Pro-democracy group founded by Khashoggi launches Israel Palestine Program

Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), a campaign group co-founded by Jamal Khashoggi, has launched an Israel and Palestine Program, with the aim of exposing human rights abuses committed by the occupation state and to challenge US support for Tel-Aviv.

The Israel and Palestine program will seek to reform US policies, which the group said has “enabled Israeli abuses of Palestinians by providing military and political support to Israel.” DAWN also aims to expose “Israeli culprits and American lobbyists who contribute to Israeli abuses.”

A key goal is to “formulate a new blueprint for democracy, equality, justice, and freedom for all peoples subject to Israeli sovereignty,” said DAWN.

“Challenging US support for Israeli abuses is central to our mission to ending our government’s support of abusive governments in the Middle East and complicity in the violations of rights of millions across the region,” DAWN’s Executive Director, Sarah Leah Whitson, said. “Our ambitious new program for Israel and Palestine will not only work to end America’s shameful support for an apartheid government, but also work to develop a clear plan for how Israel can transition into a rights-respecting state.”

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DAWN launched its program on Monday with the hiring of two senior professionals “with decades of experience working on Israel and Palestine matters and commitment to justice and human rights”.

DAWN is the brainchild of journalist and dissident activist, Khashoggi, who was murdered in 2018 by a group of Saudi assassins. The group’s focus is to amplify the many disparate efforts to promote democracy and human rights in the Middle East and Northern Africa (MENA) region.

Following Khashoggi’s murder, DAWN was relaunched in September 2020 under the leadership of Whitson.