Solidarity is a verb: Support Palestinian resources on the ground
Millions of people around the world are demanding an end to the ongoing genocide in Gaza and calling for true safety for Palestinians. We see people doing all that they can, from solidarity protests to contributions to international aid organizations – there are many ways to be in solidarity with Palestinians in this critical moment.
The outpouring of love and support from individuals is historic. But when it comes to donating, many are unsure of the best way to make an impact. We believe that what is most needed now is direct support for Palestinian grassroots organizations and initiatives that are deeply rooted in the community and know how best to support it. International solidarity should center Palestinian decision-making, vision, discourse, and agency — not just provide aid.
Supporting grassroots groups not only provides community-based emergency relief on the ground, but also contributes to preserving the basic civil society infrastructure and the broader, long-term transformation and community resilience necessary for lasting change.
Below, we invite you to learn about two of JVP’s partners in this work, Rawa and Grassroots International, who we have also learned from while moving resources in solidarity with their efforts. You can make a donation as an individual by clicking the buttons below, or consider fundraising within your own community.
Rawa is a Palestinian fund working to decolonize funding structures and support grassroots initiatives across historic Palestine. Since 2018, Rawa has funded over 60 grassroots initiatives chosen by the community itself, moving critical resources to frontline organizers in agriculture, education, arts, media and social activism. Rawa focuses on long-term, sustainable, and community-led organizing across Palestine – which is so important, especially during crisis moments when self-determination often falls by the wayside.
In addition to resourcing communities in Palestine, Rawa pushes back against the extractive and harmful frameworks that dominate international aid work. Often, international aid organizations are not rooted in, or accountable to, the communities they serve, often missing opportunities to meaningfully invest in communal self-sufficiency and long-term civil society infrastructure.
Rawa also publishes a political education newsletter, Insight & Incite, as another way to directly bring Palestinian perspectives and calls to action into the forefront of our work as a movement.
Grassroots International
Grassroots International’s Palestine Emergency Fund (PEF) moves 100% of donations to trusted community-led organizations throughout Palestine, building on a 40-year legacy of partnering with local human rights defenders and providers of community-based emergency relief.
The PEF has funded efforts to get food, water, clothing, and hygiene kits into the hands of displaced families, to support farmers and fishers working against all odds to feed their communities, and to support children orphaned through military violence. Their partners on the ground have led mobile medical teams providing urgent care and medical services to hundreds of thousands of people, along with reproductive health services for women and mental health care to over 400,000 children and adults. The PEF also sustains organizing efforts by and for women, youth, people with disabilities, and other marginalized groups.
Grassroots International also works in broader coalitions of funders to shift the dominant frameworks around international aid towards models that are community-centric, accountable, and foundationally in partnership with movements for justice and liberation. They recently published, "Solidarity Philanthropy: Redefining Philanthropy's Relationship to Social Movements," synthesizing decades of collective experience and values-led practice.
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