Peacebuilders Gather at Jerusalem Summit; USAID Funds Frozen

By Judith Sudilovsky
eJewishPhilanthropy
February 6, 2025

"This month, Amal-Tikva, a leading NGO in the peace-building field, which aims to build capacity for sustainable and scalable peace-building activities between Israelis and Palestinians, brought together 37 other leading NGOs from both communities to discuss the critical role of civil society in revitalizing peace efforts...

"Amal-Tikva co-founder and CEO Meredith Rothbart emphasized that now is the crucial time for meaningful discussions about peace and noted that Amal-Tikva has developed a framework for how both sides can collaborate to achieve it despite the extremely complex times when everyone has been affected by Oct. 7 and the war.

"'Every single one of us has been touched in different ways. And at the same time, we've seen increased interest from NGOs, higher-level, farther-reaching NGOs, donors that want to be engaged.'

"According to a survey conducted by Amal-Tikva, 70% of peace-building NGOs continued to operate their pre-Oct. 7 programs binationally following the outbreak of the war, and 85% of all programs continued to operate, 60% in person...

"Some of the participants at the conference were among the organizations affected by President Donald Trump's order for a 90-day freeze on foreign aid pending a policy review, as The Middle East Partnership for Peace Act - the U.S. legislation responsible for providing $250 million over five years to support peacebuilding between Israelis and Palestinians - will likely be frozen."

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