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.

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.

We are sorry to hear that Rep. Ocasio-Cortez will no longer be speaking at our Oct. 20th Yitzhak Rabin memorial. Her participation would have added to the event. We are certain that the event will be a success and invite the public to register and attend. 

Today's announcement of Bahrain's decision to formalize its relations with Israel, while welcome in and of itself, is used by Benjamin Netanyahu's government to distract from the very real challenges that Israel is facing.

Americans for Peace Now's objective, and indeed our dream, is to see Israel living in peace with all its Middle East neighbors, far and near. If Israel's normalizing its relations with the UAE were a step towards ending the occupation of the West Bank, then we would be all for it.

Sadly however, Prime Minister Netanyahu and his allies in the White House will pocket the Israel-UAE normalization agreement to further normalize, entrench and perpetuate the occupation. We are therefore reluctant to celebrate today.

APN strongly condemns the murder today of Rabbi Shai Ohayon, an Israeli citizen in Petah Tikvah, near Tel Aviv.

Americans for Peace Now (APN) welcomes the news of the agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates to normalize relations between the two countries. While the two countries have unofficially been normalizing relations in recent years, an official normalization could be an important development on the path to future comprehensive peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors.