News from Peace Now's (Israel) Settlement Watch:
Two important settlement developments in this update:
1. Appointed Attorney General proposes to confiscate private Palestinian lands for
settlements
2. A new settlement established south of Bethlehem
Israel is on the verge of adopting an openly anti-democratic law seeking to stigmatize, delegitimize, and ultimately silence Israeli non-governmental organizations (NGOs) like Peace Now.
On January 6, 2016, APN hosted Professor Mordechai Kremnitzer of the Israel Democracy Institute for a conversation on the current state of Israeli democracy, as it faces new government measures to enhance the Netanyahu government’s hegemony and to stifle dissent.
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Professor Mordechai Kremnitzer is Vice President of Research at the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI) and Professor Emeritus at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Faculty of Law, where he served as Dean. He is an expert on criminal, military, and public law, and widely considered as a leading expert on Israeli democracy and democracy education. At the IDI, he has been leading the following projects: Constitutional Principles and their Implementation, National Security and Democracy, Arab-Jewish Relations, and Proportionality in Public Policy.
APN Board Member Professor Michael Walzer will speak about the years after WWII as
three secular, leftist national liberation movements in Israel, India and Algeria succeeded in winning
independence and establishing states.
Following Peace Now's report, Netanyahu distances himself from plans to build a settlement in E-1 (Ynet, 12/30/2015)
Peace Now: Israel plans over 55,000 new West Bank settler units (Jordan Times, AFP story 12/28/2015)
APN: New NGO bill is not about transparency but about silencing dissent (Times of Israel, 12/30/2015)
Peace Now: Israel has plans for over 55,500 West Bank housing units (JTA, 12/28/2015)
Peace Now: Israel plans over 55,000 new W.Bank settlement homes: Peace Now (i24news, 12/28/2015)
Peace Now: Israel seeking to revive E1 construction plans (AFP, 12/28/2015)
Peace Now report: Israel advances planning for controversial West Bank zone (Financial Times, 12/28/2015)
Peace Now: Israel plans settler homes in strategic area (The Associated Press, 12/28/2015)
Peace Now report: Housing Ministry working on plans for 55,548 settlement homes (Times of Israel, 12/28/2015)
Official documents obtained by Peace Now: Israeli government renews construction plans for E-1 (Haaretz, 12/28/2015)
Peace Now calls Cabinet endorsement of anti-NGO bill "a hate crime against democracy" (12/27/2015)
Peace Now: Anti-NGO bill is "hate crime against Israeli democracy" (Jerusalem Post, 12/27/2015)
APN protests Israeli bill aimed at silencing progressive Israeli non-profits (San Diego Jewish World, 12/27/2015)
Peace Now: NGO bill is Hate crime against democracy (AFP, 12/27/2015)
Peace Now: Cabinet's endorsement of anti-NGO bill is a "hate crime against democracy" (Reuters, 12/27/2015)
Peace Now says new anti-NGO bill is a "Hate crime against democracy" (Wall Street Journal, 12/27/2015)
Peace Now criticizes Cabinet for endorsing anti-NGO bill (Deutsche Welle, 12/27/2015)
Peace Now condemns Cabinet endorsement of anti-NGO bill (New York Times, 12/27/2015)
Peace
Now condemns anti-NGO bill (Associated Press, 12/28/2015)
News from Peace Now's (Israel) Settlement Watch:
94% of the donations of 9 well-known right-wing NGOs are nontransparent
In light of the NGO bill, a Peace Now study examining the funding sources and transparency of 9 right-wing pro-settler NGOs finds that 94% of the donations to these organizations in the years 2006-2013 were nontransparent, meaning that there is no possibility to identify their original donor. The study also finds that the majority of the funding to the organizations examined originated from private individuals abroad, arriving mainly through U.S. organizations with a tax-deductible donations status. Many other millions of shekels originated from Israeli taxpayers' money through government ministries and an local municipalities.
