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The Mossawa Center is planning an advocacy and educational program in the US from October 8-21. During this program, the Mossawa Center will aim to raise awareness about the rights of Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel and their potential role in peace building initiatives. The Mossawa Center hopes to strengthen its partnerships with American civil rights organizations, activists, and political figures, with the ultimate goal of establishing long-lasting alliances with the Mossawa Center and with Friends of Mossawa (501(c)(3)) in the US that reflect mutual commitments to human rights, civil liberties, and respect to minorities.
We will update the schedule in the coming days and will notify you accordingly. The cities we will be heading to and their corresponding dates tentatively are:
- LA, October 8-10: Mossawa will be hosted by The American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) for the 2021 Alex Odeh Memorial Conference, additionally we will meet human rights organizations and activists.
- San Diego, October 10-11: we will meet supporters and community activists
- NY, October 12-16: we will meet Human Rights organization, UN representatives, community leaders and supporters.
- DC, October 17-21: we will meet members of Congress and Senate, Think tanks and Friends of the Mossawa Center in Virginia.
Over the past couple of years, the Palestinian Arab minority in Israel has experienced a unprecedented series of attacks on their civil, democratic, and human rights.
During the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Palestinian Arab community suffers from a lack of healthcare infrastructure and direct neglect by the Israeli government. At the same time, the political stalemate in Israel led to critical government funding drying up, further exacerbating inequality and gaps between the Palestinian Arab and Jewish communities.
Even with a new Israeli government, Palestinian Arab citizens face heavy discrimination on all fronts. In terms of the State Budget, only about 9 billion shekels ($2.78b) out of the allocated 15 billion ($4.64b) were spent over the past 5 years to develop the Palestinian Arab community. Moreover, the Palestinian Arab community’s needs require at least another 9.4 billion shekels ($2.91b) to be allocated for it in the 2022 State Budget as it lags in everything from healthcare to education to housing.
In May of 2021, Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel faced some of the most severe persecution in decades. Racist Jewish lynch mobs in countless cities all over the country viciously attacked Palestinian Arab citizens and destroyed their property and businesses, all the while chanting “death to Arabs.” Under the subsequent "Operation Law and Order" - a mass detention campaign aimed at terrorizing the Palestinian Arab community into silence – over 2,150 Palestinian Arab citizens were arrested, including 300 minors, of whom 350 were served indictments.
However, the harsh crackdown on the demonstrations by the Israeli government showed just how much untapped potential Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel have in leading a movement that would disrupt the status quo in Israel and bring about real, long-lasting change to the region.
We will cover all of these topics and more in our tour. For more information about these events or for details regarding the tour, please contact Suha Salman Mousa at suha@mossawa.org.
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