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News from Peace Now's (Israel) Settlement Watch:
The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics (ICBS) published its data on construction starts earlier today. The Data
shows that in the first six months of 2016, 1,195 housing units started to be constructed in the settlements. This
is an increase of 40% in comparison to the previous six month (July-December 2015), during which 850 housing units
began to be constructed. In contrast, a 3% decrease in construction starts was noted in Israel proper (23,691
housing units in the first half of 2016 as opposed to 22,898 housing units in the second half of 2015).
Peace Now: "Netanyahu is the Prime Minister of one sector only - the settler sector, which comprises of less
than 5% of the Israeli population. His investments in the settlements do not only come on the expense of the Negev,
the Galilee and the rest of Israel but also lead towards a one state reality.
Earlier this week, we called on Jewish organizations, including the Anti-Defamation League, to speak out against Benjamin Netanyahu’s statement that demanding a future Palestinian state free of Israeli settlements is supporting “ethnic cleansing.” We called on our activists to urge these groups to speak up. The ADL’s CEO and national director Jonathan Greenblatt did just that in an excellent article in today’s digital edition of foreign policy.
We commend Greenblatt and the ADL for speaking up, and thank our activists for taking action. To urge other national Jewish groups to follow ADL’s suit click here.
The latest in APN's series of security validators is President Jimmy Carter. The thirty-ninth president of the United States, he is, unusually, perhaps known best for his extraordinary post-presidency humanitarian work, including the Carter Center, founded in 1982 as his base for advancing human rights, extensive travel to conduct peace negotiations, observe elections, and advance disease prevention and eradication in developing nations.
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Last week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a video statement in which he claimed that evacuating Israeli settlements from the West Bank in the context of a future Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement is tantamount to “ethnic cleansing.” This statement, trivializing crimes against humanity and genocide, should outrage anyone who cares about international affairs and who cares about Israel.
Applying terminology borrowed from the darkest days of European history to a scenario in which Israeli settlements would be withdrawn to allow for a peace accord between Israelis and Palestinians, reached by the sovereign governments of both peoples, is abhorrent. It merits the US Jewish community’s rejection and repudiation.
Every U.S. President since 1967, both Republican and Democrat, has accepted that settlements would be removed as part of a peace agreement. Menachem Begin, who evacuated all of Israel’s settlements in Sinai as a part of a peace agreement, and Ariel Sharon, who unilaterally removed all the settlements from the Gaza Strip and a handful in the northern West Bank, made a sovereign decision to do so out of national security considerations. Controversial as these moves may have been at the time, they were not “ethnic cleansing.”
Since March, the California legislature has struggled to draft a bill aimed at thwarting BDS - the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement. As readers of these pages know, BDS is a movement that promotes South Africa-style boycott and divestment strategies to oppose Israel and its policies. For many of its supporters, BDS is a way to challenge the very legitimacy of the Jewish state.
After a torturous path of amendment and revision, the State legislature now has in AB 2844 something it thinks it can live with. But the revised bill, however well-intentioned, remains seriously flawed. Governor Brown should veto it.
Earlier versions of the bill would have created a list of companies that participate in BDS – defined to include boycotts targeting Israel or settlements – and prohibited companies on the list from becoming state contractors (a blacklist). After being cautioned by its own legal counsel that economic boycotts qualify as protected free speech under the First Amendment, the legislature abandoned its original scheme and converted AB 2844 into a generic anti-discrimination law.