from Hadar Susskind, APN President and CEO:

In recent days, there has been a great deal of discussion about our decision to honor the late Yitzhak Rabin and his legacy of peace.

There’s a lot to discuss about Rabin’s legacy. But let me be clear, we at APN continue to hold the prospect of peace as the ultimate goal for Israelis and Palestinians, and we honor the legacy of Yitzhak Rabin and his courageous steps towards peace.

We know that you do too. Your support of APN has been a beacon for the movement for nearly 40 years. That is why we need you to help us commemorate Rabin’s life and continue our work as his legacy.

Rabin was a model for the transformation from enmity and conflict to peace and reconciliation that our Israeli sister organization, Shalom Achshav, is fighting to achieve in Israel, and that we at APN support here in the United States.

Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s personal and political transformation inspired hope for peace as no other Israeli leader has. It was Rabin’s power to inspire, as a general-turned-statesman, that led his assassin, Jewish zealot Yigal Amir, to murder him at the end of a peace rally 25 years ago. Amir’s three bullets reversed the process of reconciliation and compromise that Rabin had championed and led us down the path toward 25 years of additional conflict.

For Israel’s peace movement and its supporters in the United States, it is natural to honor a man who shifted from hawk to dove, from fighting Palestinians and denying their national identify and collective rights, to formally recognizing them and their national aspirations. Rabin’s personal transformation inspired millions of Israelis and Palestinians, and supporters of peace between the two peoples worldwide, to believe that a peace agreement based on a historical compromise was attainable.

By commemorating this courageous leader and his political transformation, even as we acknowledge the complexity of his legacy, we are reaffirming our belief that a return to his path of reconciliation is the only viable way forward. A peace based on mutual respect and the acknowledgement of national aspirations is not just a dream – it is the only realistic alternative to endless conflict. It is necessary, and, yes, it is within reach. It depends on leadership, the leadership modeled by Yitzhak Rabin..

You have been a part of this quest for many years. With your help, we will keep Rabin’s spirit alive. We will continue to expand our urgent work to educate Israelis and Americans, including elected officials, on the imperative of achieving lasting peace through negotiations and compromise.

Please help us light the path towards peace with a gift to APN today.

And we hope that you will join us for our October 20th commemoration of the life and legacy of Yitzhak Rabin. Register HERE and participate in the largest memorial service outside of Israel, marking 25 years since his death.

Americans for Peace Now will hold a live streamed memorial event on Tuesday October 20, 2020, marking the 25-year anniversary of the assassination of Israel’s Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

We will honor and celebrate the life and legacy of Yitzhak Rabin with those who knew him, worked with him for peace, and were and remain inspired by him.

The event will be hosted by actor, social activist, and APN Board Member Mandy Patinkin. He will be joined by special guest speakers and musical performers from the US and Israel (already confirmed are Israeli musicians David Broza and Achinoam Nini (“Noa”), videos, and an interactive memorial candle-lighting for those in (virtual) attendance to participate in.

Yitzhak Rabin was a pioneer and fighter in forging the nation-state of Israel. His public life was in service to his country - as a soldier, a diplomat, and a politician – including as Israel’s Prime Minister, first from 1973 to 1977, and again from 1992 until his assassination in 1995. His lasting legacy is of a courageous champion of peace. Rabin led Israel in the historic signing of the Oslo Accords with the Palestinian Liberation Organization - securing mutual recognition and a diplomatic path towards a two-state solution, and in achieving an important peace agreement with the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Tragically, at a Shalom Achshav (Peace Now) organized rally in Tel Aviv, Yitzhak Rabin’s life was violently taken by an Israeli zealot, who intended to kill Rabin’s vision of peace by murdering the Prime Minister.

Americans for Peace Now and our Israeli partners Shalom Achshav are proud to have worked with Yitzhak Rabin in life, and to continue advancing his quest for a secure, democratic, Jewish state of Israel through a negotiated two-state resolution of the conflict with the Palestinians, and peace agreements with Israel’s neighboring states.

Go HERE to see an invitation video from event host Mandy Patinkin, and to register to attend!

Michael Sfard's recent legal opinion, commissioned by the Israeli human rights organization Yesh Din, concluded that Israel’s occupation of the West Bank is a form of apartheid, constituting a crime according to international law.

Listen to APN's Webinar with Michael Sfard from August 10, 2020:

Michael Sfard is an Israeli attorney who represents various Israeli and Palestinian human rights and peace organizations, movements, and activists. He is an expert in international humanitarian law and international human rights law. He was educated at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and at University College in London.

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Audio Recording:

Watch/listen to the conversation from Friday, July 10 with Peter Beinart, a leading American Jewish advocate for Israeli-Palestinian peace, and Hadar Susskind, APN President and CEO. 

Beinart speaks in more detail on the genesis of, and thoughts presented in his new essay. In it, he has moved publicly from a long-held position advocating for a two-state solution to now making the case for equality between Jews and Palestinians in a shared or confederated state.

Peter Beinart is Professor of Journalism and Political Science at the City University of New York. He is also a Contributor to The Atlantic, a CNN Political Commentator, Editor-at-Large of Jewish Currents and a Non-Resident Fellow at the Foundation for Middle East Peace. He is the former editor of the New Republic.

Zoom Webinar features:

• Ambassador Dr. Husam Zomlot, Head of the Palestinian Mission to the UK

• Ambassador (ret.) Ilan Baruch, chair of the pro-two-state Policy Working Group

• Shaqued Morag, Peace Now Executive Director

The panel will discuss the implications of unilateral – the anticipated political fallout in each nation and around the region, the expected developments on the ground, the question of international reaction and international law – and, just as importantly, how this dangerous unilateral move can still be prevented.

Thursday, June 25, 12:30 pm (Eastern)

REGISTER HERE

Co-sponsors: Americans for Peace Now, Meretz UK, and Partners for Progressive Israel.

To analyze the state of affairs among the Palestinian public and its leadership as Israel moves to annex large swathes of the West Bank, join APN’s Zoom webinar with leading Palestinian pollster Khalil Shikaki, the director of the Ramallah-based Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research.

Friday, June 26, 12:00 pm (Eastern)

REGISTER HERE

Pummeled by the Israeli occupation, Palestinian Authority diplomatic ineptness in the West Bank and Hamas governance incompetence in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian public is now facing the specter of West Bank annexation. Mahmoud Abbas’ PLO, utterly committed to two-state diplomacy with Israel, is hard-pressed to respond to this paradigm-changing move by the Israeli government.

This story by Oren Cohen, the former Palestinian affairs correspondent of the daily newspaper Hadashot, is a part of APN’s Virtual Dove series, a collection of stories told by practitioners in the field of Israeli-Palestinian relations, stories that highlight the human and the humanity in the conflict.