In a country known to have the most powerful and influential pro-Israel lobby in the world, the voice of Palestine could still be heard resonating in America through organizations that aim at changing public perception about the conflict and helping those reeling under occupation.
"We aim at giving Americans the full story. We want to give them the history and what is happening to Palestinians day to day," Alison Weir, founder and executive director of the If Americans Knew organization, told IslamOnline.net.
The group's mission is to educate the American public on issues that are unreported, or misreported in the American media about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
Weir, a longtime freelance journalist, founded the organization after traveling throughout the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip in 2001, to be shocked by a situation largely the opposite of what was being reported by the American media.
"We have a website aimed at the mainstream American public. We produce videos and give speeches all over the country. We also send written materials."
He believes Americans are deeply misinformed about what happens in the occupied Palestinian territories, because of the very filtered image they get.
"Imagine a man attacked by wild wolves, he would be shouting and if he has a gun he would fire it, he might also pray to God and ask for His help," says Weir.
"Now if you took a picture of that man without showing the wolves in it and showed it to people, they would see him a violent and a fanatic. While if they saw the whole picture, they would see that he is acting exactly as he should react.
"Americans just do not see the wolves."
Turning Point
The US Palestinian Community Network, an organization founded by Palestinians in the US in 2008, agrees that Americans are generally not well informed about the Palestinian plight.
But Musa Al-Hindi, member of the organization's coordinating committee, believes "great strides" have been made towards rectifying the negative image of the Palestinian struggle.
"However, it would be a mistake to think of this as a linear process. It is a struggle that has its ebbs and flows, advances and retreats."
David Hosey, the national media coordinator of the US Campaign to End the Israel Occupation, says last year's Israeli war on the Gaza Strip was a turning point.
"Gaza had a very big impact. We saw people coming out in the streets, sending letters to the Congress," he told IOL.
Nearly 1,400 Palestinians, half of them women and children, were killed in three weeks of Israeli air, land and sea attacks against the sealed off coastal enclave.
A UN fact-finding committee headed by world-renowned judge Richard Goldstone accused Israel of committing war crimes during the Gaza war.
Hosey says that there is a change of discourse even among politicians, with discussions now going on the floor of the Congress.
His organization, a coalition of some 320 groups nationwide that started in 2001, organizes campaigns to stop Americans' aid to Israel, specifically militarily.
"We give Israel about 3 billion dollars every year, and this aid should not be used to violate human rights," says Hosey.
"We want the US to stop its complicity and its support to the Israeli apartheid in Palestine. We don't want our policies to be the tools for violations of human rights and international laws."
He expects a bigger shift in the American discourse will come, but it just takes time.
Weir, the veteran journalist, is no less hopeful.
"Once the American public becomes informed accurately, they can change the situation."
Helping Hand
Al-Awda, whose name means "the return" in Arabic, is dedicated to raising awareness among Americans about the rights of Palestinian refugees.
"The majority of Palestinians are living in forced hijra, and we are advocating for their return," Dr. Zahi Damuni, co-founder of the Palestinian-American group and member of its National Coordinating Committee, told IOL.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, defines as refugees the descendants of Palestinian who fled or were forced out of their homes in 1948. Currently there are some 4.7 million registered refugees.
UN resolutions guarantee the right of return of Palestinian refugees, many still holding the keys and titles of their homes in what is now Israel.
But educating Americans is not the sole target of the group, which also extends a helping hand to refugees stranded in diaspora.
They work to empower refugees with projects that provide them with needed humanitarian aid.
"Our work for refugees support is extensive. For example, after the 2003 US invasion, Palestinians in Iraq have been stranded on the borders between Syria and Iraq," said Damuni.
"We are working very hard to connect these families to their community."
Dr. Peter Gubser, ex-chairman of the Friends of UNRWA and American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA), says both groups were founded to help Palestinians through their harsh conditions of live under the Israeli occupation.
He asserts that the Friends of UNRWA mission "is to help UNRWA help the refugees and to make mission the UNRWA mission better known in this country."
The group raises funds for UNRWA projects all across the US via the internet, or holding meetings to speak to Americans about Palestinians plight.
"Currently our support is primarily targeting Gaza, due to the difficult situation there."
The US Palestinian Community Network activists are also trying hard to help Palestinians.
"The USPCN is an arena where individuals and organizations come together to coordinate and refine strategies, link efforts, and plan united actions on behalf of Palestine," says Al-Hindi.
"Our primary goal is to empower our community."
By Dina Rabie, Islam Online
