Dear LendforPeace community,
In recent months Lendforpeace.org has been on the receiving end of significant criticism stemming from the false perception that we are formally associated or aligned with J-StreetU’s “Invest, Don’t Divest” campaign.
Regrettably, the LFP team failed to realize how being promoted by Invest, Don’t Divest would create the false perception that LendforPeace.org is aligned with their campaign. This perception is unequivocally false: Lendforpeace.org has never endorsed the Invest, Don’t Divest campaign. Obviously, the LFP team believes that we have a responsibility to promote investing in Palestinian entrepreneurs, and by extension, investment in the “context for a sustainable peace”. Here our mission resonates with the investment campaign promoted by J-StreetU. However, our organizational commitment to this type of investment is predicated on our organizational opposition to Palestinian poverty, not any sort of political allegiance to J-Street U or any other political movement. We sincerely hope that no one committed to our vision of opportunity and peace in the Middle East suggests otherwise.
Like the large community of people who have used the Lendforpeace.org platform, the LFP team is comprised of a diverse collection of cultural identities and political convictions. We each have our own individual feelings about campaigns like Invest, Don’t Divest, but as an organization these feelings are superseded by a shared commitment to ending Palestinian poverty. While enthusiastically inviting you to join us in actualizing this commitment, we also must ask that you not do so in a way that misrepresents our mission and our community by advertently or inadvertently associating us with a broader political initiative. LendforPeace is and will continue to be a non-political organization, whose mission is to use microfinance to support Palestinian entrepreneurs who are trying to start small businesses so that they can provide for their families and build-up their communities. For some, this mission may seem too narrow, but for the more than 50% of Palestinians who live in poverty, deprived of their right to self-sufficiency and self-determination, we can assure you it is not.
Thank you for your continued support. Please do not hesitate to email our Outreach Director, Garret (garret@lendforpeace.org), with any questions or concerns raised by this letter.
In peace,
The LFP team
