Produced by the Foundation for Middle East Peace in cooperation with Americans for Peace Now, where the Legislative Round-Up was conceived
1.Bills, Resolutions and Letters
2. The 2020 AIPAC Policy Conference
3. Hearings
4. On the Record
Over the past week, Israeli authorities advanced three new
settlement initiatives around East Jerusalem, which would cut it off from the West Bank and deny contiguity to
a future Palestinian state. These initiatives come days before Israel’s national elections and as a
joint Israeli-American committee starts determining the status of West Bank settlements.
Listen to Jerusalem expert and longtime analyst Daniel Seidemann on APN's urgent briefing call from Friday, February 28th when he discussed these developments and the Israeli government’s preparatory measures to annex large swathes of the West Bank.
Danny Seidemann is an attorney specializing in legal and public issues in East Jerusalem. He is widely considered as the leading expert on Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem. For over three decades, Seidemann has worked on issues and cases related to government and municipal policies and practices in Jerusalem, representing Israeli and Palestinian residents of Jerusalem before the statutory Planning Boards. Danny is the founder and director of Terrestrial Jerusalem an Israeli NGO that works to identify and track the full spectrum of developments in Jerusalem that could impact the city’s political future or destabilize it.
Americans for Peace Now (APN) is alarmed at the Israeli
government's advancement of three new settlement initiatives around East Jerusalem, which would deny contiguity
to a future Palestinian state.
These are plans that in the past were blocked by US administrations, both Republican and Democratic. Now -- less than a week before Israel's general elections, and as a joint Israeli-American committee starts discussing the status of West Bank settlements – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is going ahead with the most consequential settlement plan in years.
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.
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The Times of Israel (Live Now): "Peace Now: New East Jerusalem building plans a ‘serious blow’ to two-state solution" (February 20, 2020)
The Peace Now settlement watchdog group calls Prime Minister Netanyahu’s announcement of the
construction of new housing units in East Jerusalem a “serious blow” to a two-state solution to the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict. |
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Al-Monitor: "Despite divisions in wake of Trump’s plan, Israelis & Palestinians labor for peace" (February 20, 2020)Peace Now's Shaqued Morag: "Having ties with Peace Now is not normalization, because we support change to the existing situation, rather than preservation." She also said that when Peace Now representatives paid a visit to Ramallah after the release of the Trump plan, they did not encounter any opposition or threats. "I have never encountered a Palestinian who refused to meet with me about this. I believe that we must continue working together toward our common objective,” Morag added. Read >> |
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New York Times: "Netanyahu Announces New Homes in East Jerusalem, Days Before Election" (February 20, 2020)Peace Now, another Israeli anti-settlement group, said the plans amounted to “state suicide” by preventing any viable two-state option for the future. "If nobody stops it, then in a year or two they will begin to build" in Givat Hamatos, said Hagit Ofran of Peace Now’s Settlement Watch department. Read >> |
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The Jerusalem Post: "Netanyahu announces 2,200 new housing units in Jerusalem's Har Homa" (February 20, 2020)“[Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu is asking to land another fatal blow to the chances of a two-state solution for two peoples,” said Peace Now. “The planned neighborhood places a wedge in the heart of the Palestinian urban sprawl that exists between Ramallah and east Jerusalem, and as such prevents the establishment of a Palestinian state with its capital in east Jerusalem. Netanyahu is leading Israel to the reality of a binational apartheid state and is putting the Zionist enterprise in jeopardy.” Read >> |
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AFP: "Israel plans to build 9,000 more homes" (February 20, 2020 - published in The Daily Star and other news outlets)Israel has developed plans to build 9,000 settler homes in annexed east Jerusalem, the first such project in the city in more than 20 years, watchdog Peace Now said Tuesday... the Atarot plan "also includes the demolition of dozens of Palestinian residential units that were built in the area without permits throughout the years." Read >> |
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Jewish Press: "Report: Israel Plans to Build 9,000 Housing Units in Northeastern Jerusalem" (February 20, 2020)Peace Now noted that if the plan is approved and the project is built, it will be the first time Jerusalem receives a new neighborhood since the Netanyahu government established Har Homa in 1997. “Netanyahu is dragging Israel into a reality of a bi-national apartheid state and is putting the Zionist enterprise in jeopardy,” Peace Now charged. Read >> |
