Americans for Peace Now (APN) today harshly condemned the government of Israel's recent actions to
move forward with new settlement approvals and tenders in both East Jerusalem and the West Bank. APN urged
President Obama and Secretary of State Kerry to engage vigorously to convince Netanyahu to roll back these
reckless, destructive decisions.
APN President and CEO Debra DeLee commented:
"Yesterday's announcement of tenders for 1200 new units in settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem was an
extraordinary sign of contempt for President Abbas and for new U.S. special Middle East peace envoy Martin Indyk,
who arrived in Israel this week to restart talks. It came on the heels of last week's outrageous news of a decision
to press ahead with almost 900 new settlement units. Today's announcement of the approval of nearly 1000 additional
settlement units in East Jerusalem appears to reflect nothing short of deliberate effort to extinguish any hopes of
success for the Kerry-backed peace effort before the second round of talks even starts.