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

A Settlement Watch Report

Americans for Peace Now (APN) is alarmed and appalled by the Israeli Cabinet's approval today of a bill aimed at intimidating and silencing progressive Israeli non-profit organizations such as our sister-organization Peace Now (Shalom Achshav), Israel's preeminent peace movement.

The bill, introduced by Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked of the far-right Jewish Home party compels representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs, or non-profit organizations), which receive funding from foreign governments, to wear special tags on their clothing whenever visiting the Knesset, and to provide details about their foreign funding in any communication with elected officials.

Americans for Peace Now (APN) joins its Israeli sister organization Shalom Achshav (Peace Now) in condemning the current wave of vicious right-wing attacks on leaders of Israeli progressive nonprofits, on peace and human rights organizations, and even on Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin.

This week, the incitement against Israeli progressives reached new heights, with the launch of a new campaign by Im Tirtzu, an extremist, McCarthyite Israeli group. This campaign also marks a new low in Im Tirtu’s campaign of incitement against the Left – a remarkable feat given that Im Tirtzu has for some time been plumbing the depths of incitement, including with a vile campaign targeting the New Israel Fund, featuring Der Sturmer-style images of a veteran Israeli Knesset member on whose head they had drawn horns. Im Tirtzu’s new campaign – which includes a video, an ad running in Israeli media, and a website – targets our colleagues in the Israeli human rights and civil society movement, labeling them foreign “plants” and suggesting that they support terror against Israel. The imagery of the campaign calls to mind militant anti-abortion websites in the United States that, until blocked by U.S. courts, included details and photos of targeted individuals and then placed an “X” over the faces of the targets that had been killed.

Americans for Peace Now (APN) applauds Secretary of State John Kerry for his courageous speech Saturday in which he urged the leaders of Israel and the Palestinians to act now to prevent the collapse of the two-state option and to prevent the emergence of a bi-national state between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean.

Washington, DC - Americans for Peace Now (APN) joins its Israeli sister-organization Shalom Achshav (Peace Now) in welcoming the European Union’s new guidelines for labeling products made in West Bank settlements. 

Americans for Peace Now joins its Israeli sister-organization Shalom Achshav (Peace Now) in welcoming the European Union’s new guidelines for labeling products made in West Bank settlements. 

Washington, DC -- On the 20th anniversary of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination, Americans for Peace Now (APN) is joining four other progressive American Jewish organizations to take joint action to honor Rabin’s legacy of peace, security, political pragmatism, democracy, and tolerance.

The groups, Americans for Peace Now, Ameinu, J Street, the New Israel Fund and T’ruah, are today issuing a joint statement vowing to continue on Rabin’s path, to help provide Israelis and Palestinians with hope for the security, freedom and dignity that they so deeply desire and deserve.

In memoriam of the 20th anniversary of the assassination, we believe that uniting progressive Americans in a solemn demand for a peaceful and democratic Israel has never been more necessary.

Americans for Peace Now (APN) welcomes the news that Secretary of State John Kerry will soon travel to the Middle East to try to address the terrible violence that is sweeping across Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. Today, Israelis and Palestinians are increasingly locked in a dynamic of bloody escalation, with unbearable costs for both sides. Regrettably, it appears that their respective leaderships are incapable of breaking out of this dynamic.  In this context, we urge Secretary Kerry to use his visit to take concrete steps that can calm the situation: