Veteran Israeli journalist Akiva Eldar of Al-Monitor spoke at the
Middle East Institute in Washington, DC on February 20, in discussion with APN’s Debra Shushan. The focus of the
event was recent steps towards annexation of the West Bank and the state of the settlement enterprise in the
Trump-Netanyahu era.
This is the reality of Palestinian life in East Jerusalem today.
76% of all Palestinians in East Jerusalem live below the poverty line, including 83% of Palestinian children. Only 41% of Palestinian children are enrolled in official municipal schools, with 33% dropping out before 12th grade. And over a third of residents are not connected to Jerusalem's water infrastructure.*
Beyond those grim statistics lies the additional threat of home eviction – the fate that befell Mohammad Shamasneh and his family. After 45 years, through no fault of their own, the Shamasneh family was thrown out of their own house. They were forced to watch helplessly as right-wing settler ideologues occupied the home in which multiple generations of their family has been raised. Their lives have been upended ever since.
Reports have shown that at least 180 Palestinian families are at risk of eviction, with most of these cases initiated by settler organizations.
Through our "Shelter for the Shamasnehs" campaign, Americans for Peace Now is working to right this injustice. With over $4,000 raised so far, we're well on our way to achieving this goal – but we need your help. Join us and help make a real difference on the ground by finding a new home for the Shamasneh family.
(*Association for Civil Rights in Israel)
(**UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs)
From Peace Now's Settlement Watch:
Today, 12 February, the Settlement Subcommittee of the Higher Planning Committee of the Civil Administration
convened to discuss a series of new plans in the settlements. Among other things, the committee approved the
establishment of a new, “temporary” settlement for the evacuees of Nativ Ha’Avot. The committee also approved
68 new housing units in the settlement of Elazar, the construction of a hotel in the Jordan Valley with 120 rooms
next to a motor park and Tourist Area, and the construction of a cemetery near an industrial zone planned for the
construction south of Qalqiliya. A further plan for an educational campus in the illegal outpost of Mitzpe Danny
was discussed but the subcommittee has postponed its decision to a later date.
Peace Now: “The government is building new settlement areas under the guise of “insignificant” plans that will
not include housing units. This is an old trick used to establish new settlements without calling them that by
name. All of these plans—the construction of a hotel and tourist complex in the Jordan Valley, an educational
campus in an illegal outpost, and even a cemetery as the first stage in the construction of a new industrial
zone—in actuality create new settlements. The Netanyahu government has lost all the brakes on the road to de facto
annexation of the West Bank, and it continues to distance Israel from the prospects for peace and the two-state
solution.”
Details:
Some of the programs that appear on the committee’s agenda are plans for small changes in old plans without the
addition of housing units; however, there are other politically significant plans that will create new settlement
areas, as enumerated below. These additional plans blatantly contradict the declared policy of the Netanyahu
government itself, which committed to limiting construction to the “built-up area” within settlements, and
to holding hearings on plans for new housing units only four times per year (the previous hearing was just last month,
on 10 January 2018):
1. Plan No. 404/1/6/5 (approved for validation) – a plan for the construction of 68 new housing
units in the Elazar settlement near Bethlehem. The plan was approved for deposit on 17 January and was today
approved for validation. It should be noted that the land concerning this plan was once privately owned by
Palestinians but was seized for military use in the 1970s and now is being used for civilian settlement.
2. Plan No. 405/11 (Part 91) (approved for validation) – the establishment of a new, “temporary”
settlement for the families whose homes are slated to be demolished in the Nativ Ha’Avot outpost according to the
High Court of Justice’s 2016 ruling. The plan was approved for deposit on 17 October 2017 and was deposited for
objections one month later. Last week, the subcommittee for objections within the Higher Planning Committee
discussed the objections that had been submitted by Palestinian landowners from Al-Khader and Peace Now. Following
these objections, the subcommittee decided to reduce the number of housing units from 17 to 15, but chose to reject
the objections and to recommend approval of the plan. In the hearing today, the committee approved the
establishment of the settlement, even though the subcommittee for objections admits that the plan is not
appropriate, as it explains: “Although the professional authorities do not dispute that from a planning point of
view, this is an unusual plan.”
To read the Peace Now objection, click here.
Americans for Peace Now (APN) exhorts the Trump Administration to make clear to the Israeli government, in the strongest possible terms, that annexation of any portion of the West Bank is completely unacceptable to the United States.
According to comments made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday, his government has been engaged in discussions with the Trump Administration “for some time now” regarding annexation. This marks the first time Netanyahu has indicated his support for settlement annexation. His statement appears to have caught the White House by surprise and elicited a denial from an administration spokesman that the US had discussed an annexation proposal with Israel. While an Israeli official agreed that the US had not given its approval to any of the various annexation bills up for consideration by the Knesset, that official clarified that Israel has kept the White House briefed on the Knesset bills.
Last year, Americans for Peace Now (APN) cancelled its annual fact-finding mission to Israel and the West Bank due to Israel's newly adopted "Entry Law," which bans from entry into Israel non-citizens associated with groups calling for boycotts.
Yossi Alpher is an independent security analyst. He is the former director of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University, a former senior official with the Mossad, and a former IDF intelligence officer. Views and positions expressed here are those of the writer, and do not necessarily represent APN's views and policy positions.
This week, Alpher discusses whether we are on the verge of Israel's "first northern war"; what happened on Saturday; why this is a preview and a catalyst; whether there are potentially mitigating factors and actors; Israel's ongoing disputes with Lebanon that could escalate; where the US fits in; Secretary of State Tillerson and National Security Adviser McMaster's upcoming trip to the region; and the looming threat of indictment for corruption influencing Netanyahu’s behavior toward the growing threats from Israel’s north.
With over $3,000 raised so far to help the Shamasneh family, it's been an uplifting start to APN's Shelter for the Shamasnehs crowdfunding campaign - thanks to supporters like you.
Watch the video below to learn more about the Shamasneh family and the ongoing, settler-led evictions of Palestinians in East Jerusalem.
Now, help APN and Peace Now give the Shamasneh family a new home.
On February 8, APN and 16 other Jewish organizations sent a letter authored and organized by NCJW to White House Chief of Staff General John Kelly expressing our deep concern that Senior Policy Advisor Stephen Miller does not belong in national leadership due to his extreme viewpoints and advocacy of racist policies.
Yossi Alpher is an independent security analyst. He is the former director of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University, a former senior official with the Mossad, and a former IDF intelligence officer. Views and positions expressed here are those of the writer, and do not necessarily represent APN's views and policy positions.
This week, Alpher discusses the conflict arenas that have evolved seven years after the Arab Spring: Egypt, Jordan, the Iran-Hezbollah alliance, and the Red Sea/Horn of Africa.
On September 5th, 2017, everything changed for the Shamasneh family.
Forcibly removed from their East Jerusalem home in the middle of the night by Israeli police, it was only an hour later that this Palestinian family of ten found their house was occupied by Jewish settlers, radical ideologues sent to seize the property their organization had taken over through various legal maneuvers.
Since then, the Shamasneh family has been scattered and their lives upended, all in service of an extremist right-wing agenda to gradually take over Palestinian neighborhoods of East Jerusalem.
We won't stand idly by, and you shouldn't either.