USCPR at 20!

In October 2001, over 30 activists gathered in New York City for the first meeting of what would become the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR). Edward Said, Phyllis Bennis, Nadia Hijab, David Wildman, and Kathy Bergen—and the American Friends Service Committee—all played formative roles in strategizing and forming the coalition. First called the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation (2001-2016), USCPR has now held 16 national conferences, been featured in tens of thousands of media hits, and mobilized hundreds of thousands to speak out for Palestinian rights. From the beginning, USCPR believed in pairing grassroots strength with a congressional strategy of engagement. 

With your support, we’ve come a long way. And we have much left to do to bring about liberation and return for the Palestinian people. In this year’s annual report, we share highlights from the past year alongside a 20-year timeline of some of our biggest accomplishments.

Thank you for standing with us for 20 years.

Twenty years ago, activists and organizers who, like you, were committed to the Palestinian cause, founded the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights in the midst of the Al-Aqsa Intifada. 

Their vision then remains one we share proudly to this day—freedom, justice, and equality for the Palestinian people in a world without racism and oppression. We’ve cultivated a national network of activists and organizations who believe freedom for the Palestinian people is an integral part of achieving our collective liberation. 

Thank you for your role in equipping USCPR with the resources vital to building and bringing together the U.S. solidarity movement for Palestinian rights.

As we write USCPR’s next chapters together, we believe wholeheartedly that in our lifetime freedom, justice, and equality for the Palestinian people will become a reality. With you behind us, Palestinian liberation is within our reach.

Sincerely,

TIMELINE

Scroll through below to see how USCPR has grown over the years.

See the impact of Jerusalem Action Month in August 2021, a national campaign that USCPR convened in partnership with 11 other organizations.

youth advocacy network fellows

Grassroots movements make political change possible. Through USCPR’s Youth Advocacy Network Fellowship Program, we nurture rising leaders and their local campaigns to transform U.S. policy toward justice.

how uscpr brings the movement together

Congressional Work

Advancing Palestinian Rights from the Local to National

Launching the Demilitarize U.S. to Palestine Coalition

In partnership with the BDS movement, USCPR has organized a new coalition, Demilitarize U.S. to Palestine, to advance local, regional, and national campaigns that seek to end U.S. police collaborations with Israel, stop militarized policing, and build ties between U.S.-based abolitionist work and the international Palestinian rights movement. The racial justice uprisings in 2020 and Israel’s attacks in 2021 led to an emerging synergy around a wide, multi-city network to inspire campaigns to end U.S. institutional collaboration with apartheid Israel. Over 100 organizations joined a national launch in May 2021 and public actions, mainly at Boeing offices to date, have already taken place in a number of cities. 

Drop the ADL Leads to Big Victory

In 2021, we have also advanced Drop the ADL work, most notably with five members of the Civil Society Fellowship sponsored by the Aspen Institute and the Anti-Defamation League resigning in protest, writing “we will not allow ourselves to be used to further legitimize the ADL’s image and the harm that it causes.”

Landmark BDS Win

After years of supporting local work in Vermont to challenge Ben & Jerry’s involvement in Israeli settlements, in 2020 we also consulted directly with the Movement for Black Lives on conversations about social justice they were having with Ben & Jerry’s. Due to the years of organizing efforts, these conversations helped lead to Ben & Jerry’s announcing its decision to stop selling its ice cream in Israeli settlements. This is a significant partial victory and step forward, signaling a massive narrative shift toward Palestinian liberation in the U.S. 

A year of online organizing

As we’ve responded to the global pandemic, much of our organizing has taken place online. We’ve seen rapid growth in online followers, and the graphics below from Instagram share a sense of some of the bigger campaigns we’ve led, participated in, and shared online.

FINANCES

uscpr revenue growth 2004-2020