March 2021

Dear Friend of APN,

One of the first lessons imparted by the Haggadah, the telling of the story of Passover, is that the Israelites wandered in the desert for 40 years before they could reach the promised land. The other lesson imparted is that this legacy commands Jews the world over to tell this story, every year, as they gather around the seder table.

We are storytellers.

This year, Americans for Peace Now is marking 40 years of working towards securing a just and lasting peace for Israelis and Palestinians alike, and we are going to use this celebration as a chance to tell our story.

We hope you will join us by making a gift today to support the path to peace we have been paving for 40 years.

Washington, DC -- A day after the fourth round of general Israeli elections in two years, with most of the votes counted, Israel seems still stuck in an ongoing, almost endemic political crisis.

But the real crisis is not the absurd cycle of elections. The real destructive crisis threatening Israel's security and democracy is its 53 years of occupation and de-facto annexation of the West Bank that pushes Israelis and Palestinians farther still from an eventual settlement to their conflict.

Update: this action, now closed, ran in March 2021. 

Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently said that “the Biden administration enthusiastically embraces the 2016 International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism,” known by its acronym as IHRA.

Join us in asking Secretary Blinken to curb his enthusiasm.

Twelve Democratic members of the House of Representatives sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken urging the Biden administration to embrace policy that supports the human rights and dignity of the Palestinian people. The letter lists past letters sent to the Trump administration regarding such matters. Following is the full text of the letter:

Seventeen Democratic members of the House of Representatives on March 15, 2021 sent a letter to Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, urging him to take additional action to ensure that the Israeli government provide COVID-19 vaccines and facilitate vaccination programs for Palestinians living in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

Following is the text of the letter and the list of signatories: 

Senators Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Tom Carper (D-Del.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) on March 12th 2021 sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken asking the Biden administration to urge the Israeli government to do more to help the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip receive adequate supplies of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Following is the full text of the letter: 

Israeli society bid farewell this week to one of its giants, Mordechai (Morale) Bar-On, a person who helped build the state and was among the icons of its peace movement and its progressive camp. Morale was among the leaders of APN’s Israeli sister-organization, Shalom Achshav (Peace Now), and wrote a book that documented Israel’s peace movement. Bar-On passed away at 92.

Americans for Peace Now is one of more than 30 progressive organizations who signed a letter to President Joe Biden urging his administration to make good, promptly, on his commitment to rejoin the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the Iran nuclear agreement.

A month ago, the International Criminal Court (ICC) ruled that it has jurisdiction over the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip -- territories under Israeli occupation since 1967. Today, as expected, ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda confirmed her intention to open a criminal investigation into actions of Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip that are suspected as war crimes. The actions that will be investigated include Israel’s policy of constructing settlements in the occupied West Bank.