PPP loan lawfare fails to derail USCPR’s work for freedom and justice
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WASHINGTON, DC —To defend our organization from a right-wing attack to repress our advocacy for Palestinian human rights, the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR) reached a settlement to pay back Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans, which we applied for rightfully in good faith in 2020 and 2021.
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, USCPR was one of thousands of nonprofit organizations that applied for PPP loans to continue paying employees while weathering financial instability. These loans helped keep our organization running in an uncertain time.
USCPR maintains that it was eligible for the loans and that it committed no wrongdoing. However, we have decided to settle by paying back the PPP loans in order to avoid the costs and risks associated with litigation, and to ensure the organization remain focused on our most important priority: educating the U.S public about Palestine and the urgent need to end the U.S.-funded genocide against the Palestinian people.
“Weaponizing the legal system to harass advocates for social justice and human rights is a common repression tactic,” said Ahmad Abuznaid, Executive Director of USCPR. “But it won’t work. We did nothing wrong by applying for loans we were eligible for, and we won’t be distracted from our most critical fight while Israel starves and massacres our Palestinian people in Gaza with our U.S. tax dollars. The people want to fund care, not killing, and we demand an arms embargo now.”
About the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights
The US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR) is a national network of activists and organizations who are committed to freedom and justice for the Palestinian people and who work to end U.S. complicity in their oppression. USCPR is a political home for all who believe that freedom for the Palestinian people is an integral part of achieving our collective liberation. USCPR provides resources and strategic support to the U.S.-based Palestine solidarity movement, driving positive change in public opinion. USCPR works with local organizers and activists, movement leaders, media, and advocacy organizations to advance a rights-based, accountability and justice-oriented framework from the U.S. to Palestine.