April 17, 2025 

Attn: The Archewell Foundation 
9665 Wilshire Boulevard, Fifth Floor 
Beverly Hills, California 90212 

Dear James Holt and Shauna Nep, 

First and foremost, I want to express my gratitude for your support of our Afghan Women’s Sewing Group and Support Circle. The program has had a transformative impact. With your resources, the Muslim Women’s Coalition led efforts that strengthened mental health, restored purpose, and built community among women who have already endured so much. 

It is in that spirit that I write to express my deep disappointment regarding the Foundation’s decision to revoke funding in response to an independent opinion piece I authored on Gaza. To suggest that the piece constitutes hate speech or propaganda is, at best, a profound misrepresentation. 

Israel’s treatment of Palestinians has been described as apartheid by all credible human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, as well as some Israeli organizations such as B’Tselem and Yesh Din. These findings are echoed by UN Special Rapporteurs and legal scholars. Concerns about crimes against humanity and genocide have been widely documented and are grounded in international law. 

We are unwavering in our commitment to justice, dignity, and human rights for all people, including Palestinians. The article in question was published on the front page of the Op-Ed section of the multiple Pulitzer Prize winning Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Wisconsin’s largest circulated newspaper. A paper of that caliber does not publish material promoting hate, violence, or propaganda. 

We live in a time when peaceful advocacy for Palestinian human rights is frequently and unjustly mischaracterized. Criticizing the policies of a government is not antisemitism. Antisemitism is hostility or prejudice toward Jewish individuals or communities, something I unequivocally reject. In fact, Jewish-led organizations like Jewish Voice for Peace have been at the forefront of the protests and encampments I referenced in my opinion piece. To conflate political critique of Zionism with antisemitism is not only inaccurate, it undermines the meaning of both concepts. 

There is painful irony in your decision to withdraw support from Afghan women, many of them war survivors, because the leader of a women’s organization dared to speak out against the creation of more war survivors. The people enduring the crisis in Gaza are exactly those your mission claims to support. How can it be against your mission and values to advocate for their safety and dignity? 

If your foundation stipulates that grant recipients must sit idly by as a genocide is broadcast live on their television screens, then we too regret to inform you that our values do not align. If your foundation believes that calling for the freedom of a people from oppression is “hateful,” if these people happen to be Palestinian, then we too regret to inform you that our values do not align.

I make no apology for standing up for human rights and speaking out against dehumanization of all people, including Palestinians. In the very Op-Ed in question, I wrote: 

“Jews refuse to have their beautiful faith conflated with the genocidal actions of a racist apartheid government and are actively speaking out against Israel. These young Jews believe ‘never again’ means never again for everyone, not just Jews.” 

How is that antisemitic? Only in a world where the definition of antisemitism is distorted to silence dissent. 

Silencing women of color who speak out against injustice perpetuates the very harm your foundation purports to address. Yielding to pressure from Islamophobic and anti-Arab “media” compromises your credibility and undermines your mission. In choosing PR over principle, you betray the communities you claim to uplift. 

Who you fund is ultimately your decision, but we ask that you retract your defamatory statements and issue a public apology, not to salvage our reputation, which remains pristine, but to salvage yours. With MWC’s proven track record—driven by Jewish, Muslim, and Christian staff—we are confident that more credible foundations and generous donors will continue to support this vital work. 

Respectfully, 

Janan Najeeb 
Founder and Executive Director 
Muslim Women’s Coalition

LaunchGood Campaign by MWC Supporters

Harry and Meghan’s charity cuts ties with Muslim group over pro-Palestine comments

The group’s founder called Israel an ‘apartheid state’ and advocated for the ‘liberation of Palestine’

 Imran Mulla, Middle East Eye, 16 April 2025

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s charity has cut ties with a US-based Muslim organisation after pro-Palestinian statements made by its founder came to light.

The Archewell Foundation, which was set up by the couple in 2020, has given two grants totalling nearly £42,000 (roughly $55,700) to the Milwaukee Muslim Women’s Coalition (MMWC) since 2023.

US broadcaster NewsNation recently wrote to the Archewell Foundation notifyingit of pro-Palestinian statements made by the MMWC’s Palestinian-American founder, Janan Najeeb.

The foundation announced it would cease donating to the organisation late last week after being informed of the comments.

NewsNation told the Archewell Foundation earlier this month that Najeeb had called Israel an “apartheid state” – a designation given by the International Court of Justice in a 2024 advisory opinion and by several major human rights groups, including Amnesty International.

NewsNation further revealed that Najeeb called for an arms embargo on Israel and the “liberation of Palestine”.

She also repeated the slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”, which many interpret as an anti-Zionist statement.

‘Against the values of the foundation’

“Israel’s 75-year occupation of Palestine and the genocide in Gaza are a grave injustice,” Najeeb wrote in a blog post last year.

“From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free. From the sea to the river, Palestine will live forever!”

In a letter to Najeeb, the Archewell Foundation said: “Janan, we’ve recently been notified of a blog post you wrote that goes against the values of the foundation.

Charles III: How the new king became the most pro-Islam monarch in British history
Read More »

“As a foundation, we celebrate different perspectives and backgrounds, but we have zero tolerance for hateful words, actions or propaganda.”

The letter added that the grant was intended to help Afghan women integrate into Milwaukee.

In 2023, Najeeb had thanked the foundation for its support, saying: “We took swift and impactful action in response to the war on Gaza.

“Our efforts, alongside other Wisconsin-based organisations, aimed to raise awareness and demand human rights for Palestinians.”

Prince Harry has previously declared his commitment to social justice and said it is “going to take every single person on the planet right now” to end racism.

He and Markle have also levelled heavily contested claims of racism against the royal family itself.

The latest row comes as Prince Harry has been widely criticised in the British press for flying to war-torn Ukraine while arguing in a High Court case that he needs taxpayer-funded security in Britain.

No member of the royal family visited Israel in an official capacity until 2018, when Prince William, Prince Harry’s older brother, travelled there to mark the 70th anniversary of Israel’s independence.

Queen Elizabeth ‘refused to allow Israeli officials inside Buckingham Palace’
Read More »

Some have speculated that Queen Elizabeth had a negative attitude towards Israel due to the violent insurgency waged against the British mandate in Palestine by Zionist armed groups in the 1940s, before Israel’s declaration of independence.

The late queen reportedly believed every Israeli was “either a terrorist or a son of a terrorist” and refused to allow Israeli officials into Buckingham Palace, according to former Israeli President Reuven Rivlin.

Visiting Jordan in 1984, she was reportedly shown a map depicting the locations of illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank and said: “What a depressing map.”

King Charles has also previously drawn controversy for his views on Israel. 

In 2017, a letter surfaced that he had written to a friend in 1986 after a trip to the Middle East.

Writing that he had read a bit of the Quran and admired “some aspects of Islam”, the then-prince said he had begun to understand the Arab “point of view about Israel”.

“Never realised they see it as a US colony,” he wrote.

“I now appreciate that Arabs and Jews were all a Semitic people originally… it is the influx of foreign, European Jews (especially from Poland, they say) which has helped to cause great problems.”

Most controversially, King Charles asked: “Surely some US president has to have the courage to stand up and take on the Jewish lobby in the US?”

Middle East Eye delivers independent and unrivalled coverage and analysis of the Middle East, North Africa and beyond. To learn more about republishing this content and the associated fees, please fill out this form. More about MEE can be found here.