The Palestine lobby in the United States is organized by a number of pro-Palestinian advocacy groups seeking to influence the

United States government The Federal Government of the United States of America (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the Federation#Federal governments, national government of the United States. The U.S. federal government is composed of three distinct ...

, institutions, and citizens to actively oppose Israel's occupation of the

Palestinian territories The occupied Palestinian territories, also referred to as the Palestinian territories, consist of the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip—two regions of the former Mandate for Palestine, British Mandate for Palestine ...

, many of them members or cooperating with the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights. These organizations include peace and anti-war, human rights,

anti-Zionist Anti-Zionism is opposition to Zionism. Although anti-Zionism is a heterogeneous phenomenon, all its proponents agree that the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, and the movement to create a sovereign Jewish state in the Palestine (region) ...

, and

Arab Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...

- and Muslim-American groups. Groups against occupation also include Jewish Voices for Peace and

Students for Justice in Palestine Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP; ) is a pro-Palestinian college student activism organization in the United States, Canada and New Zealand. Founded at the University of California, Berkeley in 1993, it has campaigned for the Boycott, Div ...

, among others. Their tactics include education, protest, civil disobedience and

lobbying Lobbying is a form of advocacy, which lawfully attempts to directly influence legislators or government officials, such as regulatory agency, regulatory agencies or judiciary. Lobbying involves direct, face-to-face contact and is carried out by va ...

History

Activism and public relations campaigns in the U.S. on behalf of Palestinian rights have existed since at least the

Balfour Declaration The Balfour Declaration was a public statement issued by the British Government in 1917 during the First World War announcing its support for the establishment of a "national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine, then an Ottoman regio ...

in 1917.Smith, Amy, "Dr. Khalil Totah: Arab-American Quaker Educator and Palestinian Nationalist Crusader, 1914-1948" (2018). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 2880, 84. https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/etd/2880 Arab-American advocates such as Fuad Shatara sought to bring the Palestinian cause to American attention through publications, engagement with the popular press, and the establishment of organizations such as the Palestine Anti-Zionism Society, later renamed the Palestine National League and subsequently the Arab National League. In April 1922, two Palestinian Arab advocates testified before the American Congressional Committee on Foreign Affairs in hearings about the Balfour Declaration and the British Mandate.Cohen, Hillel. “Zionism as a Blessing to the Arabs: History of an Argument.” In ''The British Mandate in Palestine: A Centenary Volume, 1920–2020'', edited by Michael J. Cohen, 157–71. Routledge, 2020. Another wave of major political activism against occupation emerged in the wake of the

Six-Day War The Six-Day War, also known as the June War, 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states, primarily United Arab Republic, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan from 5 to 10June ...

when Israel conquered the

West Bank The West Bank is located on the western bank of the Jordan River and is the larger of the two Palestinian territories (the other being the Gaza Strip) that make up the State of Palestine. A landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

Gaza Gaza may refer to: Places Palestine * Gaza Strip, a Palestinian territory on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea ** Gaza City, a city in the Gaza Strip ** Gaza Governorate, a governorate in the Gaza Strip Mandatory Palestine * Gaza Sub ...

and the

Golan Heights The Golan Heights, or simply the Golan, is a basaltic plateau at the southwest corner of Syria. It is bordered by the Yarmouk River in the south, the Sea of Galilee and Hula Valley in the west, the Anti-Lebanon mountains with Mount Hermon in t ...

from

Jordan Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian ter ...

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

, and

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

George Friedman George Friedman (born February 1, 1949) is a Hungarian-born American futurologist, political scientist, and writer. He is a geopolitical author on international relations. He is the founder and chairman of ''Geopolitical Futures''. Prior to f ...

br>The Israel Lobby in U.S. Strategy
September 4, 2007. In general, the

Israel lobby in the United States The Israel lobby in the United States comprises individuals and groups who seek to influence the Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government to better serve the interests of Israel. The largest American pro-Israel lobbying g ...

is significantly stronger than the Palestine lobby and enjoys bipartisan support on the federal level, especially in the wake of the

2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel On October 7, 2023, Hamas and several other Palestinians, Palestinian militant groups launched coordinated armed incursions from the Gaza Strip into the Gaza envelope of southern Israel, the first invasion of Israeli territory since the 1948 ...

. As a result, pro-Palestinian organizations have focused more on grassroots organization, influencing elected officials in state and local levels, and cooperating with other

social justice Social justice is justice in relation to the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society where individuals' rights are recognized and protected. In Western and Asian cultures, the concept of social justice has of ...

organizations. Much of the advocacy has since centered the

BDS movement Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) is a nonviolent Palestinian-led movement promoting boycotts, divestments, and economic sanctions against Israel. Its objective is to pressure Israel to meet what the BDS movement describes as Israel's o ...

, which was created in 2005. During the 2023 war in Gaza, pro-Palestinian groups have focused on lobbying, organizing, and

protesting A protest (also called a demonstration, remonstration, or remonstrance) is a public act of objection, disapproval or dissent against political advantage. Protests can be thought of as acts of cooperation in which numerous people cooperate ...

for a

ceasefire A ceasefire (also known as a truce), also spelled cease-fire (the antonym of 'open fire'), is a stoppage of a war in which each side agrees with the other to suspend aggressive actions often due to mediation by a third party. Ceasefires may b ...

and reducing the

Gaza blockade The restrictions on movement and goods in Gaza imposed by Israel date to the early 1990s. After Hamas took over in 2007, Israel significantly intensified existing movement restrictions and imposed a complete blockade on the movement of good ...

Critics

Michael Lewis, director of Policy Analysis for the

American Israel Public Affairs Committee The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC ) is a pro-Israel lobbying group that advocates its policies to the legislative and executive branches of the United States. It is one of several pro-Israel lobbying organizations in the ...

criticizes a number of anti-occupation groups, contending that their goals are "to drive a wedge between the U.S. government and Israel; to undermine public and government support for Israel in the United States, and (especially since the 1973 war) to bring about a halt in American governmental aid to Israel."Israel's American Detractors - Back Again
by Michael Lewis, Middle East Quarterly, November 1997 In his book ''In the Trenches: Selected Speeches and Writings of an American Jewish Activist'', David A. Harris, executive director of the

American Jewish Committee The American Jewish Committee (AJC) is a civil rights group and Jewish advocacy group established on November 11, 1906. It is one of the oldest Jewish advocacy organizations and, according to ''The New York Times'', is "widely regarded as the wi ...

says Israel must explain "how the occupation came about" and dismisses as "buzzwords" Palestinians attempts to gain sympathy as an occupied people.David A. Harris, ''In the Trenches: Selected Speeches and Writings of an American Jewish Activist,'' KTAV Publishing House, Inc., 2008
pp. 58, 282, 311

References

{{reflist, 2 Organizations involved in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict Foreign policy political advocacy groups in the United States Arab-American organizations Foreign policy lobbying organizations in the United States Israel–United States relations Palestine–United States relations Palestinian solidarity movement in the United States

History

Critics

See also

References