April 2024 (Updated Aug 2024)
JOIN THE CALL FOR JUSTICE
In this Moment: An Arab American Agenda on Palestine
“Support an Arab American agenda on Palestine that protects the rights and respects the identity of Arab Americans at home, and centers Arab American interests and concerns in American foreign policy abroad.”
The events of the past several months have demonstrated a clear disregard for U.S. law and human rights:
After months of relentless Israeli assault on Gaza and military and settler raids in cities and towns across the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the Biden Administration has given military assistance, and political and diplomatic cover to Israel, enabling and aiding in the unfolding genocide in Gaza.
More than two million Palestinians in Gaza have been displaced, with more than 40,000 killed and many more injured. Despite the urgency and scale of the humanitarian crisis, the Biden Administration has failed in their response. Their actions has been inadequate and delayed, failing to prevent widespread famine and halt the ongoing massacres.
American citizens have been murdered in the West Bank and Palestinian American citizens with property in the Occupied Palestinian Territory have been raided by armed settlers and seen their property destroyed. The Biden Administration has failed to protect Americans from Israeli violence or to bring the perpetrators of the violence against Americans to justice.
Settler attacks and military raids on Palestinian refugee camps, towns and cities across the West Bank and East Jerusalem have seen a marked and dangerous increase in past months. Land theft, home demolitions, destruction of natural resources and infrastructure, and the abduction and the killing of Palestinians are ongoing without sufficient American leadership to stop them.
Despite Israel’s proven failure to meet the statutory requirements for entry into the US Visa Waiver Program, the Administration granted them admission. While the VWP requires that Israel ensure that all American citizens be allowed entry without discrimination as to their national origin, religion, or political beliefs, Israel violated that condition before admission and have continued to violate it since their entry into the program.
Notwithstanding the demonstration of respect for our community during the 2020 Biden campaign and some meaningful actions after taking office, the Administration has erased Arab Americans as a constituency in their engagement and outreach. The President has not met with Arab American community leaders, and the Biden Administration has subsumed our community under their Muslim outreach effort, denying us the right to define ourselves as a community or to be represented by our own leadership.
Given these facts, there is deep disappointment and anger among Arab Americans toward the callous neglect we and our concerns have received from this Administration. It is too late to save the more than 40,000 Palestinians killed. However, it’s not too late to save those innocents who will surely perish from bombings, disease, and starvation if the Israeli assault on Gaza is allowed to continue.
We urge the Biden Administration take the following measures both at home and abroad. They will not be enough to undo the enormous damage that’s been done, but they will at least demonstrate to Arab Americans that the Administration is listening and making an effort to restore some of the trust that has been lost.
Home: Protection of the Rights and Respect for the Identity of Arab Americans
Cease comments from Biden Administration officials, including the office of the press secretary, which contribute to a climate where Arab American advocates for Palestinian lives and rights are targeted or harmed.
Defend Arab Americans and publicly speak out against the bullying, harassment, and intimidation they are experiencing, including in the workplace and on college campuses.
Continue to prioritize the investigation and prosecution of hate crimes targeting the Arab American community.
Launch a Department of Justice investigation into the brutal force deployed by law enforcement in response to the peaceful pro-Palestinian student protests.
Launch a Department of Education investigation into possible civil rights violations by academic institutions for differential treatment of pro-Palestine protests, including some university’s decisions to request a police response.
Publicly defend the First Amendment rights of Arab Americans, particularly our students, to express their support for Palestinian human rights without being defamed by false charges of antisemitism, charges enabled by a political agenda that seeks to conflate the very real problem of antisemitism with criticism of Israel or Zionism.
Work to hold tech companies accountable for both allowing anti-Arab bigotry on their sites unabated and actively restricting or censoring pro-Palestinian speech on their platforms.
Rescind Israel’s admission into the Visa Waiver Program pending a full investigation of its adherence to the statutory requirements of the program, guaranteeing the equal protection of the rights of American citizens of Arab descent.
Demonstrate understanding and respect for the integrity of our non-sectarian Arab American community by meeting with our leadership and engaging our community as the proud ethnic, not faith-based, constituency that it is.
Abroad: Centering Arab American Interests and Concerns in American Foreign Policy
Secure an immediate, permanent ceasefire in Gaza.
Immediately halt all arms shipments to Israel.
Provide unimpeded humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people and for the rebuilding of the devastated Palestinian communities.
Secure the return of all hostages and prisoners held without charges.
Secure the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from all of Gaza.
Resume and increase funding to UNRWA, the organization most capable of aiding the besieged Palestinian people.
Reject Congressional restrictions on US funding to Palestinians based on potential action they may take at the United Nations (full membership as a state at the UN or pursuing justice via the International Criminal Court) by invoking the national security waiver, if necessary.
Compel Israel stop the violence perpetrated by its forces and settlers in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including ceasing aerial bombardments, nightly raids, mass arrests, administrative detentions, land seizures, expulsions, and home demolitions.
Subject any future military assistance to Israel to strict oversight to ensure that it is fully compliant with US law, international law, and human rights conventions.
Secure justice for Arab American victims of Israeli violence, including the killing of American citizens, by demanding independent investigations and full prosecution of the perpetrators.
Take concrete measures that reaffirm the US does not recognize Israel’s illegal occupation and annexation of Palestinian territories and that the occupation must end to secure a lasting, enduring just peace for both Palestinians and Israelis.
Take meaningful measures to secure Palestinians’ freedom, equality, and prosperity rooted in full self-determination. Measures must include allowing United Nations Security Council recognition of Palestine as a state, reopening the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem, and the PLO mission in Washington.
Cease US military escalations that are threatening the security and stability of the whole region, including the cessation of attacks on sovereign Arab nations.
Work to deescalate the violence at the Lebanese-Israeli border to prevent a broader regional war, demanding Israel respect the territorial integrity of Lebanon.
Endorse an Arab American Agenda for Justice!
Join the Arab American Institute, the American Federation of Ramallah-Palestine, Arab America, the US Palestinian Council, and the American Arab Chamber of Commerce in support of a policy agenda that protects the rights and respects the identity of Arab Americans at home, and centers Arab American interests and concerns in American foreign policy abroad.