1. Bills, Resolutions & Letters
2. Hearings & Markups
3. On the Record

Produced by the Foundation for Middle East Peace in cooperation with Americans for Peace Now, where the Legislative Round-Up was conceived. Views and positions expressed here are those of the writer, and do not necessarily represent APN's views and policy positions.

1. Bills, Resolutions & Letters
2. Hearings & Markups
3. On the Record

Produced by the Foundation for Middle East Peace in cooperation with Americans for Peace Now, where the Legislative Round-Up was conceived. Views and positions expressed here are those of the writer, and do not necessarily represent APN's views and policy positions.

The Middle East in the FY21 Consolidated Appropriations Bill

Produced by the Foundation for Middle East Peace in cooperation with Americans for Peace Now, where the Legislative Round-Up was conceived. Views and positions expressed here are those of the writer, and do not necessarily represent APN's views and policy positions.

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This week Congress moved to avert a government shut-down (barely) by passing the 2021 Consolidated Appropriations Act, which includes 11 FY21 must-pass appropriations bills (funding core government functions/agencies), the Intelligence Authorization Act of 2021, and the Coronavirus Response and Relief bill. In addition, the Consolidated bill includes fully 16 other (non-must-pass) bills — dealing with a seemingly ad hoc collection of legislative priorities including bio/agriculture, pipelines, the environment, intellectual property, homeland security, museums, aircraft, energy, water, health, and taxes. On 12/21, the House passed this massive bill in two roll call votes (coming in at 327–85 and 359-53), and the Senate then passed the bill by a recorded vote of 92-6. The bill now goes to President Trump.

All told the bill weighs in at 5593 pages, plus there are hundreds of pages of joint explanatory statements laying out Congressional intent with respect to each bill included in the Consolidated bill. All of which was released the same day Congress had to vote on it. Which means that the chances that any member of Congress actually read even a small portion of the text or explanatory language before being forced to vote on the entire package are virtually nil.

The full text of the FY21 Consolidated Appropriations Act is here (the text of the bill was inserted into an existing bill, HR 133, which was hollowed out for this purpose; confusingly, as of this writing, that bill still shows up in the Congressional Record under its original title and with its original content).

Middle East-related provisions – which are present in Division C (Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2021), Division K (Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Act, 2021) and Division W (Intelligence Authorization Act, 2021) are detailed below. This analysis covers both bill language and language from the relevant Joint Explanatory Statement. Text of the Joint Explanatory Statement for SFOPS Approps is here; text of the Joint Explanatory Statement covering DOD Approps is here (and there is no statement for Intell Authorization).

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1. Bills, Resolutions & Letters
2. Hearings & Markups
3. On the Record

Produced by the Foundation for Middle East Peace in cooperation with Americans for Peace Now, where the Legislative Round-Up was conceived. Views and positions expressed here are those of the writer, and do not necessarily represent APN's views and policy positions.

1. Bills, Resolutions & Letters
2. Hearings & Markups
3. On the Record

Produced by the Foundation for Middle East Peace in cooperation with Americans for Peace Now, where the Legislative Round-Up was conceived. Views and positions expressed here are those of the writer, and do not necessarily represent APN's views and policy positions.

1. Bills, Resolutions & Letters
2. Hearings & Markups
3. On the Record

Produced by the Foundation for Middle East Peace in cooperation with Americans for Peace Now, where the Legislative Round-Up was conceived. Views and positions expressed here are those of the writer, and do not necessarily represent APN's views and policy positions.

23 November, 2020

Dear Mr. Blinken,

Congratulations!

Like many US advocacy organizations that focus on foreign policy, we are delighted at the promise of change that your new administration brings. 

While we are well aware of the challenges and priorities that your administration faces, both domestically and overseas, we urge you to keep Israeli-Palestinian relations high up on your agenda. Should you conclude that the time is not ripe now for a full-fledged Israeli-Palestinian peace initiative, we urge you to consider that time is running out on the two-state solution that President-elect Biden strongly supports. Developments on the ground – sanctioned and even encouraged by the outgoing administration – are severely jeopardizing a future two-state solution to the conflict. They must be reversed.

We at Americans for Peace now, the sister-organization of Israel’s peace movement Shalom Achshav (Peace Now), are writing to share with you our alarm at the current state of US policy on the Israeli-Palestinian issue, to offer some initial actions to address the wreckage left behind by the Trump administration, and to affirm our commitment to work closely with the Biden-Harris transition team, and subsequently with the new administration, to advance the cause of Palestinian-Israeli peace. 

1. Bills, Resolutions & Letters
2. Hearings & Markups
3. On the Record

Produced by the Foundation for Middle East Peace in cooperation with Americans for Peace Now, where the Legislative Round-Up was conceived. Views and positions expressed here are those of the writer, and do not necessarily represent APN's views and policy positions.

In an effort that APN supported, Representative Pocan led a letter of 40 Democrats to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo demanding condemnation of the Israeli government’s demolition of 76 structures in a Palestinian Bedouin community, displacing 73 people including 41 children.

Congressman Pocan: "Demolishing Palestinian homes, in occupied territory, by the Israeli government is a violation of international law and must be condemned by the United States government... There is no excuse for the de facto annexation of Palestinian land..."

Go HERE to read the letter to Secretary of State Pompeo.

Photo L: The belongings of 73 people who were forcibly displaced by Israeli forces stand in the Jordan Valley in the occupied West Bank. Photograph: United Nations /  R: Congressman Mark Pocan