Peace Now’s Settlement Watch project reported this week that Benjamin Netanyahu’s government approved construction of hundreds of new homes in West Bank settlements, and is accelerating the pace of planned building in the settlements. Peace Now’s data was based on info obtained from the High Planning Council for Judea and Samaria, the government agency responsible for construction licensing and planning in West Bank settlements. The data showed that this year’s numbers (January through March) were higher than the equivalent period last year.
APN's daily news review from Israel
Friday April 15, 2016
You
Must Be Kidding:
"This lack of information is one of the factors leading to this tragedy. It's likely that at least 50 percent of survivors are under the poverty line."
--Welfare Minister Haim Katz revealed that some NIS 400 million earmarked for Holocaust survivors never made it to the survivors.
"This lack of information is one of the factors leading to this tragedy. It's likely that at least 50 percent of survivors are under the poverty line."
--Welfare Minister Haim Katz revealed that some NIS 400 million earmarked for Holocaust survivors never made it to the survivors.
These are not easy or happy times in the Middle East. If the past year is anything to go by, things are only getting harder for Israelis and Palestinians. We are collectively sliding slowly down a slippery slope toward some sort of ugly, violent, and tribal one-state reality. Just look at the recent Pew Survey’s finding that roughly half of Israeli Jews look approvingly on the notion of expelling Arabs from the country. Look at the extensive incitement on Palestinian Authority media, the wave of knife attacks and the dismal socio-economic state of the Gaza Strip. How are we—Israelis and American Jews—going to deal with this reality in the years to come? Where do Shalom Achshav (Peace Now in Israel) and Americans for Peace Now fit in? —Yossi Alpher
Yossi Alpher is an Israeli Security expert. He writes “Hard Questions, Tough Answers”, a
weekly Q&A for Americans for Peace Now. Yossi Alpher served in the Israel Defense Forces as an
Intelligence officer, followed by 12 years in the Mossad. He was associated with the Jaffee Center for
Strategic Studies (JCSS) at Tel Aviv University, ultimately serving as its Director. Since 1992 he has
coordinated several track II dialogues between Israelis and Arabs and during the 2000 Camp David Summit,
Alpher served as Special Adviser to Israeli PM Ehud Barak. He has written three books: And The Wolf Shall
Dwell With The Wolf: the Settlers and the Palestinians in 2001, PERIPHERY: Israel’s Search for
Middle East Allies in 2015, and his most recent book, published this year, is No End of Conflict:
Rethinking Israel-Palestine.
Yossi Alpher to speak at APN event June 26th
PASSOVER - Questioning Reassessing And Looking for Answers...
Read a review of Yossi Alpher's last book Periphery: Israel’s Search for Middle East Allies
A Passover message from Yossi Alpher, 2015.
Listen: Israeli Elections, Initial Analysis with Yossi Alpher, March 2015
Listen: The crisis in the US-led Israeli-Palestinian negotiations process, April 2014
Bitter Lemons, an archive of the Bitter Lemons publications
News from Peace Now's (Israel) Settlement Watch:
Yesterday it was published that the High
Planning Committee of the Civil Administration advanced plans in different stages for over 200 units in the
settlements after receiving a green light to do so from the Prime Minister and the Minister of Defense. This is
another indication of a shift away from the so-called "planning freeze" of 2015.
For a list of all plans approved in 2016 click here.
While the government issued a statement arguing that all of the plans advanced were for already existing buildings except from those in Ganei Modi'in, Peace Now's aerial photos illustrate that this is not the case, and much of the planning is for new housing units.
UNCOVERING ISRAEL, INSIDE AND OUT
With Member of Knesset Merav Michaeli (Zionist Union)
Israeli Knesset Member Merav Michaely of the Zionist Union was a guest speaker on Thursday, April 14, 2016 at an event co-sponsored by the New Israel Fund and Americans for Peace Now. MK Michaeli spoke about the challenges that progressive Israelis face, both on security and foreign affairs questions and on domestic affairs.
One of Israel’s foremost protectors of democracy, Zionist Union MK Merav Michaeli is a voice of reason, justice, and passion for human rights. Click here to watch Merav’s brief but stirring analysis of the aftermath of the recent Hebron shooting, which has dominated Israel’s public discourse in recent days.
APN's daily news review from Israel
Thursday April 14, 2016
Quote of the day:
"This place, which belongs to all of us, is bleeding from many months of frustration and despair, from
hatred, from blindness and from fear. And let's not fool ourselves: this place, our home, is also burning from
incitement. And some of that incitement comes from the statements of well-known religious leaders and
officials, who claim to speak in the name of religious truth."
--Israeli President Reuven Rivlin said in a meeting with religious leaders of Judaism, Islam and Christianity.
You Must Be Kidding:
"When the midwife brings a just born Arab baby to the nursery, they say to her, 'What did you bring? Another terrorist?’”
-Dr. Lina Qassem spoke at a Knesset hearing on the subject of the illegal practice of ethnic separation in Israeli hospital maternity wards.**
--Israeli President Reuven Rivlin said in a meeting with religious leaders of Judaism, Islam and Christianity.
You Must Be Kidding:
"When the midwife brings a just born Arab baby to the nursery, they say to her, 'What did you bring? Another terrorist?’”
-Dr. Lina Qassem spoke at a Knesset hearing on the subject of the illegal practice of ethnic separation in Israeli hospital maternity wards.**
Update: this action, now closed, ran in April 2016.
For years right-wing critics – Israeli and American, inside and outside Congress – have maligned President Obama for supposedly failing to sufficiently defend and support Israel. In particular, they have warned that if President Obama were to allow the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to pass a resolution criticizing objectionable Israeli policies, or a resolution weighing in on the solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it would be an unprecedented betrayal of Israel – a betrayal that a true friend of Israel would never consider, let alone permit.
Now, the truth is finally out – in this op-ed in the New York Times, by APN Director of Policy & Government Relations Lara Friedman. And the truth is: President Obama is the only president since 1967 who has shielded Israel 100% from critical resolutions in the UNSC.
As a true friend of Israel, it is time for President Obama to stop shielding Israel in the UNSC, just as his predecessors in the Oval Office – Republican and Democrat alike – did numerous times over the past 48 years.
APN's daily news review from Israel
Wednesday April 13, 2016
Quote of the day:
"Of course, I agree that this (the West Bank) is our country, but as long as the sovereign (in the West
Bank) is an Israeli general, it is difficult to say that it is not occupied land. As long as the occupation
continues, Bahlul is not wrong."
--Far right-wing former MK Moshe Feiglin supports the statement of maligned Zionist Camp MK Zuheir Bahloul that Palestinian attacks on Israeli security forces is not terror.**
--Far right-wing former MK Moshe Feiglin supports the statement of maligned Zionist Camp MK Zuheir Bahloul that Palestinian attacks on Israeli security forces is not terror.**
News from Peace Now's (Israel) Settlement Watch:
Advancement of Plans for Housing Units in the Settlements up by 250% in the First Quarter of 2016 Compared with the Same Period Last Year
While the government's declared policy in the settlements is that of a "planning freeze," during January-March 2016
plans for 674 housing units in the settlements were advanced (all over the West Bank and particularly in isolated
settlements), as opposed to 194 housing units in the same period last year.
During 2015, plans for 1,665 new housing units were promoted (1,044 of them were retroactively legalized after
having been built illegally and without a plan). This number constitutes a substantial decrease from 2014, during
which 8,606 new housing units had been promoted (801 of which retroactively legalized). The figures of the first
quarter of 2016 illustrate an upturn in the approval of plans, and sharply increase the total number of units
promoted by the current Netanyahu government. Additionally, as illustrated by the numbers above, while the
government states that it currently approves plans for already existing construction only, in reality in 2016 only
26% of the plans advanced constituted retroactive legalizations (compared with 63% in 2015).