Washington, DC – Americans for Peace Now (APN) today welcomed the Obama Administration’s June 30 rejection of
legislative language conflating Israel with West Bank settlements (full text of the State Department statement is
copied below). APN Director of Policy and Government Relations Lara Friedman commented:
“We welcome the State Department’s statement that U.S. policy regarding settlements remains unchanged. For months
we have been warning of ongoing efforts by some in Congress, led by AIPAC and supported by various right-wing
organizations, as well as by some in the current Israeli government, to change U.S. policy on this issue by
stealth. These efforts seek to exploit concerns about boycotts, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) targeting Israel –
concerns APN shares – as cover for legislation the true purpose and effect of which are to protect and promote
settlements.
Outrage of The Day:
“Arabs to slaughter,” “Arab blood is cheap,” and “Arab — the son of a whore.”
--Graffiti spray-painted on the walls of the Jewish-Arab Max Rayne Hand in Hand school in Jerusalem on the last day of school. (Read more)
--Uri Abutbul, whose views changed drastically after he renewed contact with his daughter who converted to Islam and married a Palestinian.**
Outrage of The Day:
"We are principally opposed to basic laws and a constitution because we believe Israel already has a constitution, the Bible.
--Habayit Hayehudi MK Nissan Slomiansky, Chairman of the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, wants to change the judiciary.****
Shortly before I ended my sophomore year of college, I found myself in my advisor’s office with an important question:
Doron Rosenblum, one of Israel’s leading satirists, recently wrote on his Facebook page: “I got
it. They (members of the ruling coalition) are defeating criticism and satire through using satire’s own power,
as judokas do, by taking themselves beyond the absurd. Today, no satirist can outdo the insanity of" Benjamin
Netanyahu’s government.
Indeed, Israel’s leading television satire show, Eretz Nehederet (What a Wonderful Country), recently ran a humorous quiz on its web site, in which participants were asked to guess whether quotes attributed to Likud Knesset Member Oren Hazan were true or false. I took the quiz and failed miserably. Hazan’s real quotes were much more outlandish than the made-up ones.
Please join APN for a briefing call on Wednesday, July 1, at 12:00 noon Eastern Time with Prof. Ami Pedahzur, an expert on Israel’s radical right. The author of recent articles on the power of Israeli West Bank settlers, Pedahzur will discuss the political power of the settlers as a chief constituency of Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government. He will also analyze other ways in which the ideological settlers built their influence inside Israel’s establishment.
An expert on Israeli right-wing violence, Pedahzur will be available to comment on extremist West Bank settlers’ use of violence to advance their agenda.
This week, Alpher discusses the key dynamics from Israel’s standpoint of the ten-year anniversary of Israel’s withdrawal from the Strip and a low-key interception and thwarting by Israel of a flotilla trying to break Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza; regarding the publication of a UN report on human rights aspects of last summer’s Gaza war, whether there is anything that Israel can constructively build on as it looks to future conflicts; whether it made sense that the Netanyahu government refused to cooperate with the Human Rights Commission and refused to allow the latest flotilla to approach the Gaza coast; and why the Gaza Strip is relatively quiet, with Hamas seemingly collaborating with Israel by pursuing the occasional more extreme Islamists who fire isolated rockets at Israel.
--In a chilling tale in which the accused became the defendant, Judge Dov Pollock ruled that the defendant, a Palestinian man who called for help from soldiers and police to remove settlers from his property, was the one telling the truth, not the soldiers and police who gave false witness supporting the settlers.**
--Response of manager to large Jerusalem taxi company when director of Jerusalem Ballet, Marina Neeman, requested he send "only a Jewish driver.**
Jerusalem Post - June 21, 2015
High Court to debate Peace Now petition to demolish homes of settlers built illegally on Palestinian owned
land
http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/High-Court-to-debate-demolition-of-homes-in-West-Bank-outpost-406716
Haaretz - June 23, 2015
Responding to Peace Now petition, High Court orders government to explain why it would not demolish illegal
outpost
http://www.haaretz.com/news/israel/.premium-1.662557
Times of Israel - June 25, 2015
APN among groups opposing BDS law that passed the Senate
http://www.timesofisrael.com/landmark-anti-bds-law-passes-final-senate-legislative-hurdle/