Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions

Infobox Non-profit
Non-profit_name = Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions
Non-profit_
founded_date = 1997
founder = Jeff Halper Amos Gvirtz Rabbi Arik Ascherman Meir Margalit Yoav Hess Yael Cohen
location = Main Office - Jerusalem, Israel U.S. branch - Chapel Hill, N.C. U.K branch - London Norwegian branch - Tromso
origins =
key_people = Jeff Halper - Director/Coordinator Meir Margalit Angela Godfrey-Goldstein Salim Shawamreh Hibat Mahroum
area_served = Israel, Palestinian Territories
product =
focus =
method =
revenue =
endowment =
num_volunteers =
num_employees = 8
num_members =
subsib =
owner =
Non-profit_slogan = Build houses, build peace
homepage = [http://www.icahd.org ICAHD] , [http://icahdusa.org/ ICAHD-USA]
footnotes = The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) is nonprofit advocacy organization that uses non-violent, direct-action means to oppose and resist Israeli demolition of Palestinian homes in the Occupied Territories. [cite web
url=http://www.icahd.org/eng/about.asp?menu=2&submenu=1
title=What is ICAHD
publisher=Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions
accessdate=2007-08-10] It was founded by Jeff Halper, an American human rights activist and professor of Anthropology who immigrated to Israel in 1973.

ICAHD opposes the continued Israeli occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem and the building and enlarging of Jewish-only settlements in these areas. ICAHD states that "ending the Occupation is a prerequisite for peace and the primary goal of all of ICAHD's activities." [cite web
url=http://www.icahd.org/eng/articles.asp?menu=6&submenu=3
title=The key to Peace: Dismantling the Matrix of Control
author=Jeff Halper
publisher=Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions
accessdate=2007-08-10] ICAHD also focuses on preventing the "longstanding and ongoing human rights violations" and asserts that Israel's actions have led to an emerging apartheid regime in the Occupied Territories. [cite web
url=http://www.icahd.org/eng/campaigns.asp?menu=4&submenu=4
title= A Call for an anti-apartheid campaign as Israel prepares to make its occupation permanent
publisher=Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions
accessdate=2008-05-10]

Activities

ICAHD's activities include publication of books and articles on the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, international advocacy, and protest and non-violent resistance operations on the ground. It also organizes the rebuilding of demolished Palestinian houses using a network of Israeli, Palestinian and international volunteers. [cite web
url=http://icahd.org/eng/news.asp?menu=5&submenu=1&item=401
title=Announcing - 2007 ICAHD Summer Rebuilding Experience July 14 – July 29, 2007
publisher=Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions
date=December 11, 2006
accessdate=2007-08-10] In addition to rebuilding demolished Palestinian houses, ICAHD often takes legal actions on behalf of Palestinians whose houses have been demolished or are threatened with demolition (see example of Aqabah).

Members of ICAHD have been arrested numerous times by the Israeli army and police for attempting to prevent the demolition of Palestinian homes. Most recently, on April 3 2008, ICAHD Coordinator Jeff Halper was arrested for the eighth time while nonviolently protesting the bulldozing of the home of the Hamdan family in a Palestinian neighborhood of Jerusalem - a house that had already been torn down once by Israeli authorities and had been rebuilt by ICAHD. cite news
url=http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_3149.shtml
title= American Israeli Jeff Halper arrested for the 8th time in Jerusalem
publisher= Online Journal
date = 2008-04-08
accessdate=2008-05-19]

Typically, ICAHD will get a call at 5 a.m. from a Palestinian family telling them the bulldozers have arrived. ICAHD sends out an action alert and activists from different groups go out and engage in civil disobedience by standing up to the bulldozers.

International chapters

Because of the worldwide interest in its activities, ICAHD has set up chapters in several countries. ICAHD-USA is headquartered in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and is incorporated as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.

The United Kingdom branch, ICAHD-UK, is located in London, and the Norwegian branch is located in Tromso.

Funding

According to ICAHD’s website, its “activities . . . depend on assistance from individuals and organizations in Israel and abroad. ICAHD also receives financial support from the European Union.” [ [http://www.icahd.org/eng/support.asp?menu=7&submenu=1 'How you can help' (icahd.org)] ] For example, in 2005, the EU provided ICAHD with €472,786 for a project called "Re-framing: Providing a Coherent Paradigm of Peace to the Israeli Public" under the Partnership for Peace program. [ [http://www.euromedinfo.eu/site.300.content.en.html 'Middle East Peace Projects' (euromedinfo.eu)] ] [ [http://www.delisr.ec.europa.eu/english/content/cooperation_and_funding/3.asp 'EU Partnership for Peace Programme' by European commision's delegation to Israel] ]

Praise

In 2006, the American Friends Service Committee, a non-profit advocacy group that won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1947, nominated Jeff Halper for the Nobel Peace Prize due to his ICAHD-related work, citing ICAHD's work "to liberate both the Palestinian and the Israeli people from the yoke of structural violence" and "to build equality between their people by recognizing and celebrating their common humanity."cite press release
url= http://www.afsc.org/news/2006/nobel-nomination.htm
title= AFSC's nomination for the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize: Ghassan Andoni and Jeff Halper
publisher= American Friends Service Committee
date= 2006-02-14
accessdate= 2008-05-16]

In 2007, ICAHD received the Olive Branch Award from Jewish Voice for Peace.

Criticism

The pro-Israel advocacy groups CAMERA and NGO Monitor have criticized ICAHD for its activities. NGO Monitor alleges that ICAHD "consistently ignores the context of ongoing Palestinian terror attacks." CAMERA contends that Halper has made misstatements about Palestinian economic and agricultural growth, and has criticized Halper's view that a Jewish state with "exclusive "ownership"" is "politically, and in the end, morally untenable". NGO Monitor asserts that ICAHD, "promote [s] the “Durban Strategy” of boycotts and demonizing Israel, using terms such as "apartheid", and grossly distorting the Israeli-Palestinian conflict". [cite web|url=http://www.ngo-monitor.org/article/eu_funding_promotes_icahd_s_ideological_agenda
title=EU Funding Promotes ICAHD's Ideological Agenda
publisher=NGO Monitor
date=March 26, 2007
accessdate=2007-08-10] [cite web
url=http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=8&x_nameinnews=94&x_article=898
title=The Professor's Truth Demolition
publisher=Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America
date=May 12, 2005
author=Alex Safian, PhD
accessdate=2007-08-10] [cite web|url=http://www.ngo-monitor.org/article/eu_funding_promotes_icahd_s_ideological_agenda
title=EU Funding Promotes ICAHD's Ideological Agenda
publisher=NGO Monitor
date=March 26, 2007
accessdate=2007-08-10]

Notes

Publications

* Jeff Halper, [http://www.counterpunch.org/halper09192003.html End of the Road Map] , "Counterpunch", January 3, 2008
* Jeff Halper, [http://www.counterpunch.org/halper03312005.html The End of a Viable Palestinian State] , "CounterPunch", March 31, 2005
* Jeff Halper, " [http://www.sipa.columbia.edu/REGIONAL/IAS/documents/apartheid.doc Nishul (Displacement): Israel's Form of Apartheid] " An African Conversation on Israel and Palestine, Columbia University, 2002
* Jeff Halper, [http://www.mediamonitors.net/halper1.html The Matrix of Control] , "Media Monitors Network", January 29, 2001

See also

* Jeff Halper
*Israel and the apartheid analogy
* International Solidarity Movement
* Israeli-Palestinian conflict
* Jewish Voice for Peace
* Jews Against the Occupation
* List of Palestine solidarity organizations
* Machsom Watch
* Occupation of Palestine
* Peace Process in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
* The People's Voice
* Rachel Corrie
* NGO Monitor

External links

* [http://www.icahd.org/eng/ Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions]
* [http://www.icahduk.org/ ICAHD UK]
* [http://www.icahdusa.org ICAHD-USA]
* [http://www.ngo-monitor.org NGO Monitor website]
* [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5749615244432914878&hl=en Lecture: Jeff Halper - The United States, Israel and the American Jewish Community (video, 2007)]
* [http://www.tikkun.org/magazine/blogs/jeff-halper/ Jeff Halper's Blog] at Tikkun