“For folks who naively believe we’re simplifying the Palestinian issue, they are not taking seriously the power of narrative and grievances,” Lara Friedman says. “How long have Jews held fast to ‘next year in Jerusalem’?”

“It’s very clear that the overarching goal here is to eliminate the Palestinian refugees as an issue by defining them out of existence,” FMEP’s Lara Friedman tells Foreign Policy.

The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People (CEIRPP) and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) jointly convened an international conference under the theme “The Question of Jerusalem after 50 years of Occupation and 25 years of the Oslo Accords” in Rabat, Morocco from 26-28 June 2018. FMEP’s Lara Friedman appeared on a plenary examining the political and social status of Palestinians in East Jerusalem today.

On Tuesday, Sanders released a video montage on Twitter, embossed with his campaign logo, that cross-cut between the inauguration ceremony of the Jerusalem embassy this week and the violence that unfolded in the Gaza Strip. It also included segments from a panel discussion the Brooklyn native participated in with Lara Friedman, who heads the left-wing Foundation for Middle East Peace, Joe Cirincione, president of Ploughshares Fund, and Rob Malley, a former Obama administration official.

On May 29, 2018, Foreign Policy Interrupted — which elevates the voices of women experts in foreign policy and national security – published its list of “Interruptors on Israel and Palestine,” including FMEP President Lara Friedman.

Lara Friedman talks to the Jerusalem Post about how current law could require the US to withdraw from UN agencies which the Palestinian Authority joins as a full member.

FMEP President Lara Friedman participates in a live town hall event hosted by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT).

The Center for a New American Security (CNAS) and the Brookings Institution’s Center for Middle East Policy today announced the creation of their Future of U.S. Foreign Policy Toward Gaza Task Force. The task force will examine U.S. options for addressing the ongoing crisis in the Gaza Strip and convene a series of sessions over the next six months to tackle these issues. These issues include (but are not limited to) the near-term humanitarian challenges as well as the long-term political problems plaguing the Gaza Strip. FMEP President Lara Friedman was announced as a member of the task force.

“You can’t claim to have principles and then demand that Israel be held to a different and lower standard.” Lara Friedman comments for the American Conservative on the support the Israel Anti-Boycott Act enjoys among some Democratic lawmakers.

Friedman, from the Foundation for Middle East Peace, points to an op-ed written by Amb. Friedman in February 2016, in which he argued that the two-state solution “has never been a solution, only a narrative,” and that “even the narrative itself now needs to end.”

“It is clear that the Trump administration seeks to return U.S. policy to the pre-peace process era, when pressure on Israel to end the occupation was anathema, the notion of a Palestinian state was political heresy, and the Palestinian national cause was synonymous with terrorism,” Lara Friedman added in an email. “In this context, legislation like the Taylor Force Act has far greater and more insidious implications.”