News from Peace Now:

In the coming weeks the Jerusalem regional planning committee will discuss new plans for East Jerusalem, in both Israeli neighbourhood settlements beyond the Green Line and within Palestinian neighbourhoods. (See a full list of plans at the bottom of the report.)

Peace Now: “ The government is brutally attempting to destroy the possibility of the two-state solution, and this time it is by establishing a new settlement at the heart of a Palestinian neighbourhood in East Jerusalem and promoting nearly 1,800 housing units beyond the Green Line. The eviction of 5 Palestinian families, which are protected tenants, in order to establish a new settlement in Sheikh Jarrah shows that nothing will get in the way of settler groups and a pro-settler government from preventing a future compromise in Jerusalem."

A. A new settlement in Sheikh Jarrah

On July 16, the Jerusalem regional planning committee is intended to discuss several plans for settlements within Palestinian neighbourhoods. Of those, 4 plans will be discussed for the Um Haroun neighbourhood (located within Sheikh Jarrah). This is the first time in recent years that new housing units are being planned for settlers within a Palestinian neighbourhood. Furthermore, two of the plans include the demolition of homes of 5 Palestinian families.

Plan 14151: A three story building for 3 housing units. Construction entails the demolition of a home of a Palestinian family.
Plan 14029: A five story building for 10 housing units. Construction entails the demolition of homes of 4 Palestinian families.
Plan 68858: A nine story (seven above ground) Yeshiva campus named, “Or Shameach” that includes student accommodation.
Plan 499699: A six story office building.

The two plans for 13 housing units in Sheikh Jarrah will be established on properties in which 5 Palestinian families currently reside. These properties are under a legal battle through which settlers seek the evacuation of these Palestinian families. Although the Palestinian families are legally regarded as protected tenants they reside in properties that prior to 1948 were Jewish owned, and the Israeli law enables Israeli citizens to return to properties that were owned by Jews prior to 1948. Hence, settlers and settler groups actively attempt to get hold of rights to Jewish owned properties from before 1948. In the cases of the five Palestinian families, the legal actions taken by settlers for their eviction have yet to be materialize. Nevertheless, the law enables landowners to destroy and restructure a new building whilst protected tenants do not lose their legal rights, hence the advancement of these plans.

Click to download the official July 16 agenda (Hebrew).

Click to read background on settlements at Sheikh Jarrah.

Yossi Alpher is an independent security analyst. He is the former director of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University, a former senior official with the Mossad, and a former IDF intelligence officer. Views and positions expressed here are those of the writer, and do not necessarily represent APN's views and policy positions.

This week, Alpher discusses Israeli government decisions regarding conversion and egalitarian prayer at the Western Wall, boycotts, withholding funds and cancelling visits - What factors are at work here; What is the role of the rise to power in Washington of a president who is not beholden to liberal American Jews and their values; what he means by "ignorance of America and US Jewry at the strategic level;" Netanyahu's supposed understanding of the United States and the American Jewish community better than almost anyone in Israel; how this connects to Israeli politics; where this will all lead; what Israel will look like if it really loses a significant portion of the support of the American Jewish community; and what's the bottom line?

Around 15% of the Jewish settlers’ population in the West Bank are of American origin, American Jews who have made Aliyah (emigrated to Israel), and chose to settle the West Bank.

It feels as if their proportion is even larger, because they are so central to the ideological settlers’ movement, so active and so vociferous.

The expert on this issue is Dr. Sara Yael Hirschhorn, a lecturer at Oxford University in the UK. Her recently published book on this topic, is City on a Hilltop. Sara spoke about the focus of her research at a book event co-sponsored by the Foundation for Middle East Peace and Americans for Peace Now at Busboys and Poets in Washington DC on June 25th. This show is an edited version of her talk. I moderated the discussion, and learned a lot.

(From left to right: Hashem Sayed, Jessica Klein, and Katya Lipovetsky)

As we do every summer, we are hosting an intern enrolled in the Union for Reform Judaism Machon Kaplan program. This year, our Machon Kaplan intern is Jessica Klein of New Rochelle NY, a rising junior at Penn State University.

And, for the seventh consecutive year, we are hosting interns enrolled in the New Story Leadership (NSL) program, which gives young Israelis and Palestinians the opportunity to spend a summer in Washington, DC engaging each other in intense dialogue, forging relationships, and building their narrative and leadership skills.

Our NSL interns this year are Hashem Sayed and Katya Lipovetsky. Hashem is a Palestinian from East Jerusalem. He has a bachelor’s degree in Development Studies from Al-Quds University and recently received a full-scholarship for a Masters program in Environmental Anthropology at Ben-Gurion University. He sees his future career as an academic researcher in anthropology, encouraging development in Palestinian communities by raising awareness about sustainability saving the environment. Katya, an Israeli,  has a B.A. in Political Science and Sociology-Anthropology from Hebrew University in Jerusalem and recently completed an internship with Concordia Summit in New York, where she worked with the Social Impact team on campaigns against labor trafficking, food waste and supply, animal welfare and more. Katya is eager to see what life will bring and how her experience in NSL and with APN will shape her understanding and broaden her horizons.

Yossi Alpher is an independent security analyst. He is the former director of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University, a former senior official with the Mossad, and a former IDF intelligence officer. Views and positions expressed here are those of the writer, and do not necessarily represent APN's views and policy positions.

This week, Alpher discusses some of the creative thinking on what Israel could do to head off a disaster in the Gaza Strip, such as Katz's proposal for a man-made island off Gaza; whose hands the island’s security would be in; the regional and international complications that appear to render the island idea unrealistic under current circumstances; and whether this issue is linked in any way to PM Netanyahu’s zigzag regarding a plan to allow the West Bank city of Qalqilya to expand into Area C and double its population.

This episode has two segments, both relate to the Gaza Strip. 

The first segment is an interview with the World Bank’s country director for the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Marina Wes. She talked about the terrible state of the Gaza economy, about its dependence on external financial assistance, and about its grim future. 

The second segment is a conversation with Haim Malka of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC, who focused on Gaza’s largest donor, the gulf emirate of Qatar. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu apparently wants to convince us that he is not interested in reaching a peace deal, but in maintaining power by catering to his radical right flank and the settler movement.

At a June 6 ceremony celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Six Day War, Netanyahu promised an audience of settlers that “no one will be uprooted from their home. … I’m doing whatever is needed to protect the Jewish settlement enterprise in Judea and Samaria. … We are building and planning in all parts of Judea and Samaria.”

During a White House press conference in February, while expressing his interest in helping make the “ultimate” Israeli-Palestinian peace deal, President Donald Trump appealed to Netanyahu: “I’d like to see you hold back on settlements for a little bit,” he said. Trump’s ask clearly didn’t persuade Netanyahu against giving in to the settlers’ demands for expansion. Netanyahu’s promise to the settlers not only contradicts his stated support for a two-state solution, but also jeopardizes the prospects of future Israeli-Palestinian peace.

Settlements at 50 Years - An Obstacle to Peace and Democracy 

Attorney Talia Sasson, President of the New Israel Fund 

In conversation with Amir Tibon, Washington Correspondent for Haaretz Newspaper

Friday, June 23rd at 12:30 pm - 1:45 pm

Middle East Institute

1319 18th Street MW, Washington, DC

Light lunch will be available at 12:15 pm

Register here

Please join the Foundation for Middle East Peace and Americans for Peace Now for a discussion with Dr. Sara Yael Hirschhorn about her new, critically-acclaimed book, “City on a Hilltop: American Jews and the Israeli Settler Movement.”

Update: this action, now closed, ran in June 2017. 

The Israeli Knesset passed legislation known as the "Entry Law" on March 6, 2017, which will ban entry to Israel of foreigners who support or publicly engage in a blanket boycott of Israel, or who support or engage in boycotts targeting West Bank settlements.

*** APN's statement condemning passage of the law is here and APN's Resource page on the bill is here.