Media

  • Congressional Republicans Launch ‘Fishing Expedition’ Against Progressive, Jewish, and Palestinian Nonprofits (Reason)

    “…’This is part of a broader effort to demonize parts of the tax-exempt sector that a part of the Republican Party views as a key target in the war on woke,’ says Lara Friedman, president of the nonprofit Foundation for Middle East Peace, which has been tracking Congress’ stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. ‘If you make this about supposedly fighting antisemitism, you bring parts of the Democratic Party with you.'” and “Friedman, the Foundation for Middle East Peace president, believes that the congressional letter is more likely to have a ‘chilling effect’ on nonprofits than to turn up any real evidence of illegal activity. ‘It’s partly a fishing expedition,’ she says. ‘And by lodging an accusation, they hope to paint a picture in the mind of the public.'”

  • Anti-Defamation League ramps up lobbying to promote controversial definition of antisemitism (The Guardian)

    “Critics have said the ADL has aligned itself with rightwing organizations, which was a central issue in the 2022 Drop the ADL campaign calling on progressives not to work with the group. The group has also joined forces with rightwing donors and groups pushing for the same legislation, said Lara Friedman, president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace. ‘The way that ADL and company are arguing for Jewish safety makes a zero-sum battle between that and the right to protest, and it’s weird for an organization like the ADL to play a key role in accrediting that paradigm,’ Friedman said.”

  • Campus protest crackdowns claim to be about antisemitism – but they’re part of a rightwing plan (The Guardian)

    “In a tactic familiar from the post-9/11 landscape, GOP lawmakers and civil society leaders from groups like the ADL and the Brandeis Center have endeavored to paint student protesters and groups as ‘terrorists’. This is bad news for activists across the country: a 2024 report by the Center for Constitutional Rights details how ‘core features’ of US antiterrorism law, ‘driven by anti-Palestinian agendas’, were ‘expanded and ‘brought home’ to repress other protest movements’, including the Black Lives Matter movement and the protests against the ‘Cop City’ Atlanta police training center. As early as next week, the Senate could vote on a bill designed to penalize criticism of Israel by suspending tax-exempt status for ‘terrorist supporting organizations’ – which Lara Friedman, president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace, said would ‘dispense with the due process’ and empower ‘a single US official to act as prosecutor, judge, jury, and executioner of [American] orgs whose viewpoints that official disagrees with’.

  • Settlement & Annexation Report: May 10, 2024

    Welcome to FMEP’s Weekly Settlement Report, covering everything you need to know about Israeli settlement activity this week. To subscribe to this report, please click here.…

  • FMEP Legislative Round-Up: May 10, 2024

    1. Bills, Resolutions 2. Congress Continues to Stoke Hysteria Over Student Protests for Palestinian Rights 3. Letters 4. Hearings & Markups 5. Selected Media &…