Dear friends,
At a time when Covid-19 has been sweeping through Palestine, Israel’s response has been the outpouring of more brutality upon the Palestinian people. The highest number of demolitions were recorded since 2016 along with the single highest case of mass demolitions for the last ten years. ICAHD UK has worked hard to spread awareness of these gross violations of international law and to lobby parliamentarians. However due to the pandemic, ICAHD UK had to cancel all public events and opportunities that we had for fund-raising. Our targets for 2020 have not been met so we need your help.
During this unprecedented time with lockdowns and restrictions, ICAHD UK has adapted its work accordingly through providing webinars on a range of topics that have reached hundreds of people. In addition to our monthly newsletters, we have sent out mid-monthly bulletins with identified actions people can take. We have engaged in new relationships for our campaigns which have enabled our members to make effective contributions which have raised our profile and broadened our influence.
In addition, ICAHD UK is committed to advocating for a political end game as defined by the One Democratic State Campaign (ODSC) as being the only fair, inclusive and ultimately viable way forward. We applaud the fact that it is led by Palestinians and Jewish stakeholders and we want to add our support to ensure its expanding influence.
We appeal to you now to help us remain on the cutting edge. We are delighted that during 2020, our membership has increased by 21.5% from 255 members to 310. However, we are still small and as we are political and not a charity, access to grants is extremely restricted. Therefore we very much rely on membership and donations.
We are most grateful to those of you who are already contributing and enabling us to function so far. But we do need more funds to be able to continue with plans for 2021.
If you are not a member, please join. Can our existing members commit to recruiting another new member for ICAHD UK or increase your monthly standing order amount? Maybe you prefer to provide a one-off donation as a gift to us this holiday season. And if you are part of a local organisation, could you suggest that it commit to fund-raising for ICAHD UK during the coming year? Any action you take will be highly appreciated.
Let us remain united in the struggle to end home demolitions and strengthen the call for a just and sustainable solution for all. Thank you.
Best wishes,
Linda Ramsden, Director ICAHD UK
Monica Wusteman, Chair ICAHD UK