A little more than a month ago, following the collapse of the US-brokered Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations initiative, APN issued a bold position paper calling for bolder action to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Along with this paper, we began a six week campaign to educate and take action on the core issues in this conflict: settlements, Jerusalem, borders and security, hatred and incitement, issues pertaining to the conflicting narratives of Israelis and Palestinians, and a final week that looks to the future and talks about what we can do to support a two-state solution.

The bloody deterioration that we have witnessed on the ground since then demonstrates how poisonous the status quo is, and how desperately Israelis and Palestinians need a political agreement to separate into their own sovereign states.

The events of the past month have demonstrated how destructive the occupation is – destructive for both Palestinians and Israelis. While Palestinians are occupied by Israel, Israelis are occupied by the conflict and its violent impact on the Israeli public. Israelis and Palestinians do not have to continue living in this miserable anomaly, under occupation. And they know that the only way for long-lasting normalcy is the diplomatic path that leads to a two-state peace agreement.

The events of the past month make our path, our policy more relevant today than ever. Now, in the sixth week of our campaign to #ReclaimIsrael we provide you the resources that will help you to stay up to date with news as it breaks, to engage with and take action on the core issues at the center of the conflict, and to support the work so that together we can help Israel build a future of peace.

Here are the best ways to engage and take action, to stay up-to-date on what is happening, and to learn about the issues:

Read our landmark statement, "On the 47th Anniversary of the Occupation: Time for Hard Truths, Tough Actions"	Like us on Facebook   Follow us on Twitter
Don't miss out! To receive action alerts and other important news Sign up for APN Updates	Take action on important issues:
To keep up with what's going on, sign up for News Nosh: free, daily, news from Israeli sources Download Facts on the Ground: The APN Map Project	Book a Speaker: Make sure to check our events page regularly Please support us

Listen to our podcasts:

Jerusalem-based spokesperson of UNRWA, Christopher Gunness on the humanitarian situation in Gaza
Arnon Avni on living in a war zone

From the past six weeks:
Briefing call on West Bank settlements with Lior Amihai
Briefing call on Jerusalem with Danny Seidemann
Conversation with Brigadier General (Ret.) Shlomo Brom: Defensible borders
Briefing call with Israeli strategic affairs expert Yossi Alpher on the current crisis and its repercussions
Briefing call with Professor Matti Steinberg, an expert on Palestinian politics and political ideology APN interviews David Pollock of Washington Institute for Near East Policy on Palestinian and Israeli incitement.
APN Interviews Palestinian Intern Hamze Awawdeh

Go to the "Reclaiming Israel's Future" Campaign Homepage

Christopher Gunness, the Jerusalem-based spokesperson of UNRWA, the United Nations agency that serves Palestinian refugees, joined us on July 18 20014, less than 24 hours after Israel's ground campaign in the Gaza Strip started, to review the humanitarian situation in Gaza and the reconstruction challenge that faces the residents of the Gaza Strip and UNRWA.

APN's daily news review from Israel

Friday July 18, 2014
 

NOTE: Beginning today News Nosh on Fridays will be a truncated version. 

On Wednesday, July 16, Americans for Peace Now along with the American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP) hosted an event that focused on the way in which the Israeli-Palestinian conflict plays out on US college campuses.

Among the more than 50 attendees at the Washington Center for Internships and Academic Seminars were Israeli and Palestinian participants of New Story Leadership (NSL). NSL brings young Israeli and Palestinian leaders to Washington, DC  for a summer of dialogue and leadership workshops during which they also learn about Washington through internships.

APN Urges Immediate Ceasefire, Harnessed to a Diplomatic Process that Leads to Peace:

Having urged a ceasefire for the past week, APN, like millions of Israelis, Palestinians and others worldwide was excited at the news of a ceasefire agreement Monday night. We immediately welcomed this news after senior Israeli officials were quoted on the Israeli media as welcoming the Egyptian-proposed ceasefire agreement. Hours later, the Israeli cabinet officially endorsed the ceasefire.

We were deeply disappointed when Hamas and other Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip rejected the ceasefire and intensified their rocket fire throughout the day Tuesday, arguing that Egypt announced the ceasefire without consulting with their leadership.

In response, after halting fire for several long hours, Israel resumed air raids on the Gaza Strip.

We hope that that Hamas and other Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip will accept the ceasefire, stop their rocket attacks on Israel and thus prevent further escalation.

While we yearn for a ceasefire, we remind all parties involved that that a ceasefire cannot be an end in itself. For a ceasefire to not turn into just another intermission between rounds of violence, it must be harnessed to a diplomatic process that addresses the underlying causes of conflict. 

Go to APN's Israel-Gaza Crisis Resource Page for all updates and related information.

On July 10, 2014, APN's Executive Assistant Katherine Cunningham and intern Hannah Ehlers interviewed our Palestinian intern Hamze Awawdeh, a Palestinian from the West Bank who works in Tel Aviv for an Israeli-Palestinian peace organization. Hamze, who participates this year in APN's joint internship program with the American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP), explores in this interview the sometimes tense dialectic between the national narratives of Israelis and Palestinians and the efforts that young Israelis and Palestinians are making to write a new chapter, a chapter of peace, in their peoples' national history.

Americans for Peace Now and the American Task Force on Palestine

invite you to attend

The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict on Campus