Americans for Peace Now (APN) sends its deepest sympathy to the Erekat family and to the Palestinian people as they mourn the death of Dr. Saeb Erekat, the Secretary General of the Executive Committee of the PLO, and the former chief Palestinian negotiator in peace talks with Israel.

A proud Palestinian patriot, Erekat was one of the leading voices in support of a diplomatically negotiated peace agreement with Israel. He often noted that no other Palestinian diplomat had spent more hours negotiating the terms of Israeli-Palestinian political relations and the terms of a future Israeli-Palestinian two-state peace accord.

Donald Trump's administration greenlighted a surge in settlement construction and planning and attempted to set in motion Israel's formal annexation of the West Bank by Israel.

Trump's unprecedented departure from decades-long US policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has made the two-state solution more difficult to attain and has significantly complicated the efforts of future U.S. administrations to help broker peace between Israel and its Palestinian neighbors.

Americans for Peace Now (APN) congratulates Joseph Biden on his election as the 46th President of the United States, and Kamala Harris, our nation's next Vice President, and wishes them success in their pursuit of a more just and responsible foreign policy.

Today, on the 25th anniversary of the assassination of Israel’s Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, we at APN honor Rabin’s legacy by continuing to build the movement for Israeli-Palestinian peace.

APN’s President and CEO Hadar Susskind said: “Yitzhak Rabin was a soldier and a general who fought for his country in a time of conflict. But his legacy is that of a man who recognized the legitimate national aspirations of the Palestinian people, who chose peace over war, who chose to extend his hand to those who had been his enemies, and who ultimately lost his life in the pursuit of peace. 

As we honor that legacy, we remind supporters of Israeli-Palestinian peace worldwide that the conflict between the two peoples is an existential threat to both, that it must and can be resolved, and that determined leadership such as Rabin’s is necessary for progress toward resolution.

Together with our Israeli colleagues at Israel’s Peace Now movement, APN is determined to help achieve Rabin’s goal of Israeli-Palestinian peace and reconciliation.

The progressive Hatikvah list to the World Zionist Organization (WZO), of which Americans for Peace now is a member organization, scored an important achievement last week at the 35th Zionist Congress.

The gathering was held virtually between October 20th and October 22nd with some 500 delegates from 14 countries in attendance.

Actor also links his ‘Princess Bride’ character to Yitzhak Rabin...

“You know, I have been in the revenge business so long, now that it’s over, I don’t know what to do with the rest of my life.” When you take a man like [former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak] Rabin, who held every imaginable position from soldier to statesman and turned from soldier and warrior into a peacemaker, that is the greatest transformation a human being can come to. I certainly hope that no one has to be a warrior in this world.

[Patinkin this week emceed a memorial held by Americans for Peace Now, an organization that the actor has been involved with for decades, marking the 25th anniversary of Rabin’s assassination by a Jewish extremist.]

Read the entire interview HERE

In response to reports that the State Department may baselessly label prominent human rights organizations ‘antisemitic,’ nine organizations from the Progressive Israel Network released the following statement:

The Progressive Israel Network (PIN) strongly condemns the Trump administration’s reported intentions to declare Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Oxfam, and potentially other human rights organizations as antisemitic and to urge other governments not to support them. As leading Jewish progressive organizations committed to pursuing democracy, equality, and peace in Israel, we oppose any attempt to smear or silence human rights organizations because they criticize Israeli government policies. Standing up for human rights is a core Jewish value.

Mandy Patinkin, Event Host

Shaqued Morag, Executive Director of Peace Now, with activists in Rabin Square in Tel Aviv...

Actor Mandy Patinkin and singers Netta Barzilai, Ahinoam (Noa) Nini, Peter Yarrow, Ali Paris, and David Broza will perform at Americans for Peace Now’s October 20th event, commemorating the late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who was assassinated 25 years ago by an Israeli extremist.  

Speaking at the event will be Rabin’s granddaughter Noa Rothman, Congressman Jamie Raskin, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, and American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, as well as other American and Israeli public figures and an official Palestinian representative. 

Americans for Peace Now (APN) strongly condemns the Israeli government's advancement of plans for construction of almost 5,000 new homes in West Bank settlements.

As APN's sister organization Shalom Achshav (Peace Now) points out, the approval of these settlement homes makes 2020 a record year in terms of plans approved for settlement construction since Peace Now started systematically documenting the building of settlements in the West Bank in 2012. The tally so far is 12,159 units approved in 2020, with the possibility for another round of settlement construction plan approval before year's end.