Media

  • Flawed IHRA antisemitism definition reaches Ontario

    “As Lara Friedman, president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace, has written, the IHRA definition is being used to ‘exclude criticism of Israel from the bounds of acceptable discourse.’”

  • Middle East Monitor: Pompeo in Israel: Three announcements that cement ‘apartheid’

    “Lara Friedman, president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace (FMEP), said the move was unprecedented in US policy. ‘This is brand new ground. There’s nothing comparable to it.’ Friedman told MEE that most organisations would not be able to certify that they don’t distinguish between settlements and Israel. ‘There are global NGOs that work around the world – and consistent with international law, with EU policy, with the values of human rights and civil rights, they differentiate between Israel and settlements,’ she said. ‘If this policy is implemented as it’s articulated by the State Department, it means that those organisations will not be able to be partners with the US anywhere in the world.’ …Friedman said Pompeo’s statement, in effect, annexes both the land and the people who live in Area C. ‘This is essentially the US recognising Israeli sovereignty and Area C – all of it.’ She added that the move exposes the two competing positions of pro-Israel advocates in the US who don’t meaningfully oppose annexation as they hold on to the two-state solution and vehemently push back against the idea of a single state with equal rights. ‘Palestinians living in Area C do not enjoy the same rights as Jewish Israelis in Area C – let alone Israelis inside Israel. Full stop. They live under a different legal regime. That is apartheid,’ Friedman said.”

    “I mean it’s the strangest thing: We actually have unprecedented clarity from the US administration in terms of seeing the West Bank as permanently part of Israel and saying it.

  • ‘Til Kingdom Come’: IDFA Review

    “…other warning voices include Lara Friedman, president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace, who sees Israeli settlers and US evangelicals as alike in their ideological pursuit of what they consider a holy agenda…What emerges from the film is not only a disturbing picture of how extremist political and religious agendas are connected, but also a sense of the contradictions involved, including – as Friedman points out – the dubious question for Jews of getting into bed with the far right.”