| Founder(s) | Jeff Halper Amos Gvirtz Rabbi Arik Ascherman Meir Margalit Yoav Hess Yael Cohen |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1997 |
| Location | Main Office – Jerusalem, Israel U.S. branch – Chapel Hill, North Carolina U.K branch – London Norwegian branch – Tromsø |
| Key people | Jeff Halper – Director/Coordinator Itay Epshtain – Co-Director (formerly of Amnesty International)[1] Meir Margalit Salim Shawamreh Hibat Mahroum |
| Area served | Israel, Palestinian Territories |
| Employees | 8 |
| Motto | Constructing homes, constructing peace |
| Website | ICAHD, ICAHD-USA |
The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) is an Israeli peace and human rights organization dedicated to ending the occupation of the Palestinian territories and achieving a just peace between Israelis and Palestinians. In particular, ICAHD uses non-violent, direct-action means of resistance to end Israel's policy of demolishing Palestinian homes in the Occupied Territories.[2] ICAHD was founded by eight peace activists (see box), among whom was Jeff Halper, a long-time human rights advocate and professor of Anthropology, who serves as ICAHD's Director.
ICAHD opposes the continued Israeli occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem and the building and enlarging of Israeli-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."[3] 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.[4]
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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.[5] 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.[6]
ICAHD sends out action alerts and activists from different groups go out and engage in civil disobedience by stopping the bulldozers.[6]
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 Tromsø.
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."[7] 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.[8][9] American folk-singing legend Pete Seeger also donates part of the royalties from his song "Turn, Turn, Turn" (To everything there is a season) (based on the words of King Solomon from the book of Ecclesiastes) to ICAHD. [10]
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."[11]
In 2007, ICAHD received the Olive Branch Award from Jewish Voice for Peace.
The pro-Israel advocacy groups CAMERA and NGO Monitor have criticized ICAHD for its activities. 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".[12]
NGO Monitor says[13] that ICAHD "consistently ignores the context of ongoing Palestinian terror attacks", and asserts that ICAHD, "promote[s] the "Durban Strategy" of boycotts and demonizing Israel, using terms such as "apartheid",[14][15] "ethnic cleansing",[16][17][18] "state terrorism",[19] "land theft"[20] and a "massacre."[21][22]
In addition, Malcolm Hoenlein, in 2007, then executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, said ICAHD was "trying to talk about demolitions without presenting the reason or truth for it. They couch it in more moderate terms but the anti-Israel purpose is clear."[23]