Dear Friend,

The end of this year marks an incredibly difficult and uncertain time for our community.

We have borne witness to genocide in Gaza, the growing violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, and the devastating bombing and invasion of Lebanon. At the same time, we’ve seen the fall of the Assad regime and the invasion and bombing of Syria. While you and I, together with our allies, protest, and do all we can to save lives, too many of our leaders in Washington have failed us. We bear the pain of this unspeakable loss while these leaders continue the same tired and failed approaches.

It cuts even deeper because there is no end in sight and our own tax dollars and government allow the genocide to continue. This horrifying reality remains true even though, as we saw in our recent poll, most Americans want to halt military aid to Israel.

As we head into 2025, we know we will continue to fight for an end to the genocide in Gaza, but we will have new and significant challenges ahead. Whether that is defending our students, the First Amendment right to speak for Palestinian human rights, protecting immigrants, DACA recipients, birthright citizenship, or Temporary Protected Status for those fleeing violence and disasters in Arab countries and around the world – we will not shy from the fights ahead.

AAI’s work is nonstop but, together with you, we are a force. On all fronts, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Sudan, the MENA category, voting rights, free speech, and hate crimes, Arab American concerns are heard because of you and your support. It has never been more true that our small, committed staff is outperforming the moment in which we find ourselves.

While no one can predict what 2025 will bring, the leadership role AAI holds in key policy areas makes us ready for what’s ahead.

As you likely know, most of the policy work AAI takes on is funded through foundation grants. But, for the issues that are deeply personal and held closely in our hearts, like Palestine, Lebanon, and free speech, AAI does not get a lot of foundation support. Those fights are powered by you and people like you. That is why we need your continued support. I know for certain that AAI must raise $400,000 to be able to fight the way you want us to in 2025.

Over 40 years, our record together has fostered an Arab American community commitment to service. Because you support this value of service, Arab Americans continue to win mayoral races, city council races, school board races, statehouse races, congressional races, and they serve as leaders in every single professional field. You made this possible.

With you, we’ve achieved so much together but ugly barriers to our full participation still exist. These include the Palestine exception to free speech, bigotry and hate, profiling, and voter suppression. We want to share with you some of the ways our AAI team has tackled these barriers, and how, with your continued support, we will take the fight into 2025.

Our decades-long advocacy to secure a Middle East and North African (MENA) ethnic category on the census came to be in 2024 and now our focus must me on protecting it and the fight for data equity, making sure critical data about our community is available for health research and delivery, education, and so much more. This highly technical work will have an impact for generations, and AAI is proud to be the trusted policy source and lead on this issue!

AAI continues to lead in combating the hate crime crisis through our advocacy and integral analysis of hate crime data. Our Executive Director Maya Berry continues to serve as the co-chair of the Hate Crimes Task Force at the Leadership Conference for Civil and Human rights, making a difference for Arab Americans and all communities affected by hate. Indeed, just this fall, Maya testified on the rise in hate crime before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Although a Senator’s racist attack nearly derailed the hearing, Maya spoke eloquently for more hate crime legislation and greater recognition of anti-Arab bigotry. From addressing the remaining loopholes in federal reporting to raising incidents up to the highest levels of government, our anti-hate and bias work is critical—and clearly much-needed in the current backlash we are experiencing. We also have big plans for 2025 including a new hate crime report.

Maya and I will continue working around the clock to make sure the Administration, Congress, and the media hear your concerns. We started 2024 by convening an Emergency Summit for Gaza alongside Rev. Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow/PUSH Coalition. That convening centered Palestine, civil liberties, faith and foreign policy voices to demonstrate the breadth of support for an immediate ceasefire for Gaza.

With the increased targeting of our community because of their stand for Palestinian lives throughout 2024, we spoke directly to Attorney General Merrick Garland and to Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona about the need to investigate hate crimes and threats against our students' right to free speech. At the same time, AAI staff worked directly with student activists to submit complaints to the Department of Education to protect their rights against discrimination. Our solidarity with protesters extended even to feeding those in the campus encampments through your generous support. When the Administration was not heeding our concerns for Palestinian human rights, we put polls in the field to examine U.S. and Arab American attitudes on the genocide in Gaza. The data, which was covered widely by the media, confirmed what we all know – Americans want to end unconditional support for Israel, and they want to save Palestinian lives.

Knowing that our concerns were intentionally being kept off the official programs and stages of the RNC and DNC nominating conventions, AAI joined with key allies for an alternative convention – one focused squarely on Palestinian liberation and elevating the Palestinian voices not heard by either convention. The event attracted media attention and helped to educate new allies for the fight ahead.

Our concerns have been picked up by the New York Times, Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Rolling Stone, NPR, CNN, CNNI, Democracy Now, and the Nation, to name a few. We are also coordinating our actions and keeping in regular contact with other national Arab American organizations and other coalition partners.

Finally, my weekly Coffee and Column conversations continue to bring hundreds together to discuss the challenges to our democracy, the significance of Palestine, and so many other important topics. We have built a community in conversation, and in some cases, it has translated to actions on the issues we all care about so much. We will continue to build in 2025, but your support is critical now.

Your support is what keeps this work going. Your $250, $1,000, or $5,000 donation can help change the narrative. A contribution at any level will help—when it comes to advocating for our community, every dollar matters.

-Jim

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Arab American Institute Foundation
1600 K Street, NW, Suite 601
Washington, DC 20006
United States