LendforPeace.org

Wanted to point you in the direction of a most awesome startup non-profit, LendforPeace.org. The organization, endorsed by the Clinton Global Initiative and coordinating with USAID, the UN, and the World Bank, offers microfinance loans to Palestinian entrepreneurs and small business people inhibited by the lack of access to capital and credit, markets which are virtually non-existent under the Israeli occupation. With a nod to the Road Map's "Land for Peace" formula, Lend for Peace's mission statement:

While there are many contentious issues in this region of the world, we can all agree that there is no winner in poverty. By encouraging economic opportunity and hope through microfinance, LendforPeace.org seeks to foster stability and peace in the Middle East.

Best of all, anyone can lend; contributions, which start at $25, are donated to a specific Palestinian venture by way of short-term loans distributed by local partner organizations. And as a micro-loan operation, financiers are eventually repaid, usually in eighteen months or so. Craig Nemark (the craigslist Craig) recently hopped on board, and even Fox Business featured LFP in an April segment:



No matter what your politics or religious tendencies tell you about Palestinians or the Arab-Israeli conflict, this is a transparent and practical way to do something more than just offer sympathies to another oppressed people or only feel passionate about those living in poverty. As the esteemed Jimmy Doyle recently said, too often our awareness of global causes turns into another form of self-indulgent consumerism. I have talked to Palestinians who very much want average Americans to know their stories, to realize the daily hardships and humiliations of living under the heel of occupation. But staying informed hardly benefits the Palestinians, or anyone for that matter, in any real way.

While economic development is not the end-all be-all of the conflict, nor will it by itself alleviate Palestinian suffering, the fact of the matter is that Palestinians in the territories face intolerable and morally unacceptale living conditions due in part to the lack of economic oppurtunity under the occupation. I try not to get preachy, but if you care about the well being of those living in poverty or find the Palestinian plight particularly appalling, I strongly urge you to look into LendforPeace.org.

PS. Follow the FLP blog.