Americans for Peace Now (APN) welcomes the petition filed today by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) with the US Supreme Court to overturn an Arkansas law requiring state contractors to pledge not to boycott Israel as a condition to doing business with the state.

APN thanks the ACLU and urges the Supreme Court to take up the case.

APN supports the right of American citizens, organizations and companies to use boycotts as a legitimate First Amendment-protected right.

The case in point pertains to the Arkansas Times newspaper and its editor, Alan Leveritt, who refused to sign a commitment to not boycott Israel as a condition for an advertising contract with the state-run University of Arkansas. Leveritt initially lost in a federal district court, but when he appealed to the 8th Circuit court of appeals, a three-judge panel overturned the federal district court's ruling, ruling in his favor. The state of Arkansas petitioned to have the case reviewed again by the full 8th district court (as opposed to the 3-judge panel), and the court agreed to. The full court's ruling upheld the initial ruling of the federal district court, ruling against Leveritt to uphold the 2017 Arkansas law, which the state of Arkansas dubbed “boycotting the boycotters.”

The surging violence in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, two weeks before Israel’s general elections, is not only a tragedy, but also a cause for serious political concern.

Americans for Peace Now (APN) calls on all stakeholders, including the Biden administration, to do their utmost to lower the flames and stop the violence to prevent further bloodshed and destruction.

The current flareup is characterized by provocative settler violence. In various hotspots in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, settlers have been brutalizing Palestinians, damaging their property, burning cars and blocking vital transportation routes. Settler provocations have become a staple of Jewish holidays. Young settlers are off school and their parents on holiday break. The result is an increase in organized violent action.

Americans for Peace Now cautiously welcomes yesterday’s launch of the Joint US-Israel Strategic High-Level Dialogue on Technology. As announced in this summer’s Jerusalem US-Israel Strategic Partnership Joint Declaration, these talks are intended to establish a US-Israel technological partnership on critical and emerging technologies and solutions to global challenges. 

Americans for Peace now welcomes Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid’s endorsement of the two-state solution in his United Nations General Assembly speech and commends him for stating that peace is not an expression of weakness but rather “a victory of all that is good.”

A United Nations General Assembly speech by an Israeli prime minister, which focuses on peace and explicitly pledges to pursue peace, is a welcome and refreshing development.

Yesterday, the House Foreign Affairs Committee met to consider the Peace and Tolerance in Palestinian Education Act. While the name of the legislation represents something all schools should aspire to, it is in actuality a thinly veiled attempt to de-legitimize the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) and demonize the teaching of the Palestinian narrative. There are real and problematic examples cited by supporters of the bill, which UNRWA takes seriously and is working to address. However, we believe that it is incumbent on schools to teach tolerance and avoid bias in their curriculum on both sides of the Green Line.

Americans for Peace Now (APN) welcomes the news that Israel has stripped the regulation that would have required foreigners to report romantic relationships with Palestinian ID holders to Israeli authorities from the new Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) entry guidelines and thanks the Biden administration for its efforts to change the protocol.

Today, Americans for Peace Now sent a letter signed by over 400 activists to Secretary of State Antony Blinken demanding that the administration fulfill its duty and conduct an independent and transparent investigation into the killing of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu-Akleh, an American citizen covering the West Bank for Al-Jazeera TV. She was shot to death on May 11th in the town of Jenin during an Israeli military raid.

The letter reaffirms the need articulated by both President Biden and Secretary Blinken for a “full and transparent accounting” and an “independent, credible investigation” and urges the administration to fulfill its obligation by ensuring this occurs.

Together with seven fellow progressive American Jewish organizations, Americans for Peace Now (APN) today sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, urging the Department of State to take a clear, proactive position regarding Israel's designation of six Palestinian human rights groups as "terrorists organizations."

Americans for Peace Now (APN) urges the Biden administration to demand that the government of Israel immediately cease its suppression campaign against Palestinian civil society organizations.

Earlier today, Israeli military units raided the offices of prominent Palestinian rights organizations in the West Bank, confiscated documents and other property, soldered shut their doors to prevent access to the offices, and left notices informing the organizations that they have been outlawed.