LEARN Let's start with Step 1 -- take 5 minutes to learn about the Five for Palestine Campaign! STEP 1 -- LEARNING ABOUT THE CAMPAIGN The Five for Palestine Campaign is a project of the American Association for Palestinian Equal Rights, a Washington, DC-based 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, that asks you to support an equitable U.S. policy toward Palestine by taking 5 simple steps: 1) Learn about the Campaign in 5 minutes, which you're doing right now; 2) Sign up for email updates in 5 seconds; 3) Contribute just $5 a month to the Campaign so that it can educate more Americans about the situation in Palestine; 4) Contact your Congressperson or Senators just 5 times per year to inform them about the situation in Palestine; and 5) Recruit 5 family members, friends or colleagues to do the exact same things. If everyone does their small part, then, together, we will change the world! Is there a rationale to the number five in the Five for Palestine Campaign? Yes, it’s engaging, memorable and simple.  It provides people with a very small set of important, but easy, actions to undertake.  The actions are small enough that everyone can easily undertake them, but important enough that, collectively, they can have a major impact. Can I give more than $5 per month, recruit more than 5 people or contact my elected representative more than 5 times per year? Definitely, and please do.  The Five for Palestine website gives you all the tools that you need to do so.  STEP 2 -- SIGNING UP FOR EMAIL UPDATES Do I join the Campaign by signing up for email updates? No; you join only by taking the Campaign's 5 steps. If I sign up for email updates am I going to get flooded with emails? No, if you sign up, you should expect to receive about 1 email per week from AAPER, the Campaign's sponsor, except in exceptional circumstances, when you can expect to receive between 2-3 emails in a week. STEP 3 -- CONTRIBUTING FIVE BUCKS A MONTH Do you really think that people will contribute $5 per month? Absolutely.  Even if one makes minimum wage in the United States, $5 per month in is less than one hour of pay per month in a 160-hour work month (40 hours per week) and less than the cost of one lunch. The lack of freedom and equality for the Palestinian people stands as a moral challenge to every American and U.S. policy toward Palestine stands as the paramount security challenge to the relationship between the United States and Arabs and Muslims the world over.  If we cannot give less than one hour of pay per month to help change this situation, then it will not change.  As the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King once said, "Human progress never rolls in on the wheels of inevitability."  So it is with Palestine.   We believe that, when Americans understand the enormous moral, political, economic and security costs of existing U.S. policy toward Palestine and the overwhelming moral, political, economic and security benefits of an equitable U.S. policy toward Palestine, they will give less than one hour’s worth of their month to help advance equality in Israel and Palestine, peace in the Middle East and sustainable security for the United States. How will my contribution be spent? Contributions to the Five for Palestine Campaign support the work of the American Association for Palestinian Equal Rights to educate the American public and their elected representatives about the situation in Palestine.  Specifically, contributions are used to organize educational and advocacy trainings, plan speaking engagements, Palestine film showings and festivals, produce professional informational resources about Palestine, including presentations, brochures, postcards, e-cards, and maintain and develop a first-rate online presence using the latest advocacy and networking technology. STEP 4 -- RECRUITING FIVE OTHERS If I forward an email about the Campaign to 100 people, does that satisfy the requirement of recruiting five others to join the Campaign? No; recruitment is not simply sending a message to 100 or even 1,000 contacts, though that can be a great start.  To successfully complete step 4, you must get confirmations from at least 5 recruits that they: (a) have taken steps 1 through 3 (Learn, Sign Up, and Contribute) and (b) commit to completing steps 4 and 5.  If you send an email or a text, then follow up by phone.  If you make a call, then follow up by email or text.  But, whatever you do, complete step 4 by getting your 5 confirmations! STEP 5 -- CONTACTING YOUR REPRESENTATIVES FIVE TIMES PER YEAR What qualifies as “contacting your representative"? “Contacting your representative” can consist of an in-person meeting, a phone conversation, an email, a fax or a letter between a constituent and his or her elected representative.  Participants in the Five for Palestine Campaign are asked to contact their elected representatives five times per year, including at least one in-person meeting. What issues will participants in the Five for Palestine Campaign address when they contact their elected representatives? Initially, the Campaign will ask participants to simply (1) build relationships with their elected representatives and staffs and (2) provide them with informational materials about Palestine.  Elected representatives and their staffs must know that they have constituents who care about U.S. policy toward Palestine and must be better informed about the situation in Palestine. Beyond that, while we will want our representatives to challenge flawed resolutions and pieces of legislation, we want them to support a positive and hopeful policy agenda about which they can be proud.  Our goal is to forge a U.S. foreign policy toward Palestine that is consistent with the American people’s interests and ideals.  To that end, we advocate that the United States: 1) Support freedom and equality of the Palestinian people by conditioning further American economic, military and diplomatic assistance to Israel on Israel’s withdrawal of soldiers and settlers from occupied Palestinian lands and the reversal of laws that discriminate against Palestinian Christians and Muslims on the basis of their ethnicity and religion; 2) Support Israel’s peace and human rights movement; and 3) Support Palestinians challenging the occupation and discriminatory laws through nonviolent means. FIVE FOR PALESTINE AND EXISTING EFFORTS Why should we participate in the Five for Palestine Campaign? Has your group ever had an excellent educational event in which a lot of people come, learn about the situation in Palestine and then leave, never to be seen or heard from again?  Have you ever wondered how your work connected to what others were doing elsewhere in America?  The Five for Palestine Campaign was created so that you would never have to ask those questions again.  The Five for Palestine Campaign provides attendees at your educational events with an easy yet important menu of action items that connects them with what citizens all across the United States are doing to create a unified and coordinated national effort.