Watch recording of his webinar which marked ICAHD’s 25th Anniversary, (20 July 2022)
ICAHD, the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, was founded in July 1997 – 25 years ago. It has expanded its focus on home demolitions to become an influential and strategic political organization dedicated to decolonizing Israel, restoring to the Palestinians their national heritage and sovereignty in their historic homeland (including the in-gathering of the refugees) and establishing a single democracy inclusive of both peoples in a shared civic state.
That’s a long way to travel! In its years of political work and evolution, ICAHD has never lost its focus on resisting the demolition of Palestinian homes. We have rebuilt 189 demolished homes over the years as political acts of joint resistance with Palestinian communities and families. We also raise this key (and enormously painful) element of Israel’s expanding apartheid regime in international forums.
But much has happened in the past quarter-century. While ICAHD remains focused on house demolitions, we must also respond politically to events, which has led us into a joint liberation struggle with our Palestinian partners. ICAHD is today a critical member of the Palestinian-led One Democratic State Campaign. In our political journey we have evolved from a group of local Israeli activists protesting house demolitions to a political organization with branches abroad advocating for a political endgame: a single democracy. ICAHD’s evolution as a political organization contains valuable lessons for other civil society groups seeking to effect political change. Those lessons were the focus of this webinar marking ICAHD’s 25th Anniversary.
The speakers were:
Jeff Halper, ICAHD’s Director since its founding
Linda Ramsden, the Director of ICAHD UK
Ata Jaber, a Palestinian farmer whose home has been demolished twice and rebuilt by ICAHD.
There were also comments from Michael Spath, Co-Chair of ICAHD USA, Syksy Rasanen of ICAHD Finland and Doris Flack & Claus Walischewski of ICAHD Germany.
Watch this critical review of the political evolution and strategy of a grassroots organization battling the vastly superior forces of colonization, imperialism and militarism.