Introduction
UNRWA USA works to educate Americans about the plight of Palestine refugees, and generate financial support for the relief and human development programs delivered by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
Unfortunately, understanding of this human rights issue has been politicized to the point that a fair, balanced and factual conversation is nearly impossible. Adding to the challenge, the tragic October 2023 attack by Hamas on Israel fueled Israel’s military mobilization, which has taken the lives of tens of thousands of Palestinian people, displaced 90 percent of the population, cut off essential resources and destroyed many UNRWA facilities. The crisis is stretching the American people’s appetite to learn and understand, leading to a lack of empathy, simplified blanket statements and generalizations across media.
Mixte has been working side by side with UNRWA USA since summer 2023 to prepare narratives that open more American hearts and minds to support Palestine refugees. The humanitarian crisis that began in October presented a profound shift in our work, including an opportunity to remind American audiences that Palestine refugees are human beings with full lives, and that America cannot turn away once this current crisis is over.
Our Objectives
In 2023, we set out to develop a positioning strategy that identifies sympathetic audience groups and a preliminary messaging approach to reach them.
Here’s how we did it:
- We worked with UNRWA USA staff and board members to identify primary American audiences and the actions we want them to take. We researched each audience segment in detail, creating personas that illustrated their background, pain points, motivations, and what needs to happen in order for them to take action with UNRWA USA. This was an important step before developing messaging.
- We drafted audience-specific messaging that underscores the urgency of the current humanitarian crisis, and encourages Americans to recognize the humanity of Palestine refugees.
- We tested this messaging with a nationwide public opinion poll and targeted interviews.
The Outcome
The polling results suggest that using simple, humanity-focused messaging can indeed help to educate and engage the most moveable American audiences to support Palestine refugees. It also showed that there is a lot of room to increase UNRWA USA’s visibility among these audiences.
Sounds…kind of obvious, right? But to have it confirmed is crucial.
We knew, from our earlier research, that drowning UNRWA USA’s key audiences in data and facts doesn’t work. It feeds the “but it’s too complicated!” misconception that causes people to check out. With the polling results in hand, we can confidently develop an effective alternative.
As of fall 2024, we’re guiding UNRWA USA to take advantage of select media and speaking opportunities, to amplify their voice and the human-first messaging that is so critical to shaping hearts and minds.
