviction.”
- Hosts Grassroots Advocacy Trainings to mobilize activists in an effort to “Expose AIPAC” and protest AIPAC Policy Conferences against “illegal Israeli settlements, expressed solidarity with Palestinian political prisoners on hunger strike, and more,” and put acquired “skills into practice immediately!”
BDS Activities
- Interfaith Peace-builders, together with COPEPINK and other groups promoting economic warfare, launched a campaign to “End US Military Aid to Israel.”
- In April 2017, IFPB sponsored an event titled “A Call to Action: Black and Palestinian Liberation,” which featured workshops titled “BDS: the Boycott Divestment Sanctions movement” and “Nonviolent Direct Action as a tool for social change.”
- In July 2014, IFPB hosted a delegation to Israel and the West Bank in conjunction with AFSC, aimed at exposing participants to “the multi-faceted ways and places in which Palestinians resist occupation- including… Israeli refusers, Boycott Divestment & Sanctions (& many more!)”
- On January 29, 2014, IFPB held an on-line training called “Mobilizing the Grassroots: The BDS Campaign and You.”
- In December 2013, 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.”
- In 2011, members of the Interfaith Peace Builders’ first African Heritage Delegation to Israel/Palestine issued a call on African Americans to support the struggle for Palestinian rights, and have declared their support for the Palestinian-led campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) on Israel.
Board Members
Board members include: Ilise Benshushan Cohen, co-founder of the Atlanta chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace; Adam Horowitz, co-editor of the anti-Israel news portal Mondoweiss; Katie Huerter, founder of the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) Chapter and the former American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) Middle East Peace Building Associate; Lisa Nessan, member of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM); and Sarah Scruggs, former civilian accompanier with Christian Peacemaker Teams and former fundraiser for Save the Children.
Partners
- IFPB works with partners on “co-sponsored delegations and on national programming in our Education and Advocacy Program.” These partners include: The American Friends Service Committee, The US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, The National Peace Foundation, The Fellowship of Reconciliation, The Resource Center for Nonviolence, Friends of Tent of Nations North America, Global Majority, and Kirkridge Retreat and Study Center.
- Also works with Jewish Voice for Peace, Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP), CODEPINK, Badil, Adalah, Youth Against Settlements, Wi’am Palestinian Conflict Resolution Center, Coalition of Women for Peace, Mossawa, B’Tselem, Israeli Committee Against Home Demolitions, Zochrot, Rabbis for Human Rights, Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, and Physicians for Human Rights.
- Interfaith Peace Builders is a member of the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, a “national coalition of hundreds of groups working to advocate for Palestinian rights and a shift in US policy.”
- Accuses 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 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.”
Related Articles
The Origins of “No Way to Treat a Child”: Analyzing UNICEF’s Report on Palestinian Minors
Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) led by Defense for Children International Palestine’s (DCI-P) have been conducting a campaign under the label of “No Way to Treat a Child” (NWTTAC). This initiative calls on government officials “to use all available means to pressure the Israeli government to end the detention and abuse of Palestinian children” and will “continue until the occupation is ended.”
No Way to Represent a Child: Defense for Children International Palestine's Distortions of the Israeli Justice System
In April 2016, the Palestinian non-governmental organization (NGO) Defense for Children International – Palestine (DCI-P) launched its No Way to Treat a Child campaign, which aims to lobby governments to “use all available means to pressure the Israeli government to end the detention and abuse of Palestinian children.” In this campaign, DCI-P makes numerous false and misleading claims about the IDF and Israeli Military Courts.
