Palestinian Politics’ Ongoing Crisis

Americans for Peace Now (APN) joins its Israeli sister organization Shalom Achshav (Peace Now) in urging the Israeli government to reverse the so-called “compromise agreement” reportedly achieved with militant West Bank settlers, and immediately remove a settlement outpost built illegally on land that is claimed by the Palestinian villages of Beita and Yatma, near Nablus.

APN urges the Biden administration to demand that the Israeli government remove this illegal outpost and put an end to the damaging practice of “legalizing” West Bank settlement outposts built in violation of both international law and Israel’s own laws. 

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.

Progress

In 1988, Israel decriminalized homosexuality, and within five years, the country had begun allowing openly gay soldiers to serve in the military and instituted a ban on anti-LGBTQ employment discrimination. Since 2006, Israel has recognized same-sex marriages performed abroad; 2008 marked the year that Israel began allowing same-sex couples to adopt children together; and, in 2014, Israel lowered the minimum age requirement for gender-affirming surgery for the transgender community. Just this month, incoming Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz announced that he would remove all questions about sexual activity from questionnaires for prospective blood donors, thus allowing gay men to give blood.

Over the past twenty-three years, LGBTQ rights have progressed at warp speed in Israel. In Tel Aviv, a city where only twenty or thirty years ago gay men were harassed on the streets by bullies both civilian and police, there is now a Municipal LGBT Center. Funded by the city government, this center aims to support, educate, and empower the city’s LGBTQ residents. The idea that taxpayer funds could go toward such an effort – especially in a state so influenced by intolerant religious attitudes – is nothing short of revolutionary.

Several Israeli peace and human rights organizations, including Peace Now, took part on Tuesday, June 22nd, in a Knesset event titled ‘After 54 years: Between Occupation and Apartheid,’ hosted by MK Aida Touma-Suleiman of the Joint List and MK Mossi Raz of Meretz.

The event ruffled feathers in Israel. Many were offended by the use of the term “Apartheid” to depict the reality in the West Bank under Israeli occupation. Avner Gvaryahu, the executive director of Breaking the Silence, addressed these sentiments in the following speech, translated from Hebrew by APN:

UN Secretary General António Guterres and the United Nations point-man on antisemitism Miguel Moratinos, the UN High-Representative for the Alliance of Civilizations, have been under pressure from conservative US Jewish leaders and the Israeli government to endorse a definition of antisemitism which APN – among others – finds problematic. APN’s President and CEO and the organization’s Chair of the Board sent the following letter to Mr. Moratinos and SG Guterres, urging them not to adopt the IHRA definition as the UN’s official definition of antisemitism.   

Israel’s Peace Now movement was one of several Israeli peace and human rights organizations that participated on Tuesday, June 22^nd, in an event titled ‘After 54 years: Between Occupation and Apartheid.’

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.

Supporting Peace, Conditioning Aid

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