The Bulldozing of Hope

by APN 02/07/17
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Tu Bishvat 2017

Kathleen Peratis

Tu Bishvat, a holiday in which Israelis cherish the fruit of the land and plant trees, begins this Friday evening. But in the West Bank, extremist settlers have made it a national sport to destroy olive trees belonging to Palestinian farmers. And when the settlers need a new bypass road, it is the government of Israel which uproots Palestinian-owned olive trees by the hundreds, as is happening these days near the West Bank town of Qalqilya – just to make more room for settlements and allow the settlers easy access to Israel.

In his meeting with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Donald Trump will have a valuable opportunity to assert long-held US policy on the settlements in particular and on America’s policy toward resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. That includes recent approvals for constructing more than 5,500 homes in West Bank settlements, Knesset bills to annex large parts of the West Bank to Israel, and bills to retroactively legalize settlement construction that violates Israeli law.

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News Nosh 2.07.17

by APN 02/07/17
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APN's daily news review from Israel
Tuesday February 7, 2017
 
Quote of the day:
"I believe that in the current political climate the world over, it is more important than ever that we continue to stand against the abhorrent government policies that are an offense against our ethics and the very tenets of what it means to be human. As Jews, we must question whether this reality is closer to home than we might like, and we must condemn the exclusionist policies and politics of the government that claims to represent us."
--Jewish Indian sculptor Anish Kapoor said upon receiving the $1 million Genesis Prize, dubbed the 'Jewish Nobel.' Read on to see what he did with the prize money.* 
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Briefing call Thursday, February 9th, 12:00 PM Eastern, with Yossi Alpher

by APN 02/06/17
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Yossi Alpher DC talk Please join APN for a briefing call with strategic affairs expert Yossi Alpher on US-Israel relations, days before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s first meeting in Washington with Donald Trump as President.

Yossi Alpher, an independent security analyst, is the former director of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University, a former senior official with Israel’s Mossad, and a former IDF intelligence officer. He is the author of Hard Questions Tough Answers, APN’s weekly analysis of Israeli and Middle Eastern strategic affairs.

The details of the call are as follows:

Date: Thursday, February 9th
Time: 12:00 PM (Eastern Time)
Dial-in Number: 951-797-1058
Participant Access Code: 147414

The call will be recorded. The audio recording will be posted on APN’s website.

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News Nosh 2.06.16

by APN 02/06/17
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APN's daily news review from Israel
Monday February 6, 2017
 
You Must Be Kidding: 
The Knesset is likely to give final approval to a bill that would forbid granting entry visas or residency rights to foreign nationals who call for economic, cultural or academic boycotts of either Israel or the settlements. 
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February 6, 2017 - Trump and Israel III: Amona, Washington summit

by APN 02/06/17
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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.

This week, Alpher discusses the completion of the Amona evacuation, which occurred with relatively little violence, and its significance; the upcoming meeting between President Trump and PM Netanyahu and possible agenda items; and the bottom line regarding US-Israel relations in the Middle East context in the Trump era.

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News Nosh 2.05.16

by APN 02/05/17
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APN's daily news review from Israel
Sunday February 5, 2017
 
Quote of the day:
"We are citizens of Israel and we want to be treated with respect. I want to be like everyone else. I want the same respect they gave to residents of Amona. We demand to know the truth behind the incident.”
--Amal Abu Saad, the wife of Yaqoub al-Qiyan, the Bedouin math teacher whom police shot while he drove his car, after which he hit a group of police officers, killing one. Police say he intended to kill the policeman. Al-Qiyan's family and evidence show otherwise.*

You Must Be Kidding: 
“This is not an accidental development but an intentional policy, meant to create a simplistic and one-sided worldview for the students. In this view there is only one player – the Jewish people – while the Palestinians remain behind the curtain and emerge only when they interfere with the efforts for Jewish settlement."
--Prof. Avner Ben-Amos of Tel Aviv University, whose research shows that the graduating examinations in civics from 2000 to 2015 didn’t include a single question touching on the political-ideological divide in which teachers are supposed to relate to the occupation.*

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APN/ Peace Now in the News: January 30 - February 3, 2017

by APN 02/03/17
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Fox News: February 3, 2017
"Trump to Israel: Settlements 'May Not Help' Achieve Peace in the Middle East," in the wake of Netanyahu's promise to build new West Bank settlements after the evacuation of Amona, Peace Now reports that Israel has not built new settlements since 1992, but has only expanded upon existing ones.

Deutsche Welle: February 2, 2017
"'Israeli Settlements are Not an Obstacle for Peace,'" Peace Now reports that more than 130 Israeli settlements and 909 outposts have been built without government approval in the West Bank since 1967, threatening the viability of two states living side by side in peace and security.

Washington Jewish Week: February 1, 2017
"Israeli peace camp must respond to people's fears, says Peace Now head," David Hozel features Avi Buskila, Peace Now's new director general, in a piece for the Washington Jewish Week.

Haaretz: February 1, 2017
"Amona Live Updates: After Years of Delay, Israel Evacuates Illegal West Bank Outpost," Peace Now condemns Netanyahu's decision to build new settlements in the West Bank for settlers recently evacuated from Amona.

CNN: February 1, 2017
"Israel to Build Entirely New Settlement in West Bank," according to Peace Now, Netanyahu's announcement of 2,500 new housing units marks one of the largest settlement expansions since 2013.

Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata: February 1, 2017
"Peace Now 'Alarmed' by 3,000 More Settler Homes in West Bank," Peace Now speaks out against Prime Minister Netanyahu's recent settlement expansion in areas not likely to be under Israeli jurisdiction in future agreements.

APN's Response to the White House's Statement on West Bank Settlements

by APN 02/03/17
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Americans for Peace Now (APN) today issued the following response to the White House's statement on Israeli settlements in the West Bank:

While some may view it as positive that President Trump is paying attention to the Israeli government's aggressive settlement construction push, the statement issued yesterday by the White House should be understood for what it is: a dangerous and unprecedented retreat from and reframing of longstanding bipartisan U.S. policy on settlements, including under presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

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They Say/We Say: "Settlers, like people everywhere, have the right to have babies. The children of settlers, like children everywhere, grow up and have the right to have families and homes of their own. Demanding that all construction in settlements stop violates these universal rights."

by APN 02/03/17
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They Say We Say We know that pro-Israel does not mean blindly supporting policies that are irrational, reckless, and counter-productive. Pro-Israel means supporting policies that are consistent with Israel's interests and promote its survival as a Jewish, democratic state.

You've heard the arguments of the religious and political right-wing, and so have we. They've had their say. Now, we'll have ours.

Go HERE for all installments of APN's "They Say, We Say"

They Say, We Say: Are settlements really a problem?

They Say:"Settlers, like people everywhere, have the right to have babies. The children of settlers, like children everywhere, grow up and have the right to have families and homes of their own. Demanding that all construction in settlements stop violates these universal rights."
We Say: Nowhere in the world – not in New York, or Paris, or Tel Aviv – do people have an inalienable right to live exactly where they want – in the size home they want, in the neighborhood they want – irrespective of real estate market factors, or any political, economic, zoning, or other considerations that may come into play (including in this case, considerations about actual land ownership). Inside Israel, just like in other countries, people regularly face difficult decisions about where to live, given that major cities like Tel Aviv and Jerusalem are crowded and affordable housing is scarce.

Settlers have the right to have babies. When these babies grow up, they have the right to start families and have homes of their own. But in all these cases, in the settlements as everywhere else in the world, the settlers and their families must do what people everywhere must do: reconcile their needs as best as possible to the housing market, which is affected not only by demand but by a myriad of other variables - including, in this case, the fact that settlers have knowingly and voluntarily chosen to make their lives on land that is the subject of a political dispute of global proportions.

They Say/We Say: "Why shouldn't settlement construction be able to continue within the existing borders of settlements? Construction inside settlements is not expansion."

by APN 02/03/17
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They Say We Say We know that pro-Israel does not mean blindly supporting policies that are irrational, reckless, and counter-productive. Pro-Israel means supporting policies that are consistent with Israel's interests and promote its survival as a Jewish, democratic state.

You've heard the arguments of the religious and political right-wing, and so have we. They've had their say. Now, we'll have ours.

Go HERE for all installments of APN's "They Say, We Say"

They Say, We Say: Are settlements really a problem?

They Say: "Why shouldn't settlement construction be able to continue within the existing borders of settlements? Construction inside settlements is not expansion."
We Say: Experience has taught past Middle East peace negotiators and past U.S. presidents that trying to limit settlement construction to areas within the settlements’ “current borders” (in the past referred to as “building up but not out”) is a trap. When it comes to defining “the current borders” of settlements, the devil is in the details – or more precisely, it is in the ambiguity around the word “borders,” a term that has proven exceptionally flexible in the eyes of the settlers and the Israeli government. To think about this more concretely:
  • Place your hand on a hard surface, splay your fingers wide apart, and take a pen and trace your handprint. Your handprint represents the built-up area or built-up borders of a settlement.
  • Draw another line connecting your fingers and your thumb. This line represents the land the settlers will argue is within the built-up borders of the settlement, even if it has no buildings on it yet.
  • Draw a circle around the handprint, leaving a space between this new line and the handprint inside. This line represents the security fence surrounding the settlement, which the settlers will argue is another border of the settlement, representing the actual “footprint" of the settlement on the ground, since this area is wholly under the settlement's control.
  • Draw another much larger circle around the previous circle. This line represents the municipal borders of the settlement, which the settlers might argue is legally and officially part of the settlement, even if they have not built on it yet.

 With settlers and their supporters in the Israeli government looking for any opening to expand settlements, which line is the “border” within which settlers may build? It is this ambiguity that has led past US administrations into the trap of endless and irresolvable negotiations/debates over what it even means to build “within the borders” of settlements. And to be clear, this is not a debate over semantics.

  • Many settlements have far-flung “neighborhoods” that, if used as the basis for defining the “borders” of the settlement would permit massive expansion.
  • Most settlements have security fences surrounding them, meaning that this larger area of land is already off-limits to Palestinians.
  • Nearly all settlements have a municipal area many times the size of the built-up area of the settlement – indeed, while the built-up area of settlements takes up less than 2% of the West Bank, nearly 10% of the West Bank is included within the officially declared municipal boundaries of these settlements. Permitting expansion inside these areas would allow settlements to grow many times over.
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