Alternative information center

The Alternative Information Center (AIC) was established in 1984 by Palestinian and Israeli grassroots activists as a binational organisation to promote the human and national rights of the Palestinian people and a just peace for Palestinians and Israelis based on progressive principles and respect for international law. Even prior to the First Intifada, the AIC created and disseminated information and analyses about Palestinian and Israeli societies to and about the other, realising that socioeconomic and cultural processes are no less crucial to understanding and ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict than political ones. The AIC was a local pioneer in the field of human rights, conducting some of the first ever data collection, research and analyses on issues such as Israeli torture of Palestinian prisoners, home demolitions and Palestinian residency rights in Jerusalem, all within their broader social, political, economic and cultural contexts.

One of the most veteran NGOs in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory, several human rights and grasroots action groups were created based on the AIC model and which went on to specialise in specific aspects of the AIC’s more comprehensive work.

The AIC is one of the sole joint Palestinian-Israeli organisations in existence, acting as a material bridge and platform for politically responsible cooperation between Palestinians and Israelis and a counter to the prevailing philosophies and practices of separation between the two communities.  What has allowed the AIC to continue to exist and even flourish when so many other joint initiatives came and went, is its clear political foundation shared by all its members and on the basis of which all work is conducted:

• Complete end to the 1967 occupation of the Palestinian and Syrian territories, in accordance with international law and resolutions;
• Recognition and fulfillment of the Palestinian Right of Return, as both an individual human and national collective right;
• Necessity of a joint Palestinian-Israeli-international struggle for a just peace and democratic, progressive values and institutions;