The state announced this week to court that the Lahav 433 police anti-fraud organization, as
well as the State Prosecutor's Office, will be “examining” Peace Now’s complaints of two cases of illegal
construction in the Binyamin Region Council area of the West Bank. The announcement came following two petitions
that Peace Now filed to the High Court demanding that the Police and the State Prosecutor open investigations
against the heads of the Binyamin Regional Council, the Amana settlement movement and other bodies that were
involved in big projects of illegal construction in settlement outposts. One petition was about the
establishment of the illegal outpost of Kerem Reim (west of Ramallah), and the other petition was against the
construction of 21 housing units in the illegal outpost of Hayovel (south of Nablus).
The hearing of the petition concerning Hayovel will take place this Monday (7/1/19).
Peace Now: For 50 years now, a handful of settlers have been using public funds through the
settlement councils and Amana to put facts on the ground that affect the future of all of us in violation of the
law and of the government's decisions. The hesitation of the State Prosecutor's Office and the police to
investigate the organized crime of illegal construction in the settlements is tantamount to granting immunity to
the offenders and shows a lack of respect for the rule of law. The message the government is sending to the
settlers is that they are above the law.
Yossi Alpher is an independent security analyst. He is the former director of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University, a former senior official with the Mossad, and a former IDF intelligence officer. Views and positions expressed here are those of the writer, and do not necessarily represent APN's views and policy positions.
Seven years ago, Amos Oz stopped by APN’s Washington DC office to record this video.
It was a last-moment initiative. I scrambled to prepare our clunky recording equipment, and then rushed to
meet him at the elevator. I can’t tell you how thrilled I was. I’ve read all his books – some of them
twice – and have always admired him for his literary achievements and for his dedication to peace and
security for Israel.
Out of the elevator emerged a short, modest man, warm and upbeat.
As I attached the microphone to his jacket, I told him that his book A Tale of Love
and Darkness helped me better know my mother. She grew up in the same Jerusalem neighborhood as he
did, not far from his parents’ home, and shared many of the childhood experiences Oz describes in the
book. He saw how emotional I was. He placed his warm hand on my shoulder and said: “This makes me very
happy, your relationship with your mother.”
Go HERE to support the work of Americans for Peace Now and its Israeli partner Peace Now
As part of a group of non-Israeli academics assembled by Tel Aviv University, I visited the
Temple Mount in July 2017. On the next day, two Israeli border police officers were shot there in a
terror attack. I had the opportunity to make a condolence visit to Hurfeish, the Druze village in the
Galilee from which the two policemen (who were cousins) hailed. In the intimate setting of the room in which
female relatives were mourning, I told an aunt of the slain men that I was coming to work for the American
sister organization of Shalom Achshav and wanted to help in any way I could.
She looked at me, grief-stricken and weary, and said, "Make peace."
A month later, I joined Americans for Peace Now as Policy Director. My path to APN was not conventional. I am a political scientist and Middle East politics expert by training. I came to APN following ten years of teaching at America’s second-oldest university (the College of William and Mary), as a specialist in foreign policies of Arab states. I never aspired to work for a Jewish organization. But with a mother who was born in a refugee camp in Germany in 1946 and as the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, my Jewish identity is a core part of who I am and Israel has always been a central piece of that identity. Related to that is the abiding commitment I’ve made throughout my life to public service.
I left the Ivory Tower and came to work for APN in August 2017, when the prospects for
Israeli-Palestinian peace weren’t exactly heating up. Am I a little nuts? Possibly. But no more so than
the right-wing settlers who picked up their game when it looked like the Oslo process would defeat them.
It’s precisely when the odds are against us that we must redouble our commitment—and put our energy and
money where our ideals are, as our opponents do. We must do more than look for hope; we must generate it
ourselves.
Like the Druze of Hurfeish and our brave comrades at Peace Now in Israel who can’t and won’t walk away, I am committed. I am hopeful. I feel privileged to represent you and our shared two-state, pro-Israel, pro-peace agenda – whether I’m working with Congressional staff, debating spokesmen for the settlers on Israeli TV, writing for Haaretz, authoring a report on annexation, or equipping passionate college students with the knowledge they need to be effective advocates.
If you haven’t yet made your end-of-year gift to APN please do so now, and give generously. We know you don’t have the bottomless resources of Sheldon Adelson. But if all of our supporters step up their game, my talented colleagues and I can do so much more to fight for an Israel unburdened by occupation: democratic, at peace, closer to our values, and a national home for the Jewish people.
Happy New Year to all!
With best wishes,
Debra Shushan, PhD
APN Director of Policy and Government Relations
Americans for Peace Now (APN) sends its condolences to the Oz family and to the people of Israel,
who today lost Amos Oz, a literary giant, a beacon of morality and humanity, and a founder of Israel’s peace
movement.
When Jerusalem-based journalist Orly Halpern edits the daily
edition of News Nosh, APN's daily roundup of news from Israel, she chooses the quote of the day and the
outrage of the day, which she dubs "you must be kidding."
The Following is a small selection of the quotes and outrages featured in News Nosh in 2018.
If you have not yet subscribed to News Nosh, please subscribe here. It’s free! If you have, please make a donation to support this one-of-a-kind APN publication.
- The Higher Planning Committee approved today and yesterday construction plans for 2,191 housing units in the settlements. Another plan for 68 new housing units in Givat Ze'ev was discussed but no decision has yet been made.
- 87% of the units approved can be found in the isolated settlements that Israel will likely need to evacuate within the framework of a two-state agreement: 1,908 units east of the proposed route of the Geneva Initiative; 283 units west of it.
- 1,159 housing units have been approved for validation (the final major hurdle before it is possible to issue building permits) and 1,032 housing units approved for deposit (the first stage of the planning process after which the deposit of the plan is published).
- Two plans are designed to regulate illegal outposts, giving them legal status - Ibei Hanahal and Gvaot.
- One plan establishes a new settlement adjacent to the Mitzpeh Danny outpost in the form of an educational institution with boarding schools and residential units.
- Three plans for new settlements in the form of new industrial zones.
- In 2018 in total, the amount of units in plans advanced came to 5,618 units, of which 83% (4,672) are in the isolated settlements east of the Geneva Initiative line.
The full list of settlement plans advanced can be found here.
Peace Now: In 2018, the government advanced thousands of housing units,
including most which can be found in isolated settlements deep inside the West Bank that Israel will eventually
have to evacuate. Those who build these places have no intention of achieving peace and a two-state solution. The
latest announcement, which as an aside was cynically passed on Christmas while most Western governments are on
holiday, shows that Netanyahu is willing to sacrifice Israeli interests in favor of an election gift to the
settlers in an attempt to attract a few more votes from his right-wing flank.
Significant Plans
Regulating the outpost of Ibei Hanahal (Plan No. 413/4/1) for the construction of 98 housing units
in the outpost of Ibei Hanahal was approved. The outpost was established in 1999 without permission or building
permits in a remote area southeast of Bethlehem. The plan defines the settlement as a "neighborhood" of the Ma'ale
Amos settlement, enabling the government to avoid having to formally declare the establishment of a new
settlement.
"I sometimes feel like I’m consulting with the management of Peace Now"
- Reportedly said to Israeli Defense Forces Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot by Avigdor Lieberman upon his
resignation as Israel Defense Minister.
Americans for Peace Now is validated by Israel's top security officials, who consistently agree with solutions that we and our Israeli Peace Now partners offer -- namely resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through a two-state solution that secures Israel's future as a liberal democracy and as the homeland of the Jewish people.
Our Brochure "Why Two States" demonstrates why
this solution is so crucial for Israel's future, and provides quotes from many of Israel's leading
security chiefs in support of this position.
Please help us advance our mission
with a tax-deductible donation.
As part of a group of non-Israeli academics assembled by Tel Aviv University, I visited
the Temple Mount in July 2017. On the next day, two Israeli border police officers were shot there in a
terror attack. I had the opportunity to make a condolence visit to Hurfeish, the Druze village in the
Galilee from which the two policemen (who were cousins) hailed. In the intimate setting of the room in which
female relatives were mourning, I told an aunt of the slain men that I was coming to work for the American
sister organization of Shalom Achshav and wanted to help in any way I could.
She looked at me, grief-stricken and weary, and said, "Make peace."