Institute for Middle East Understanding
Non-profit organisation in the US
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Institute for Middle East Understanding (IMEU) is an American pro-Palestinian advocacy group.[1][2][3]
The organization states that it "works to increase and enhance the public’s understanding about Palestine, Palestinians, and Palestinian Americans through media."[4]
Founded in 2005, it received a grant from the Washington-based Jerusalem Fund for Education and Community Development in 2006 for Education and Community Development, which was used to undertake the first compilation of profiles of Palestinian-Americans in the fields of the arts, literature, academia, business and community service, which were then disseminated to news media and on the Internet.[5] As an example, the IMEU sent a letter to news outlets in November 2007 that provided the names and profiles of Palestinian-Americans who could be contacted to discuss the upcoming Annapolis Conference. The names included Samar Assad, Executive Director of The Jerusalem Fund,[6] Diana Buttu, a Ramallah-based attorney and former advisor to Palestinian negotiators, Omar Dajani, a San Francisco-based law professor and former legal advisor to United Nations Special Envoy Terje Rød-Larsen, and Nadia Hijab, a Senior Fellow at the Washington-based Institute for Palestine Studies.[7]
One of the organization's co-founders is Lena Khalaf Tuffaha, who is also a member of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) Seattle chapter. As Secretary and Treasurer of the IMEU, she and the organization were featured in the Non-Profit Spotlight of the e-magazine The Mideast Connect.[8] Its board of directors consists of chairman Khaldoun Baghdadi, treasurer Zahira Dahdul, secretary Nadia Tommalieh, Jeanmarie Condon and Isam Salah.[4]
Since 2006, the IMEU has also published Letters from Palestine,[9] a collection of first-hand testimonies from Palestinians about their daily lives.[10]
