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

A Settlement Watch Report

This week, Alpher discusses why the most senior ministers of Israel’s right-wing coalition are taking a strong stand against terrorist attacks by extremist fringe settlers, even though it is a pro-settler coalition; whether new political and ideological lines have been drawn and the political right woken up to the excesses of the settlement enterprise; what are the new regional dynamics and alignments emerging from the Islamic State challenge to the Middle East across the region, with Turkey and Israel talking again, Saudi Arabia establishing a 34-member Islamic coalition, and Israel reportedly assassinating a Hezbollah terrorist in the all-but-occupied (by Russia) Syrian capital of Damascus; and where Israel is in this dynamic.

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.

Please read these important messages from Jerusalem expert Danny Seidemann and filmmaker Dror Moreh. We hope you find them compelling, and support our efforts to bring lasting peace for Israel and Palestine. May 2016 bring us closer to this goal.

Todah Rabah,
Americans for Peace Now

 

Dear Friend,

Why is Jerusalem burning?

I'm usually the opposite of a prophet of doom. Many journalists see peddling the apocalypse of Jerusalem as a fast track to a Pulitzer Prize, so there's a tendency to overstate the city's volatility. But Jerusalem is usually a far more stable city than its reputation. At the beginning of the recent uptick in violence, people were saying, "Ah, this happens every year around the Jewish High Holidays. This is just another perennial round of skirmishing. We see this all the time."

Thousands of Israelis, Jews and Arabs, participated in a Peace Now-sponsored march Saturday night, December 19. Starting at the Likud headquarters in Tel Aviv and ending in a rally at the Yitzhak Rabin memorial, marchers demonstrated against the bigotry, intolerance and incitement of Israel’s right wing, targeting progressive organizations and activists. Participants accused Benjamin Netanyahu’s government of setting a belligerent public tone, which inspires and encourages right-wing organizations and pundits to further escalate the discourse.

Peace Now activists carried signs saying “The Right will not Silence Me,” and “Drive away the Darkness; Stop the Fascism” as well as stickers saying: “I too am Breaking the Silence,” reference to the anti-occupation soldiers’ organization that is currently the target of right-wing attacks.

By APN's intern, Hannah Ehlers

In the last Torah portion of Genesis, Jacob lies on his deathbed. Frail yet determined, he summons his twelve sons, along with Joseph’s children, to his bedside. To some he offers praise and blessings, while others receive chastisement. Two sons in particular, Simeon and Levi, are rebuked for their violent tendencies. Jacob exclaims, “Simeon and Levi are a pair; weapons of violence their kinship… for in their anger they slew men; and when it pleased them, they maimed animals” (Genesis 49: 5-6). Earlier in Genesis, Jacob’s daughter, Dinah, had been kidnapped and sexually assaulted by a man in a neighboring town. Simeon and Levi then killed every male in that town and seized all the women, children, livestock, and property as revenge. Simeon and Levi punished the entire town for the crimes of a few.

This week, Alpher discusses why the Israeli political right is so brutally attacking the Breaking the Silence NGO, and why now; whether mainstream Israelis are defending Breaking the Silence; why is the foreign funding a problem, whether the settlers and right-wing NGOs are funded from abroad; the allegations regarding exaggerations and supporting BDS; the oft-quoted statement that the IDF is the most moral army in the world; what he suggests regarding Breaking the Silence and the right-wing campaign against it; the bigger picture: the right wing and the occupation.

My name is Jim Klutznick, I'm the Chair of the Board of Americans for Peace Now (APN), and I'll get right to the point - I could not be prouder of the staff of this organization, led by CEO Debra DeLee (pictured). The quality and quantity of their work astounds me - work that never lets up, in spite of the enormous challenges of working for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the current environment.

It's easy for some people to say "It will never happen" and just quit. That's not part of the DNA of APN's staff. This staff includes Lara Friedman, who formulates and writes APN's policies and works with Congress and the Administration; Ori Nir, who through his own writing and contacts with journalists keeps APN's views in the public eye; Mark Bilsky, who educates the public through creative development materials; David Pine, who ably represents APN on the West Coast; and Alana Suskin, our in-house Rabbi, who takes on those who use religion to justify continued colonization of the West Bank. Our Shalom Achshav (Peace Now) colleagues in Israel are likewise inspiring - they don't give up, so how can we? I thank them all and I hope you will do so as well.

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.