APN's daily news review from Israel - Tuesday October 20, 2020
You Must Be Kidding:
After attacking Palestinian journalists who were reporting on a pool settlers were building
on privately-owned Palestinian land, a settler guard from Yakir settlement called the Israeli army, which sent
soldiers who expelled the journalists and the Palestinian landowner and allowed the settler to stay.*
APN's daily news review from Israel - Monday October 19, 2020
Quote of the day:
“This nefarious term, 'the Israeli occupation,' implies all that Israel's enemies wish to convey: that
Israel is a colony of the 'white man' in the heart of the Middle East, a European foothold, a foreign entity
seizing Arab lands and violating the human rights of the natives, the original people of the land – in other words,
the Palestinian Arabs. How does one fight this? How do we express the Jewish people's deeply-rooted connection to
this land, which is the backbone of the State of Israel, and undo the image of the heartless occupier? The answer
to this question lies in this new treaty and it, similar to "occupation," is predicated on one word:
"Abraham.”…It's evident, then, that the phrase "Abraham Accords" fundamentally denotes that the treaty (with the
UAE and Bahrain) was forged by the descendants of Abraham's children – Arabs and Jews – and thus redefines Jewish
presence in the region as ancient and therefore legitimate.”
—Yishai Fleisher, the international spokesperson for the Jewish settlers of Hebron, explains the thinking
behind the official title of the normalization agreements Israel signed with the UAE and Bahrain, as the 'Abraham
Accords.'*
APN's daily news review from Israel - Sunday October 18, 2020
Quote of the day:
"Why is Israel failing to deal with the crisis? Because our leaders have become accustomed to running
the country with tricks, deceptions and lies. Corona does not understand this language.”
--Yitzhak Ilan, former Shin Bet deputy chief, posted on social media before dying of corona this weekend.*
Breaking News:
Saeb Erekat rushed to Israeli hospital in serious condition after contracting COVID
Erekat, 65, a senior member of Fatah party, has been one of the most high-profile faces of the Palestinian
leadership for decades, and has been a part of negotiations with Israel. (JPost, Maariv, WAFA, Haaretz+ and Israel Hayom)
Actor Mandy Patinkin and singers Netta Barzilai, Ahinoam (Noa) Nini, Peter Yarrow, Ali Paris, and David Broza will perform at Americans for Peace Now’s October 20th event, commemorating the late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who was assassinated 25 years ago by an Israeli extremist.
Speaking at the event will be Rabin’s granddaughter Noa Rothman, Congressman Jamie Raskin, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, and American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, as well as other American and Israeli public figures and an official Palestinian representative.
APN's daily news review from Israel - Thursday October 15, 2020
Quotes of the Day:
“(Yitzhak) Rabin was no saint. I saw him in downtown Ramallah, shortly after the first
Intifada erupted, when he said that the demonstrations must be quelled "by force,
by might, by beating"…But Rabin changed. He came to appreciate the Palestinians’ dogged pursuit of national
liberation. I was told by more than one person in his inner circle that after a couple of years of failed attempts
to quell the uprising, Rabin explicitly recognized that you can’t break the Palestinians’ spirit and their desire
for independence. For many Palestinians, at the time, this became Rabin’s legacy.
—Ori Nir, Americans for Peace Now's vice president for public affairs and formerly Haaretz's West Bank and
Washington correspondent, writes in an Op-Ed that it is Rabin's courage to break the mainstream Israeli taboo by recognizing Palestinian
nationalism and pursuing peace that APN will honor at its October 20th event.*
"You know, Mr. Prime Minister, I can stand here and count your virtues and achievements over the years, and
they are many, at my 18th year in this House. I know and cherish those virtues and I ask myself, how can it be that
with all your abilities you do not invest even an hour or two a week to heal the wound? To mend the rifts? Why are
you waiting? Are you waiting for the streets to bleed? Do you not hear the voices?...I have been waiting and
waiting to be a part of history, and I would like to vote in favor of this historic moment, but I inform you Prime
Minister, as long as you do not take time to treat the wounds of Israeli society, I will refrain from (supporting)
this agreement."
--Shas MK Yaakov Margi slammed the Prime Minister at the Knesset vote today to approve the
normalization agreement with the United Arab Emirates.**
You Must Be Kidding:
“These are some of the most vulnerable children, whose life is already extremely hard, and Israel as the
occupying power has a duty to ensure that they get their education and basic services.”
--Norwegian Refugee Council director said before Israeli forces bulldozed a primary school in a herding community forcing children to walk
some five kilometers to access the nearest school.**
Americans for Peace Now (APN) strongly condemns the Israeli government's advancement of plans for construction of almost 5,000 new homes in West Bank settlements.
As APN's sister organization Shalom Achshav (Peace Now) points out, the approval of these settlement homes makes 2020 a record year in terms of plans approved for settlement construction since Peace Now started systematically documenting the building of settlements in the West Bank in 2012. The tally so far is 12,159 units approved in 2020, with the possibility for another round of settlement construction plan approval before year's end.