Americans for Peace Now is urging members of the US Senate to co-sponsor Senator Chris Van Hollen’s amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act, which would block Israel’s Netanyahu government from using any US aid to fund the annexation of parts of the West Bank.

In letters APN sent today to all Senate offices, APN’s President and CEO Hadar Susskind wrote: “I serve as President and CEO of Americans for Peace Now, but I also served as a combat soldier in the Israeli army. I fought to defend Israel from the very real security threats that it faces. I did not do so in order for Israel to abandon the path towards peace. The United States should not be supporting annexation and certainly should not be paying for it.” Susskind added, “West Bank annexation is antithetical to APN’s mission of Israeli-Palestinian peace. It is anti-democratic and anti-peace. It is immoral. It is destructive both to Israel’s national security interests and to those of the United States. US tax dollars should not support annexation nor Israel’s West Bank occupation, which the annexation attempts to perpetuate.

Sen. Van Hollen’s amendment is already backed by 13 senators, including Senators Tammy Baldwin, Sherrod Brown, Tom Carper, Martin Heinrich, Tim Kaine, Patrick Leahy, Jeff Merkley, Chris Murphy, Bernie Sanders, Brian Schatz, Tom Udall and Elizabeth Warren.

In addition to this letter, APN mobilized its activists to write to their senators, thank those who joined Van Hollen’s amendment and urge those who have not done so yet to co-sponsor it.