Statement of Principles

Learn about AMP’s stances on particular issues related to Palestinian rights.

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The American Muslims for Palestine is an American organization founded by Americans in 2006. Our sole purpose is to educate the American public and media about issues related to Palestine and its rich cultural and historical heritage. 

We work to put a human face on Palestinians so the public will come to know them as people with the same aspirations, hopes and dreams for freedom and justice that we as Americans hold dear. We also work to educate the public and media about Israel’s occupation of Palestine, the last and longest-lasting occupation in the world. We shed light on the plight of the more than 7 million Palestinian refugees, the largest and longest-lasting group of refugees in the world. We work to highlight Israel’s flagrant and continual violations of international law and human rights abuses of Palestinians in the construction of settlements, the apartheid wall and the more than 600 checkpoints, obstacles and other barriers to the freedom of movement. We expose Israel’s denial of civil rights to its Palestinian citizens, including a segregated school system, the denial of services to Palestinians living in so-called ‘unrecognized villages,’ and the prohibition of certain fields of study and careers. 

We do all this in the fervent belief that when Americans come to know about Israel’s occupation of Palestine and how our tax dollars support it, they will not stand for it and will pressure Congress to create a more balanced Middle East foreign policy that grants equal rights for everyone who lives in the Holy Land. 

We are a strictly an American organization working for Americans in America. We are donor-funded. All of our fundraising is conducted within the United States; all of our funds and work is kept within the US. We are an independent, American organization and not affiliated with any foreign entities or organizations. 

Our positions on key Palestinian issues

One State vs. Two States

The American Muslims for Palestine does not take a position on the resolution for Palestinian self-determination. We respect and support the right for Palestinians to choose for themselves. 

Refugees and Right of Return

AMP unequivocally supports the right of return as in individual right enshrined in international law. UN Resolution 194 guarantees the right of return of Palestinians; and Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights says, “Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his or her own, and return to it.”

Settlements

The construction of settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem violate international law, namely the Fourth Geneva Convention, which stipulates that an occupying power is prohibited from transferring its population into the land it is occupying. AMP asserts that Israel is constructing settlement blocs strategically in order to divide the West Bank in order to annex more Palestinian land illegally and to isolate Palestinian communities into cantons and Bantustans, much like Apartheid South Africa. The creation of settlements also act as a vehicle for ethnic cleansing as the land they are built upon, and resulting buffer zones, displace Palestinians from their homes and villages. Currently, more than 500,000 Jews are living illegally in these settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. 

The official positions of AMP are present in official communiqués coming from the national office in the forms of press releases, action alerts, statements and educational emails, as well as from our designated speakers, which include our national leadership and authorized staff, when they are speaking in the capacity of AMP.