Settlements are antithetical to peace…Settlements are, at every level, a liability for Israel. It is because of
settlements that the route of Israel's "separation barrier" has been distorted, lengthening and contorting Israel's
lines of defense. It is because of settlements that Israeli soldiers are forced to act as police within the West
Bank, rather than focusing on their real mission - defending Israel. Settlements are also a huge drain on Israel's
economy, with the government continuing to fund construction and to provide settlers a wide range of financial
benefits.
It is because of settlements that Israel is forced to rule over a huge - and growing - non-Jewish, disenfranchised population, contrary to basic democratic values. Settlement policies and the actions of settlers erode Israel's image in the world as a democratic state that respects the civil rights of all people under its rule. If allowed to block a two-state solution, settlements will ultimately leave Israeli decision-makers with an impossible choice: be a democracy and give full rights to the Palestinians, at the cost of Israel's Jewish character, or deny rights to the majority of the people under Israeli rule - which the Palestinians will soon be - validating accusations that Israel is increasingly an Apartheid-like state.
-- From APN's They Say, We Say
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Learn more about settlements – the more you know, the more you can do
- The debate about settlements has been going on for nearly 50 years. In our seminal publication, “They Say, We Say,” APN takes on the most common pro-settlement canards, one by one, offering factual, substantive responses, updated to include new pro-settlement arguments and narratives put forth by settler advocates in both the U.S. and Israel.
- The Israeli Peace Now movement & Americans for Peace Now are the leading forces tracking settlement-related developments and exposing them to the public, inside and outside Israel. Click here for APN and Peace Now reports, analyses, and commentary.
- Supporting Israel is synonymous with opposing settlements and the occupation. This is why APN calls for people who care about Israel to support Israel by boycotting settlements and the occupation. Click here to learn more about our policy and our call to action.
- APN and its Israeli sister organization, Peace Now, maintain a comprehensive database of settlement-related information. We have put much of that data into an interactive map – Facts on the Ground – that you can use online or download and use via APN’s Map App. Click here for Facts on the Ground/APN’s Map App.
- “Price Tag” actions – violence and vandalism against Palestinians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and increasingly inside Israel – have for years been a tactic of some extremist nationalist Israeli settlement supporters. To learn more, see APN’s Introduction to Price Tag and APN’s Price Tag Timeline.
- Watch APN’s “Settlements 101” video (below) and read our concise introduction to settlements, "Settlements 101," document, which explains the what, who, why and when.
- Read and share Peace Now's report on the staggering economic cost of settlements, "The Price of Settlements."
- Follow daily news on settlement developments on Facebook: Israel's Peace Now movement and Americans for Peace Now