In that context, Jeff proceeds to respond to developments that led to the ICAHD chapters making this decision. The conclusions are:
We have not changed our acronym – ICAHD has become a brand name with a long and proud history that we are dedicated to continuing – but we have not found a suitable name change. (The natural choice, the International Coalition Against House Demolitions, while true with all our branches and affiliates, does not by itself locate us in Palestine/Israel.) And so, we will remain simply ICAHD, defined by our strap line: Resisting Apartheid, Constructing a Shared Democracy in Historic Palestine.
If people ask what ICAHD means, we can refer them to our political history, which itself is instructive. But our name change reflects what we truly are: a political organization dedicated to decolonization and the rise of a just and inclusive post-colonial state and society in historic Palestine, one that evolves as the political situation demands.
We trust that you are encouraged by this step we have taken.
Best wishes, Linda Ramsden Director https://www.facebook.com/pages/Israeli-Committee-Against-House-Demolitions-UK/366423593418140 Facebook https://www.twitter.com/ICAHDUK/ Twitter http://icahduk.org Website mailto:info@icahduk.org Email
24 July 2025
Dear *|FNAME|*, ICAHD’s Name Change In Jeff Halper’s July video update, he referred to the decision to drop “Israeli” from our name. The full explanation about this, starting with ICAHD’s founding, is on the website and we encourage you to read about the fascinating historical journey that it has been on which has led up to this decision.
In the one-state program, “Israeli” has no political legitimacy
That has led us to a one-state program in which there is no “Israeli” component in the political sense of a national group with the right to a state of its own. Since “Israel” is a settler colonial entity with no political legitimacy that will be replaced by the post-colonial polity, the term “Israeli” loses the political signification it had when ICAHD was formed. To the degree that ICAHD still represents critical Israeli Jewish voices that in the present context still have a role to play, it will continue to amplify them, important as they are. However, we will not be known as the Israeli Committee since that implies the acceptance of an Israeli political nationalism that continues to support the existence of a “Jewish” state, which ICAHD does not.
The term “Israeli” has become toxic
An additional reason for removing the term “Israeli” from our name is that it has become toxic, even to its Israeli and Jewish members. We can no longer justify, let alone represent, a genocidal state even as we work towards its end. Nor can we expect our Palestinian partners, the Palestinian people as a whole or progressives everywhere to cooperate with an organization that defines itself as “Israeli.” For both these reasons, the anti-colonial nature of ICAHD and the justified inability of other organizations to work with an “Israeli” group, we have removed the term.
Link to the full article on the website
Please note that this name change does not necessitate a change to the ICAHD UK Memorandum and Articles of Understanding due to the wording contained in it.
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