APN strongly condemns the murder today of Rabbi Shai Ohayon, an Israeli citizen in Petah Tikvah, near Tel Aviv.

Do you know the Chassidic story about the rabbi and the goat?

A congregant comes to the rabbi for advice, complaining about the unbearable conditions at his tiny, cramped home. The rambunctious children are fighting. His wife is a hoarder. Everything is stuffy and grim. The Rabbi tells the man to buy a goat and keep it in the house. A week later the poor man comes back incensed. The goat is unbearable. It’s noisy and smelly. It eats everything. Rabbi, help! The rabbi cups his chin and says: well, go ahead and sell the goat. A week later, the man returns happy. Thank you, rabbi, he says, I got rid of the goat and life is wonderful! The house is spacious, the children are quiet, and it even smells good.

I don’t know if Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump intended to use the idea of West Bank de-jure annexation to distract from the ongoing de-facto annexation through settlement construction. What I know is that many were distracted by the annexation goat, both in Israel and in the United States.

Not us. Not Shalom Achshav.

While we are obviously concerned about the possibility of formal annexation, our mission for the past four decades has been to fight the informal, creeping, de-facto annexation of the West Bank. Day in and day out, we witness what it does to the Palestinians, to our democracy, and to the prospects of us reaching a peace agreement with our neighbors. We know how badly it stinks.

Update: this action, now closed, ran from August 24-August 28, 2020. 

Prime Minister Netanyahu's plans for annexing the West Bank have been put on hold. Maybe. But his efforts to undermine a two-state solution continue unabated. His government is currently advancing plans for a new settlement project in the territory known as E-1.

E-1 is a narrow piece of land between East Jerusalem and the West Bank settlement of Ma’ale Adumim. The international community has long viewed settlement construction in E-1 as a redline, as it would undercut the viability of a Palestinian capital in East Jerusalem and prevent the creation of a contiguous Palestinian state.

This Friday, August 28 is the deadline for submitting objections to the construction plan. Right now, thousands of Israelis, led by our partners at Peace Now - together with Ir Amim, and the Association of Environmental Justice in Israel (AEJI) - are mounting a major opposition campaign.

Stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Israel by adding your name to block this plan and preserve prospects for a just and viable solution to this conflict. Together with our colleagues from the Progressive Israel Network, we will be submitting this petition to Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz, who has the authority to block this plan from moving forward.

APN's Ori Nir was interviewed and featured in this VOA feature on the normalization of relations between Israel and the UAE, announced on Thursday, August 13. 

Washington, DC --  Americans for Peace Now (APN) welcomes the news of the agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates to normalize relations between the two countries. While the two countries have unofficially been normalizing relations in recent years, an official normalization could be an important development on the path to future comprehensive peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors.

APN hopes that the governments of Israel, the United States, the UAE, the Palestinians, and other Arab states will leverage this development toward a negotiated resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, leading to two, sovereign, viable, independent states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict remains the crux of the Arab-Israeli dispute, and only by resolving it will Israel be able to achieve long term peace, security, and wellbeing.

APN also welcomes news that as part of the deal reached between Israel and the UAE, the disastrous initiative to annex parts of the West Bank, pushed jointly by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and the Trump administration, would be suspended. 

APN’s President and CEO Hadar Susskind said: “While this news is welcome, much better news would be an end to the Israeli government’s de-facto annexation of the West Bank through ongoing settlement expansion, and steps to reverse Israel’s occupation of the West Bank.”

Americans for Peace Now (APN) welcomes the news of the agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates to normalize relations between the two countries. While the two countries have unofficially been normalizing relations in recent years, an official normalization could be an important development on the path to future comprehensive peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors.

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BACKGROUND

The Sumarin family has been living in the same house in East Jerusalem for generations. Yet unless the Israeli Supreme Court rules in their favor, they will soon be evicted, their home and their land taken from them. Please urge your representatives in Congress to speak out against this injustice and sign the letter aimed at stopping this eviction of a Palestinian family from their home.

This case goes far beyond the struggle of one family to save its home. It is a part of a broader fight against the efforts of Israeli settlers to displace East Jerusalem Palestinians and to create facts on the ground that would block the path for an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement on Jerusalem.

Congresswoman Jackie Speier (D-CA) is circulating a Dear Colleague letter addressed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, urging his government “to intervene on behalf of the Sumarin family and halt their eviction from their long-standing home."

Please urge your Representative to sign on to Congresswoman Speier’s letter.

Write to your Representative.

American-Israeli journalist Dina Kraft discussed the nature and impact of the unprecedented continuing protests in Israel against Prime Minister Netanyahu, government corruption, and for democracy and justice. 

LISTEN:

Dina Kraft is a journalist, editor, and educator. Currently based in Tel Aviv she is a correspondent for both Haaretz and The Christian Science Monitor where she reports on Israeli and Palestinian politics, culture and society. Dina is also the host of The Branch, a podcast hosted by Hadassah, which features stories of partnerships between Israelis and Palestinians, Jews and Arabs. Formerly, Kraft was based in Jerusalem and Johannesburg for The Associated Press and has reported from throughout Africa, as well as Pakistan, Jordan, Tunisia, Russia and Ukraine.