Dear Members and Supporters of USPC,
On behalf of the USPC Board, I respectfully share with you our abbreviated version of our 2022 annual report on the significant activities we worked on during 2022.
The second year of President Joe Biden’s presidency never saw the light of day on two key promises made by Biden’s campaign to all of us before election. The first is the promise to reopen the PLO office in Washington, DC and the second is to reopen the shuttered U.S. consulate in East Jerusalem, Palestine's de facto U.S. representative office. Meanwhile, we appreciate Biden’s administration fulfilling his other campaign promises of in the following area; refunding of UNRWA, re-engaging with the Palestinians, and the reinstatement of some of the US Aid funding.
Undeterred, the U.S. Palestine Council (USPC) raised the two critical issues with members of the Biden administration at various levels. Additionally, we worked on the following matters:
I. The Killing of Palestinian-American Shireen Abu Akleh
We worked with members of Congress – the House of Representatives and the Senate – and received many signatures on a letter addressed to the State Department, the FBI, and the National Security Council that called upon all key officials to investigate the assassination of American-Palestinian journalist, Shireen Abu Akleh.
We met or contacted U.S. officials to demand an investigation of Israel’s assassination of Abu Akleh. More importantly, we asked the U.S. authorities to hold those responsible for her assassination accountable and ultimately bring them to justice.
We engaged Congressmen Andre Carson, Bill Pascrell, and others to sign a letter signed by 58 Congress members and 22 senators asking the Secretary of State to take immediate action and hold Israel guilty as charged.
II. We Worked Hard to Ensure that Palestinian Americans Concerns are Heard
a. The USPC continued its pressure campaign on U.S. administration officials to convince Israel to end the siege on Gaza.
b. Israel’s Civil Administration Authorities, charged with controlling most aspects of Palestinians’ daily lives, have been working for years to change the rules by which foreigners and Palestinians living abroad are treated upon their entry into Palestinian areas via Israeli entry points. The Israeli Civil Administration intends, with their new COGAT rules to determine who is allowed to enter the Palestinian territories and for how long. Working with members of the U.S. administration, and Congress we were able to compel Israel to delete few, not most, of the egregious rules Israel wanted to implement, even though, we are still outraged by the discriminatory COGAT rules implementation towards Americans. The USPC will continue its work with the Administration and Congress to achieve more.
c. We raised our concerns over Israel’s blatant expansion of illegal Israeli settlements throughout the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
d. We urged administration officials over Israel’s house demolition policies and the expansion of the illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
e. We vehemently oppose the inclusion of Israel in the U.S. Visa Waiver program. The waiver would allow Israelis to enter the United States without securing a visa to the United States ahead of time.
We insisted that so long as Palestinian Americans are singled out and treated differently than other Americans, the U.S. government should not include Israel in its U.S. waiver program.
To that end, members of the board of USPC met, often multiple times, with:
U.S. high-ranking officials, including National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan
Special Representatives for Palestinian Affairs within the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Near East Affairs
NSC Director for Israel and Palestinian Affairs
Assistant Secretary for International Affairs at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
III. Media Outreach
We are fortunate that many members of our board of directors are interviewed regularly by local and international media outlets – television, radio, and newspapers. In those interviews, our members discussed pertinent issues of concern to the Palestinian American community.
Fortunately, some board members are prolific writers and write articles regularly in U.S. media outlets and Israeli and Palestinian newspapers.
IV. USPC Worked with Community Leaders, Organizations, and Solidarity Groups
We organized and participated in many virtual meetings with U.S. policymakers promoting the Palestinians’ rights, and we invited the community to participate in those meetings.
Some board members participated as speakers with several prominent organizations interested in the Israel-Palestine conflict.
We participated in other organizations' events at the local and national levels. Those organizations included Arab American, Palestinian American, Jewish, Muslim, and Christian American groups and organizations.
V. Local and National Elections
USPC members were engaged in local and national campaigns.
Many of the candidates we supported won, including all 14 that USPC endorsed.
This year our community made history by re-electing Rashida Tlaib, a Palestinian American, to the U.S. Congress. In addition, we extend our congratulations to the following Palestinian-Americans who were elected at the State level:
Abdelnasser Rashid, Illinois House of Representatives
Iman Judeh, Colorado House of Representatives
Sam Rasoul, Virginia House of Representatives
Athena Salman, Arizona House of Representatives
Ruwa Romman, Georgia House of Representatives
During the “Meet Our Candidates” event, we endorsed fourteen candidates for Congress, all of whom won!
USPC held meetings with these candidates and discussed their agenda and plans. We held fundraisers on behalf of U.S. candidates and invited the community to contribute funds and garner votes for these candidates.
USPC joined the Arab American Democratic Action Fund in a virtual fund-raiser for Congressman Jamaal Bowman, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, Congresswoman Cori Bush, and a dozen others.
Finally, we invite you to join us as members, and we kindly ask you to contribute to enabling the work of USPC to grow and expand. Thank you!
We will be amiss if we do not recognize the value of working alongside several Palestinian-American organizations, distinguished activists, and human rights organizations. Your work and input are phenomenal, and any success in our work could not have been possible without your valuable work. At times, we work on the same issues, while other times, we work on different topics of concern to Palestinian Americans.
We invite you to contribute to the USPC so that we may continue our work. Everyone on our board of directors commits to donating a set sum to USPC annually.
We invite you to join us as a member of the USPC and ask you to donate to help the USPC continue and intensify its activities.
We are aware that working together can make a huge difference! We can strengthen each other, so our voices are heard nationally and internationally. Our community and the just cause of Palestine need us to unite and work collectively.
On behalf of the entire board of directors of USPC, we thank you and wish you a happy new year.
Prof. John Dabeet
President, US Palestinian Council
December 31, 2022