News from Peace Now's (Israel) Settlement Watch:

In the State's response from August 10, 2016, to Peace Now's High Court petition, the State notified the court that it is currently conducting a land survey in order to declare "state lands" south of Bethlehem, near the village of Nahla. A declaration as such, combined with the allocation of a small portion of the state lands in the area for the purpose of a road, will enable to connect the planned settlement of Givat Eitam to the settlement of Efrat. This connection will then allow for the establishment of the Givat Eitam settlement, also known as E2 due to its dire consequences on the two state solution. While the state lands in Givat Eitam have not yet been allocated for the construction of the planned settlement, the government intends to initially build the new settlement on the 300 dunams owned by Himanuta, a subsidiary of JNF. 

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 significance of last week’s rapprochement in St. Petersburg between Russia’s Putin and Turkey’s Erdogan; where this leaves the US, Europe, and Israel; if we are witnessing, apropos Erdogan, Putin and Netanyahu, the evolution of regional leadership toward a kind of democratic-autocratic model; how Putin and Russia became so central to the Middle East drama; and why Aleppo is so important.

Prof. Menachem Brinker, a co-founder of Israel’s Peace Now movement, an Israel Prize laureate in Hebrew Literature and a member of the Israeli Academy of Sciences and Humanities, died Thursday in Jerusalem at 81, after a long struggle with cancer.

AFP (featured in Al-Arabiya): August 12
NGO says Israel seeking settlement move to Palestinian land, Hagit Ofran, Director of Peace Now's Settlement Watch, says "the civil administration has opened a process where it is announcing that it intends to make use of these properties which are near Amona."

Jerusalem Post - August 11
Israel starts to seize 'abandoned' Palestinian property for Amona relocation, Peace Now says, "This is the crossing of a red line and a reversal of previous policies, including Likud government policies, according to which private lands cannot be used for the purpose of settlement."

Jerusalem Post - August 1
Far-right claim that many Arabs willing to sell Jerusalem homes to Israelis refuted, Anat Ben Nun, Peace Now's Director of Development and External Relations, says "when homes get sold, it is often done through a 'straw man,' who works together with Israeli settler organizations. The few that sell do so for financial reasons, as they are offered very high sums of money for their properties and face harsh social consequences."

Washington, DC – Americans for Peace Now (APN) joins its Israeli sister organization, Shalom Achshav (Peace Now) in strongly condemning the Israeli government’s decision to take over West Bank Palestinian absentee land east of the Palestinian city of Ramallah, apparently in order to relocate Israeli settlers who have been evacuated from the illegal outpost of Amona.