President Joseph R. Biden announced two new USAID grants under the Nita M. Lowey Middle East Partnership for Peace Act (MEPPA) Partnership for Peace Fund during his visit to Israel and the West Bank.
The first grant provides more than $2 million over three years to the Peres Center for Peace and Innovation to establish a Medical Cooperation Consortium that will create sustainable, formalized cooperation between Israelis and Palestinians in the healthcare field. The project will improve cross-border medical cooperation and provide in-person training to more than 300 Israeli and Palestinian medical professionals. Through the consortium and joint training events, Israeli and Palestinian healthcare professionals will together address challenges facing healthcare systems in their communities, while also building trust between people and advancing the prospects for peace.
The second grant provides $5 million over three years to Appleseeds to bring Israelis and Palestinians in the technology sector together to develop career enhancing skills. The project will bring together more than 1,000 young Israeli and Palestinian professionals from underserved communities to learn technology, leadership, and conflict mitigation side-by-side. In addition to visual design, coding, and app development training, participants will receive practical skills to help them advance their careers in the technology industry. Israeli and Palestinian youth will learn together as peers, build trust between people across the region’s burgeoning technology industry, and create advocates for an eventual two-state solution.
The latest grants are part of the U.S. efforts to promote peace and advance a two-state solution. For more information about how USAID builds people-to-people partnerships between Israelis and Palestinians, visit USAID.gov.