Israeli and Palestinian civil society initiatives slashed
By Deborah Danan
JTA
March 18, 2025
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Just over four years ago, Congress... allocated up to $250 million for Israeli-Palestinian people-to-people peace-building efforts...
"The Nita M. Lowey Middle East Partnership for Peace Act (MEPPA)... immediately became the largest investment of any single country in Israeli-Palestinian civil society initiatives...
"'It took years to get MEPPA passed, and when it was passed, it never occurred to anyone that it could be terminated by the president,' said Dan McDonald, a career civil servant who has overseen MEPPA's implementation at USAID since its launch. 'After years of carefully building these structures to see them all smashed to pieces in just moments is just one of many global tragedies that are playing out right now.'
"Among the 27 civil society organizations to have their funds slashed: the Parents Circle, which had been promised $540,000 to amplify young Israelis and Palestinians calling for nonviolence; Women Wage Peace, one of whose prominent volunteers was murdered when Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023; and the Jerusalem Youth Chorus, which appeared on "America's Got Talent" last July and announced in December that it had been allocated $500,000.
"Some of the grantees received much larger gifts - including $3.3 million to EcoPeace, which uses sustainability as a centerpiece for relationship-building, and $5 million to Middle East Education Through Technology, which teaches coding and design to Israeli and Palestinian teens...
"The Alliance for Middle East Peace, a coalition of peace-building groups, says a quarter of its 160 member groups have expanded significantly since Oct. 7, while only a handful have contracted. Now, the MEPPA and broader USAID cuts are undercutting that growth, said John Lyndon, ALLMEP's executive director.
"'This is a very consequential and high-stakes moment for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, for the region, and to take the civil society actors who are working for peace and equality and coexistence off the playing field at this moment is a mistake,' Lyndon said..."
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