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CGTN TV: "Debra Shushan discusses Israeli indictment of Netanyahu" (November 21, 2019)CGTN's Asieh Namdar spoke with Debra Shushan, director of policy and government relations at Americans for Peace Now, about the Israeli indictment of Netanyahu. Watch >> |
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Washington Jewish Week: "Trump nods to the Israeli dissenting interpretation" by Ori Nir, APN Director of Communications (November 20, 2019)Had Secretary of State Mike Pompeo joined me and my APN colleagues on our West Bank study tour last week, we would have shown him how fraught with illegality and illegitimacy West Bank settlements are. Read >> |
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Independent: "Trump's decision to drop US opposition to Israeli settlements is an assault on the two-state solution" by Brian Reeves, Peace Now Director of External Relations (November 20, 2019)Without US pressure to uphold international law, Israel is now left free to build in settlements at will and to seize parts of the West Bank. Read >> |
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BBC News: "US settlement move reduces chances of Israeli-Palestinian peace deal" (November 19, 2019)Previous US administrations opposed settlement construction as an obstacle to peace, and tried to limit it to varying degrees. But planning and building have accelerated under the Trump administration, according to the Israeli anti-settlement monitoring group Peace Now. Read >> |
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Reuters: "U.S. backs Israel on settlements, angering Palestinians and clouding peace process" (November 18, 2019)"He can declare that night is day, but it will not change the fact that Israeli settlements are not only illegal under international law, but are also a huge obstacle to peace and to the stability of our region," said Hagit Ofran of the Israeli anti-settlements group Peace Now. Read >> |
Had Secretary of State Mike Pompeo joined me and my APN
colleagues on our West Bank study tour last week, we would have shown him how fraught with illegality and
illegitimacy West Bank settlements are.
This episode, an edited recording of a conversation with Palestinian pollster and social scientist Khalil Shikaki,
is another recording from APN’s 2019 study tour to Israel and the
West Bank.
We met with Dr. Shikaki at his office in the West Bank city of Ramallah on November 12th. He reviewed trends in Palestinian public opinion in the past decade and offered some predictions of possible future scenarios in Palestinian society based on these trends.
As American Jewish organizations deeply concerned about the future of Israel’s democracy, we are disturbed and saddened by the decision of the Israeli Supreme Court to uphold the Israeli government’s order to deport Omar Shakir, Human Rights Watch’s Israel and Palestine Director.
Human Rights Watch plays an integral role in documenting and opposing human rights abuses wherever they take place around the world. Allowing human rights organizations like HRW to engage in this work is crucial for any democratic society. The Supreme Court’s decision helps fuel the Israeli right’s widening campaign of incitement and suppression against those who research and oppose the injustices of the occupation. It sets an unacceptable precedent for all groups and activists engaged in this essential work — whether Israeli citizens or non-citizens, Jewish or non-Jewish. As 23 Israeli civil society organizations wrote, the decision to allow for the deportation of Omar Shakir “severely harmed us all.”
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo today announced the Trump administration’s latest assault on prospects for Israeli-Palestinian peace. In renouncing a 1978 letter by the State Department’s legal advisor and stating that “settlements are not per se illegal under international law,” the Trump administration is giving a green light to further settlement expansion and even to formal Israeli annexation of the West Bank.
Already, the effective endorsement of settlements by Trump’s “peace” team (including by former Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt who has referred to settlements as “neighborhoods and cities”) has led to a surge in settlement activity, as documented by APN’s Israeli sister-organization Peace Now.