--Speaker of the Knesset, Yuli Edelstein, says he can’t sleep over the name-calling by MKs in the Knesset.*
Americans for Peace Now (APN) today announced that its director of policy and government relations, Lara Friedman, will be speaking October 14, 2016 before the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) at a special session organized to examine the issue of “Illegal Israeli Settlements: An Obstacle to Peace and a Threat to the Two-State Solution.”
APN President and CEO Debra DeLee commented:
“We are extremely proud that Americans for Peace Now has been invited to address the Security Council on the issue of Israeli settlement policies. This is an issue on which APN and our Israeli sister organization, Shalom Achshav, are justifiably recognized as the leading experts, both in terms of knowing and in terms of explaining the facts about settlements and their implications for peace and the two-state solution. And the facts point to a clear conclusion: the Israeli government’s policy of prioritizing settlements threatens the vital interests of Israel – its people and its national future. This Security Council meeting is a welcome opportunity to highlight the damage settlements are doing to Israel and the quest for peace.”
The full statement can be viewed as a pdf here
Watch the full testimony
here
View the post-meeting press conference here.
Distinguished members of the Security Council,
As a representative of Americans for Peace Now – an organization that is committed to Israel’s existence and its future – it is not easy for me to speak before this body today.
It is not easy because while this forum will focus in large part on human rights violations by Israel, there are states represented here whose own human rights records are abysmal. There are even states in this forum that still do not recognize the existence of Israel, 70 years after that nation’s birth and despite its membership in the UN’s General Assembly.
It is also not easy for me to speak here today because of the deteriorating political climate in Israel as far as democracy is concerned. For some time now we have been witnessing an ugly campaign against courageous Israeli human rights and civil society NGOs – carried out by reactionary groups in Israel and by the Israeli government itself. Campaigns that target the legitimacy of NGOs like our Israeli sister organization, Shalom Achshav – Peace Now.
These groups are being targeted because their work reveals facts that some prefer to hide – facts that challenge the official Israeli government narrative.
J Weekly: October 2
“A Shrine to Tolerance Shows Grave
Insensitivity”
By Ori Nir
The opinion piece by Rabbi Abraham Cooper (“Museum of Tolerance not being built atop Muslim cemetery,” Sept. 23) takes issue with my assertion that the Wiesenthal Center is knowingly building its Museum of Tolerance at the site of a historic Muslim cemetery and that bones of people buried there have been dug up to make room for the museum (“American Jewish progressives must act to defend their values in Israel,” Sept. 16).
My assertion is based on facts. These facts have been discussed in Israeli courts and in the Israeli public arena, and are included in Israel’s Supreme Court ruling. The heart of this ruling was not the question of whether there were skeletons buried where the museum now stands, but the manner in which the bones in the “Purple Zone” would be handled.
Middle East Monitor: October 7
“Monitoring
group: West Bank settlement construction has quadrupled,” draws on Peace Now’s Settlement Watch data.
Wall Street Journal: October 5
“Israel
Defends Planned West Bank Construction,” an article on tension in US-Israel relations over settlements quotes
Peace Now statistics.
LA Times: October 5
“U.S.
condemns Israel’s plan to create more housing in the West Bank,” Peace Now warns that new Shiloh construction
may grow to 300 housing units.”
Times of Israel: October 5
“US
invokes Peres legacy in biting condemnation of settlement expansion,” Peace Now blasts Israeli government for
approving hundred new homes for settlers in Shiloh.
Israel Hayom: October 2
“Report: Nearly 100 housing units to
replace Amona outpost,” quotes Peace Now’s responses to the advancement of plans for 98 settlement homes near
Shiloh.
Jerusalem Post: October 1
“Plans for 98
new settler homes advance,” Peace Now draws attention to the Israeli Higher Planning Council’s advancement of
plans for 98 new homes in Shiloh settlement.
i24news: October 1
“Israel
approves 300 new West Bank settlement homes after Amona demolition order,” Peace Now says the Israeli
government is set to approve construction of 300 new housing units near Shiloh.
If the aim of the Israeli government is to prevent a peace deal with the Palestinians, now or in the future, it’s close to realizing that goal. Last week, it approved the construction of a new Jewish settlement in the West Bank, another step in the steady march under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to build on land needed to create a Palestinian state.
The Obama administration, with every justification, strongly condemned the action as a betrayal of the idea of a two-state solution in the Middle East. But Mr. Netanyahu obviously doesn’t care what Washington thinks, so it will be up to President Obama to find another way to preserve that option before he leaves office.
The best idea under discussion now would be to have the United Nations Security Council, in an official resolution, lay down guidelines for a peace agreement covering such issues as Israel’s security, the future of Jerusalem, the fate of Palestinian refugees and borders for both states. The United Nations previously laid down principles for a peace deal in Resolution 242(1967) and Resolution 338 (1973); a new one would be more specific and take into account current realities. Another, though weaker, option is for Mr. Obama to act unilaterally and articulate this framework for the two parties.
News from Peace Now:
Last Saturday, Our Settlement Watch team exposed
that the Civil Administration's Higher Planning Committee promoted a plan for a new settlement east of Shiloh.
Today, following the
statement issued by the U.S. State Department condemning this development, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign
Affairs issued its own
statement, arguing that the 98 units that were promoted do not consist of a new settlement and do not
expand the Shiloh's municipal boundaries.
These are the facts behind our analysis, which illustrate that this is indeed a new settlement:
1. The driving distance between the new settlement and Shilo is 2km (1km from Shvut Rachel).
2. The Municipal boundary of Shiloh was changed in May 2013 to including this new hill.
3. The fact that an area is included in the municipal boundary of a settlement means nothing about the location of
it in or out of the existing settlement. According to
our study of the municipal areas of settlements, the built-up area of the settlements takes only 9% of their
jurisdiction. In other words, 91% of the municipal boundaries of the settlements is out of the built area of the
settlement.
4. According to the protocol of the planning committee which took place last week, the architect who presented the
plan said that "in terms of its functioning, the neighborhood could be independent, illustrating that this is a
de-facto a new settlement, but the government needs politically to call it a neighborhood for political
reasons.
For all of the reasons above, it is clear that the housing units promoted are not an integral part of Shiloh, but
rather, a new settlement.
Peace Now's response to the U.S State Department's statement: "two weeks after President Obama approved a
$38 billion security assistance package to Israel, Netanyahu chooses to thank him with a slap in face, and to
illustrate that his commitment to settlers who stole private lands is more important to him than the true interests
of the State of Israel."
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