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.

APN's daily news review from Israel - Thursday August 27, 2020

NOTE: News Nosh will be off on Sunday August 30th.

Quote of the day:

“I didn’t hear ‘Stop.’ I acted the way I was taught.”
—Quote of the Border Policeman who shot dead the autistic Palestinian young man, Eyad Alhallaq. Haaretz’s crime reporter, Josh Breiner, revealed quotes from the testimonies of the two Border Policemen who were involved in Alhallaq's killing.

You Must Be Kidding: 
For the article Haaretz published today about the investigation of the killing of the autistic Palestinian young man, Eyad Alhallaq, reporter Josh Breiner asked the Justice Ministry department that probes allegations of police misconduct why there has, as yet, been no reenactment of the incident that took place three months ago. The reenactment then was held early this morning. Meanwhile, investigators have not yet arranged a confrontation between the two Border Policemen to try to reconcile their contradictory stories, even though the Justice Ministry’s investigation is almost complete...**

APN's daily news review from Israel - Wednesday August 26, 2020

You Must Be Kidding: 
"After it was discovered that this could lead to injuries, (IDF) forces worked to remove them from the area."
--IDF Spokespersons' Office declared that the military had no idea that planting boxes of stun grenades in a Palestinian village "in order to create desterrence" could harm people. One child was wounded. Soldiers neutralized the third box of explosives only after photos appeared on social media. **

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.

APN's daily news review from Israel - Tuesday August 25, 2020 

Quote of the day:

"Netanyahu uses accepted and recognizable concepts from previous diplomatic moves with the Palestinians and Arab nations, but intends the opposite of what the international community and previous Israeli leaders sought to achieve. His goal is not to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with the help of Arab states, but to decide the outcome on the basis of their support and setting impossible terms for the Palestinians..."
--Col. (ret.) Shaul Arieli writes that, ultimately, Netanyahu's policies will lead to one-state instead of two.*

APN's daily news review from Israel - Monday August 24, 2020 

Quote of the day:

"Netanyahu’s political livelihood is based on dividing society and he is now interested in setting the police against those protesting against him."
--Haaretz's Jerusalem correspondent, Nir Hasson, blames Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu for the police violence against demonstrators calling for his resignation.*

Number of the Day:
89.
--The number of Palestinian residential units the Jerusalem municipality has knocked down so far this year compared to 104 for all of 2019 and 72 in 2018. In the first three weeks of August alone, 24 homes were torn down.**

Breaking News:
Pipeline Explosion Causes Blackout in Syria, Minister Says Evidence Points to 'Terrorist Attack' - TV channel showes footage of a large fire following the explosion which occurred northwest of the capital of Damascus; minister says possible terror attack. (Haaretz and Ynet)

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.