If Americans Knew
Who We Are

If Americans Knew is a 501(c)3 tax-exempt, independent research and information-dissemination institute, with particular focus on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, U.S. foreign policy regarding the Middle East, and media coverage of this issue. Specifically, the organization’s objective is to provide information that is to a large degree missing from American press coverage of this critical region.

We believe all people are endowed with inalienable human rights regardless of race, religion, ethnicity, sexuality, or nationality. We believe in justice, fairness, and compassion and in treating all human beings with respect, empathy, and in the manner in which we would wish to be treated.

Our materials and information are available to all. We feel it is essential that these facts be learned by every possible person.

Our Story

If Americans Knew was originally founded by an American freelance journalist, Alison Weir* (read her full bio and articles), who traveled independently throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip in February and March of 2001. Ms. Weir found a situation largely the reverse of what was being reported by the American media. Upon further examination of this issue – she read dozens of books on the topic – she found that the U.S. press portrayal was significantly at odds with information being reported by media throughout the rest of the world.

Disturbed that American citizens were being misinformed and uninformed on one of the most significant issues affecting them today, and discovering the problem to be systemic, she founded an organization to be directed by Americans without personal or family ties to the region who would research and actively disseminate accurate information to the American public.

Since that time, If Americans Knew has begun producing informational materials, assisted in organizing public forums, produced media studies, and provided speakers and written materials to hundreds of venues across the United States, among them Harvard Law School, Stanford, Columbia, The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, The University of California at Berkeley, Northwestern University, The Center for Policy Analysis on Palestine, The National Press Club, The Naval Postgraduate School, and numerous other university campuses, churches, libraries, and civic organizations in every region of the United States.

In March of 2004, Ms. Weir was inducted into honorary membership of Phi Alpha Literary Society, founded in 1845 at Illinois College. The award cited her as a: “Courageous journalist-lecturer on behalf of human rights. The first woman to receive an honorary membership in Phi Alpha history.”

Board Members

Two of our founding board members were former eleven-term Illinois Congressman Paul Findley and career foreign service officer and Ambassador Andrew I. Killgore.

Mr. Findley was recognized as one of our nation’s foremost experts on US foreign policy regarding the Middle East. In addition, Mr. Findley has written extensively on Abraham Lincoln and other aspects of American history. Several of Mr. Findley’s books have long been noted on our list of recommended reading.

Ambassador Killgore served as a career foreign service officer and as a U.S. Ambassador. In 1982, he co-founded the award-winning Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. Ambassador Killgore also received the prestigious “Foreign Service Cup” in 1997.

In addition, a member of our advisory board was Donald Neff, a former senior editor at Time Magazine and author of five books on Israel-Palestine.

You can see all three (who have since passed away) in this video. A documentary about Mr. Findley is here.

Our current board consists of journalist and IAK founder Alison Weir (author of a best-selling book on the Israel lobby – a speech by Alison is here), Liz Viering (on the board of the Tree of Life Educational Fund and an international observer to the Palestinian elections in 2006), and Janice P. Leary, Ph.D., MEd., M.Div, (co-founder of NENJP.org, New England Network for Justice in Palestine, a facilitator/ presenter about Palestine with Pax Christi, Massachusetts, and group facilitator of the “Steadfast Hope: The Palestinian Quest for Just Peace” discussion series).

For additional information about our staff and board of directors, contact us.

* Alison Weir is an American, not the British author of numerous books on British history.