Americans for Peace Now urges the Biden administration to react with concrete steps to the Israeli government’s plan to double the size of the West Bank settlement of Eli and to the government’s failure to prevent settlers’ pogroms against Palestinians.  

Yesterday, two Palestinian terrorists shot dead four Israelis and injured four others near the West Bank settlement of Eli. The gunmen were killed by the IDF. APN strongly condemned the attack.

Hours after the attack, hundreds of armed settlers descended on some dozen Palestinian villages in the vicinity of Eli, torched homes, vehicles and fields, vandalized property, and attacked Palestinians. A Palestinian man was shot dead by an Israeli police officer in the village of Turmus Ayya following settlers’ violent attack.

According to eyewitness reports and video clips, IDF troops were present at or nearby the sites of these pogroms, and did nothing. According to press reports, none of the perpetrators has been arrested. As happened time after time in such circumstances, Israel’s occupation authorities in the West Bank fail to prevent, deter or punish settler violence.  

The past few days have demonstrated yet again how dangerous the Israeli government’s occupation policies are. The Biden administration must take determined action to stop the Israeli government from destroying any chance for a future Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement.

On Sunday, the Israeli government approved a measure that grants responsibility for West Bank planning procedures to Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a zealot national-religious settler who publicly proposed a plan to annex most of the West Bank by doubling the number of Israelis who live there. The measure also stipulates that planning procedures for settlement construction will no longer require approval by the Minister of Defense, as they did in the past.

Yesterday, it was officially announced that the West Bank Civil Administration’s Higher Planning Committee, the body currently responsible for all construction planning in areas under Israeli control in the West Bank, will discuss next week the promotion of a whopping 4,799 housing units through 28 plans for 18 settlements, including the authorization of an illegal (even by Israeli law) outpost.

Also yesterday, an IDF incursion into the West Bank town of Jenin triggered one of the most intense firefights in over 20 years, involving a high-powered roadside bomb used by Palestinians against Israeli armored personnel carriers as well as the use of an attack helicopter by the IDF to help rescue Israeli soldiers caught in in the fighting. The toll was high. Six Palestinians were killed, including a 15-year-old, and almost 100 were injured, some of them critically. On the Israeli side, 7 soldiers were injured, some of them badly.

And today, there was a deadly terrorist attack near the Israeli settlement of Eli, near Ramallah. A gunman shot and killed four people and injured four more, further escalating tension in the West Bank. 

Amichai Chikli, the Israeli government minister responsible for maintaining good relations between Israel and world Jewry, is apparently on a campaign to do just the opposite. After offending participants in New York’s annual Celebrate Israel Parade and viciously attacking J Street, Israel’s Minister for Diaspora Affairs now apparently has a new target: US Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating Antisemitism, Deborah Lipstadt.

In addition to being one of the world’s leading Holocaust historians, Professor Lipstadt was President Biden's choice to lead his administration’s effort to fight antisemitism, a job that she has performed ably. 

Americans for Peace Now (APN) commends the Biden administration for the plan it published today to confront the urgent problem of antisemitism in the United States. Sadly, over the past few years, antisemitism, like so many forms of hatred, has become increasingly prevalent and increasingly public. 

And we thank the administration for focusing on the very real threats of antisemitism and not endorsing or otherwise codifying into law the problematic International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism.

APN joined other Progressive Israel Network member organizations in a statement welcoming the administration’s plan. Read that statement here.

Americans for Peace Now warmly commends the 48 members of the House of Representatives who signed an open letter to the Israeli protesters who have been demonstrating for the past four months against the Netanyahu government’s anti-democratic policies.

The letter, initiated by Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA) and Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), demonstrates strong congressional support for the Israelis who are fighting to defend Israeli democracy. Having led several protest events in the United States in solidarity with the Israeli protest movement, APN urged members of the House of Representatives to sign the Eshoo-Raskin letter. We strongly appreciate this unique, important congressional gesture.

Unlike so many statements from elected officials and Jewish communal organizations, the signers of this letter directly address the importance of Israel’s judiciary to the state’s Palestinian citizens and to the Palestinians living under Israeli occupation, an effort we applaud. 

APN’s President and CEO Hadar Susskind said: “This laudable letter underscores America’s ethical imperative to defend the values-based foundation of its alliance with Israel. The US – government and public – must do its utmost to support Israel’s civil society in its fight for democracy and for a better future for Israelis and Palestinians alike. Israel's democracy needs and deserves to be defended, but there is no true democracy with occupation.”

Americans for Peace Now (APN) is extremely concerned about the possibility of a violent flare up Thursday, as thousands of Jewish ultra-nationalist zealots provocatively march in East Jerusalem to assert Israel’s sovereignty and intentionally offend Palestinian Muslims. The Israeli government could have and should have banned the march to prevent a violent flare up, which could lead to a regional outbreak of hostilities.  

The so-called “Flag March” has in recent years become the centerpiece of Israel’s Jerusalem Day. The march brings thousands of Jewish national-religious zealots to Arab East Jerusalem and the Old City. The marchers taunt Palestinians using physical and verbal violence, compelling Palestinian merchants to close their shops and stay home. In past years, the march triggered violence. This year, on the heels of Israel’s six-day mini-war with Gaza’s Islamic Jihad, tensions are high and Palestinian factions have threatened a violent retaliation in case Israeli extremists “cross red lines.”

Another unusual feature this year would be the presence of several government ministers and coalition Knesset members at the march’s main rally at the Damascus Gate Plaza.

APN’s President and CEO Hadar Susskind said: “We strongly believe that the Israeli government should ban this annual ritual of bigotry and hatred. The Flag March horror show is a disgrace and should not be embraced by the state or local authorities and should be shunned by Israeli leaders. We will be following Thursday’s events in Jerusalem with deep concern and a heavy heart, while urging all parties involved – Israelis, Palestinians and others – to avoid violence.” 

Washington, DC  - Americans for Peace Now (APN) strongly condemns the launch of rockets from the Gaza Strip at Israeli civilian areas, mourns the deaths of at least 10 civilians in Gaza after ongoing Israeli airstrikes and urges all the parties and stakeholders to take action to prevent further bloodshed.

We are heartbroken for the families in Gaza who have lost loved ones and for the countless more families in Israel and in Gaza who are living in fear of the next air raid or rocket strike. The psychological devastation of this perpetual cycle of violence can not be overstated.

APN urges all parties to the conflict – Israel, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hamas, and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank – to do their utmost to prevent further deterioration and to avoid another disastrous war. The solution to the Israel-Gaza crisis, and, indeed, to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, should be pursued and reached through diplomacy rather than through violence.

Yesterday, the House passed a resolution celebrating the 75th anniversary of the establishment of the State of Israel. In a major break from longstanding bipartisan policy and past Congressional resolutions celebrating Israel's founding, the House Republican Leadership chose to strip any reference to the Two-State Solution from the text.

We at Americans for Peace Now have been celebrating Israel’s independence and working for peace for over 40 years. As we mark the 75th anniversary of the State of Israel and we look toward the future of the state, we must recognize that a stable, secure and prosperous future for the state of Israel is contingent on the same for the Palestinian people. Supporting the State of Israel means acknowledging this important truth and advocating for a just end to the conflict. The removal of the Two State Solution language is a concerning reflection of the Republican party's departure from a longstanding bipartisan position.

Americans for Peace Now's President and CEO Hadar Susskind said: "The language of this resolution describes the United States and Israel as 'partners who share common values and a commitment to democracy'. It is clear that House Republicans share values and 'a commitment to democracy' with the Netanyahu government, but the decision to strip support for the Two-State Solution from the text requires that we ask exactly what “shared values” is Kevin McCarthy referring to? And more importantly, it begs the question, what future solution to the conflict do House Republicans support?"

Americans for Peace Now (APN) is deeply concerned by the current developments in Israel, including Prime Minister Netanyahu’s statement today that he intends to continue pushing his government’s anti-democratic initiative to weaken the state’s judiciary, his support for the establishment of a “national guard” that will report directly to Itamar Ben Gvir, and his continued scorched earth practices both domestically and internationally.

Netanyahu and his government have brought Israel to the brink of dictatorship. And the Prime Minister’s speech today failed to pull the country back from the brink. By stating in his speech today that “one way or another, we will bring about a reform” of the judiciary, Netanyahu made clear that he is not backing down from the government’s push to eviscerate Israel’s Supreme Court, he’s simply buying time.

This government’s so-called “judicial reform” is not an effort to streamline Israel’s judiciary but rather an aggressive, anti-democratic coup, intended to change the very nature of Israel’s government, away from a liberal democracy and toward a dictatorship of the corrupt.

Americans for Peace Now (APN) strongly condemns comments by Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who in a speech in France absurdly asserted that “there’s no such thing as Palestinians because there’s no such thing as a Palestinian people.” APN calls on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to condemn Smotrich’s outrageous statement and urges the Biden administration to do the same.

Smotrich said that there is no such thing as a Palestinian people, Palestinian culture or Palestinian history, and added that this “truth” should be heard “at the Elysee Palace and the White House." To make things worse, Smotrich’s lectern carried a schematic map of so-called “Greater Israel,” which included the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

Smotrich’s speech triggered justifiable fury among both Palestinians and Jordanians, including a statement by the Jordanian Foreign Ministry, noting that the map constitutes a violation of Jordan’s US-brokered peace agreement with Israel.