Foundation for Middle East Peace

Its grantees include Americans for Peace Now, Al-Haq, IfNotNow, and Jewish Voice for Peace. ¹

The organization’s president, Lara Friedman, wrote an op-ed for the Huffington Post on February 20, 2017, titled “Israeli Occupation Is Poisoning America’s Democracy,” in which she argued that Americans should “pay attention to Israel” because the “same ‘Greater Israel’ agenda that has eroded Israeli society is today poisoning America’s democracy.” ²

Background

The Foundation for Middle East Peace (FMEP) is a left-of-center private grantmaking foundation that focuses on issues surrounding Israel and the the Palestinian territories. The organization was founded in 1979 by lawyer Merle Thorpe, Jr., who served as the director and sole principal of the group from its inception until 1994. ³

FMEP, through its research, grantmaking, and programming, states that it has a key set of priorities that includes “enabling” Palestinians to remain in Palestinian territories and “creating, expanding, and defending” criticism of Israel, and amplifying “Palestinian voices” in the media, on campus, and in public discourse. ⁴

Funding

The Foundation for Middle East Peace receives most of its revenue from contributions, gifts, and grants, as well as the sale of assets. As of 2020, total assets amounted to slightly more than $6 million. ⁵

The organization received a total of $145,000 in 2019 in the form of contributions, $204,190 from dividends, and $173,915 from the sale of its assets. In total, FMEP had a total revenue of $530,794 in 2019. Its total expenses for that year amounted to $963,268. ⁵

FMEP received $236,001 in contributions in 2020, $131,832 in dividends, and $123,864 due to the sale of assets. Its total revenue for the year amounted to $512,164. The organization’s total expenses were just over $1 million. Lara Friedman received $168,000 in compensation; FMEP ‘s director of grants, Kristin McCarthy, received $102,474 in compensation; and the organization’s director of programs, Sarah Anne Minkin, received $29,333 in compensation. ⁵

FMEP states on its website that it supports its “publication, education, outreach, and grant programs” with funds from an endowment from Merle Thorpe, Jr., its founder, as well as donations. ⁶

The Foundation for Middle East Peace has received contributions from private grantmaking organizations, including Open Society Foundations (OSF) affiliates and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. FMEP received $140,000 in both 2019 and 2020 from the Open Society Policy Center, the lobbying group associated with the Open Society Network and OSF. FMEP also received $140,000 from OSF directly in 2021, and $275,000 that same year via the Foundation to Promote Open Society, another major grantmaking foundation funded by liberal philanthropist George Soros. ⁷

FMEP has received two grants from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, a private grantmaking organization created in 1940 as the charity for the five sons of John D. Rockefeller, Jr. From 2013 through 2017, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund has contributed to numerous anti-Israel organizations. The Fund gave at least $880,000 to groups such as Jewish Voice for Peace, Zochrot, and the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights that support the “boycott, divestment, and sanctions” (BDS) movement that favors breaking off economic and social ties to the Jewish state. FMEP received $50,000 in 2022, and $135,000 in 2023 from the fund, both for “general support.” ^{8 9}

Grantmaking

The Foundation for Middle East Peace provides grants to a number of left-of-center organizations, some of which engage in anti-Israel advocacy and/or promote the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign to delegitimize the State of Israel. ¹

Americans for Peace Now (APN) is a left-of-center advocacy group affiliated with the Israel-based advocacy group Shalom Achshav (“Peace Now”), which calls for a two-state agreement between Israel and Palestine that includes Israel returning to area it controlled before the 1967 Six Day War. FMEP granted $30,000 to the organization in 2020 and listed them as a 2023 grantee on its website. ^{10 11 12 1}

The New Israel Fund (NIF) is a left-of-center grantmaking nonprofit that supports left-of-center social goals related to Israel. FMEP granted the organization $145,000 in 2020 and lists it as a 2023 grantee. ^{13 1}

Just Vision is an educational nonprofit focused on promoting a peaceful resolution to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, supporting an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank. FMEP granted $15,000 to the organization in 2020 and lists it as a 2023 grantee on its website. ^{12 1}

The Alliance for Middle East Peace (ALLMEP) is an advocacy organization that seeks to work with Israelis and Palestinians to pursue policies it believes will bring peace to the region. The group encourages person-to-person engagement to provide better cultural sensitivity. FMEP granted the organization $5,000 in 2020. ¹²

NEO Philanthropy is a New York-based nonprofit that serves as a fiscal clearinghouse for left-of-center causes. The group serves as a vehicle for center-left foundations to pool resources, hosts donor-advised funds, and sponsors various liberal projects. FMEP granted the organization $18,000 in 2020. ^{14 12}

The Heartland Initiative is an advocacy group that focuses on human rights in areas of international armed conflicts. It received $20,000 from FMEP in 2020. ¹²

The Charities Aid Foundation of America (CAF) is an intermediary organization between American donors and foreign nonprofits, allowing the American donors to deduct donations from their taxes. FMEP granted $10,000 to the organization in 2020. ¹²

Jewish Voice for Peace is a left-wing, group characterized by one critic as “a collection of mostly Jewish ideologues of the radical left who realize that their lineage affords special leverage in attacking Israel” ¹⁵ that opposes U.S. assistance to Israel and supports allowing Palestinians to live on land within Israel vacated by Arabs during the Israeli War of Independence. The group supports the BDS movement to delegitimize and isolate the Jewish state. The group “unequivocally oppose[s] Zionism.” FMEP granted the organization $10,000 in 2020 and lists it as a 2023 grantee. ^{16 12 1}

IfNotNow is a far-left organization that protests Israel’s control of the West Bank, its policies in the Gaza Strip, and Israeli policy towards Arabs. While the organization has a strong stance opposed to Israel’s handling of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it takes no “unified stance” on the anti-Israel BDS campaign or whether or not Israel should continue to exist as a Jewish state, though the pro-BDS group Jewish Voice for Peace has praised IfNotNow. FMEP granted the organization $10,000 in 2020 and lists it as a 2023 grantee. ^{17 18 12 1}

The Tides Center is a left-of-center nonprofit created to manage the fiscal-sponsorship services of its sister organization, the Tides Foundation. FMEP granted the organization $10,000 in 2020. ¹²

Other FMEP grantees of 2023 include the Arab American Institute Foundation, Breaking the Silence, and Gisha. ¹

Advocacy

FMEP’s podcast Occupied Thoughts released an episode in November 2021 accusing an Israel anti-terror law of “terrorizing Palestinian human rights defenders.” The podcast episode was hosted by the organization’s president, Lara Friedman. During the podcast, Friedman talked to Bisan Center for Research and Development director Ubai Aboudi. The Bisan Center was designated a terrorist organization by Israel in October 2021, due to its alleged links to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, an umbrella organization for a number of militant groups connected to the Palestine Liberation Organization. ^{19 20 21 22}

FMEP held a webinar in November 2021 titled “The Nakba and its Generational Impact on Palestinian Lives: Memory, Identity, and a Future rooted in Justice,” which FMEP claimed would show stories from people who survived Israel’s “ethnic cleansing of their cities and villages.” ²³

FMEP also held a webinar in January 2021 titled “Calling the Thing by its Proper Name: ‘Apartheid’ Between the Jordan River & the Mediterranean Sea.” ²⁴

Friedman wrote an op-ed at in Huffington Post on February 20, 2017, titled “Israeli Occupation Is Poisoning America’s Democracy.” She claimed in that Americans should “pay attention to Israel” because the “same ‘Greater Israel’ agenda that has eroded Israeli society is today poisoning America’s democracy.” She also argued that the “‘Greater Israel’ agenda” should not be allowed “to hijack U.S. law and undermine the Constitution.” ²

Coalition Memberships

The Foundation for Middle East Peace is a member of the Peace and Security Funders Group (PSFG) , formerly the Fund for Constitutional Government, a left-of-center donor collaborative. ²⁵

People

The Foundation for Middle East Peace’s president, Lara Friedman, served previously as the director of policy and government relations at Americans for Peace Now, a left-of-center advocacy group affiliated with the Israel-based advocacy group Shalom Achshav (“Peace Now”), which calls for a two-state agreement between Israel and Palestine that includes Israel returning to the territory it controlled before the 1967 Six Day War. ^{26 10 11}