MIFTAH
Monday, 6 May. 2024
 
Your Key to Palestine
The Palestinian Initiatives for The Promotoion of Global Dialogue and Democracy
 
 
 

Dear Mr. Baskin,

This is the public response of the Firedoll Foundation to the open letter. You are free to circulate it with the other responses.

Faye Straus
Firedoll Foundation

Response to the Open Letter Regarding Palestinian-Israeli Cooperation in Health

As a funder with an emphasis on Israeli/Palestinian peace and justice issues, it is the position of the Firedoll Foundation that many valid points are raised in the Open Letter. We support Israeli/Palestinian cooperation in the areas of peace advocacy, ending the Occupation of the Palestinian Territories, health, the environment, and human rights. However, an essential component that we look for in the organizations that we fund is equality of decision making and determination of priorities.

Such equality is difficult in a situation in which Palestinian land is being expropriated and Palestinian orchards and olive groves are being torn up on a daily basis for the construction of the Wall (Barrier, if you like); where Palestinians are confined to restricted areas and can only travel from one to another with Israeli permission; where there are literally hundreds of checkpoints restraining Palestinian movement; where most recently Palestinian homes are threatened with demolition for the creation of an Israeli archeological park.

We have received a number of requests for funding of cooperation projects which involve Palestinians participants traveling to Israel or other countries for conferences, workshops and seminars. That travel is subject to Israeli approval. In many cases the Palestinians are denied visas and are consequently not able to participate. That is a basic inequality, which we believe the funding community should find unacceptable.

Palestinian NGO's should not be subjected to pressure from the funding community to engage in co-existence projects which they feel do not meet the critical needs of Palestinian communities for health care, economic survival, and basic human rights. Aid to Palestinian organizations should not be contingent upon Israeli involvement. Given the dire conditions in the Occupied Territories, such prerequisites border on coercion.

We cannot help but wonder whether this letter might have been triggered by the recent action by the United States Congress placing restrictions on the $200 million in aid which President Bush requested for the Palestinian Authority. Of that $200 million, Congress specified that $50 million be allocated to Israel for the building of terminals at checkpoints, $2 million to Hadassah, and $20 million to the Palestinian authority for the payment of bills owed to an Israeli electric company.

The Firedoll Foundation will continue to fund Israeli/Palestinian cooperation efforts that meet the criteria of true partnership in advocating for a just peace, working to end to the Occupation, and addressing the needs of the Palestinian people in the areas of health, economic survival, and human rights.

Faye and Sandor Straus
Firedoll Foundation

 
 
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