ICAHD is an anti-colonial organization based in Jerusalem, dedicated to ending the Zionist colonial project of settling and Judaizing Palestine, supporting the Palestinians in their struggle for national liberation and working with all those living between the River and the Sea to usher in a just and inclusive post-colonial future.
ICAHD was founded in 1997 as the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions by a number of Israeli peace organizations (hence the term “committee’) following the assassination of Rabin, the election of Netanyahu and the collapse of the Oslo “peace process.” Conceived initially as an activist organization, it took its focus – resisting the demolition of Palestinian homes, a key part of Israel’s ethnic cleansing strategy – after consultations with its Palestinian partners. Over the past three decades, ICAHD activists have not only blocked demolitions but have hosted thirteen international work camps and rebuilt almost 200 Palestinian homes, political acts of resistance done together with our Palestinian partners and the local community.
As we learned more of how Israel operated in the Occupied Territory, what its political intentions were and how all that impacted the Palestinians, we began sharing our knowledge and experiences with others. Our advocacy campaign, expanding beyond the house demolition issue itself to a wider political analysis, has produced a wealth of reports, articles, books, webinars and conferences and the international speaking tours for which ICAHD is so well known; valuable resource materials such as political maps, slide presentations and films; and opportunities to experience Palestinian life under apartheid and suppression through in-depth study tours. In all this, ICAHD provides a unique perspective, that of critical, anti-colonial Israelis embedded in the Israeli reality yet intimately familiar with events in the Occupied Territory, working closely with Palestinian partner organizations and communities.
While ICAHD still magnifies the voices of anti-colonial Israelis as well as Palestinians “on the ground,” and while we continue our focus on house demolitions, we have removed the term “Israeli” from our name, now referring to ourselves simply as ICAHD. As it has become ever clearer that we are engaged in a joint struggle against Zionist settler colonialism with our Palestinian comrades, the term “Israeli” became a contradiction. The political logic of decolonizing Palestine leads inexorably to the replacement of Israel and its occupation by a single civil democracy offering equal rights to all living between the River and the Sea, the return of the refugees and their descendants to their lands and the restoration of Palestinian national rights in their homeland. In this there is no “Israeli” component in the sense of an Israeli-Jewish state; it is replaced and folded into the broader post-colonial polity. Using the term “Israeli” implies a two-state solution, the partition of Palestine and the normalization of a colonial entity, which we consider unacceptable.
Additionally, the ongoing genocide in Gaza and its extension into the West Bank has made it impossible for us to identify ourselves as an Israeli organization any long. That political entity has lost, and in fact never had, a political, legal or moral justification. We can no longer even appear to represent a genocidal state even as we work towards its end. Nor can we expect our Palestinian partners, the Palestinian people as a whole or progressives anywhere to cooperate with an organization that defines itself as “Israeli.” And so, we remain simply ICAHD, with our long and proud history of resistance and strategic political struggle.
Today, ICAHD has evolved into a hybrid, politically-attuned and strategic organization dedicated as always to ending Zionist colonialism, supporting the Palestinian struggle for their national rights in Palestine, and working for a just post-colonial state and society. To those ends we engage in action-oriented analysis and strategy, together with resistance on the ground, all with our Palestinian, critical Israeli and international partners. In that, ICAHD is represented by three chapters abroad – ICAHD UK, ICAHD USA and ICAHD Germany – each promoting ICAHD’s agenda through advocacy campaigns, hosting conferences, webinars and public meetings, lobbying political leaders, working with the media, initiating solidarity actions and fund-raising.