Hello my friends,

I’ve been staring at this page, blank, for a long time. How to write about this week? What to write about?

I should tell you about the briefing that APN held, bringing Israeli and Palestinian voices directly to Congressional staff. About the many one-on-one conversations and consultations with members of Congress, as they struggled to figure out what to say. About our efforts pushing the State Department and the Administration to do more and better. And about the fact that while others circulated petitions and sent thoughts and prayers, we supported a Congressional action that demands specific steps from our government in clear and unequivocal language.

This is what APN does. This is what we are here for. 

But when I sit to write about that, I get a WhatsApp messages from my son, in Israel for his post high school gap year. And texts from my nieces and nephews, both in Israel and the US, trying to sift through the whirlwind of news and social media in order to understand what is really happening. I try my best to reassure them that it will be ok.

And then there are the messages and posts from friends and colleagues whose families are not in Israel, but in Gaza. How do they tell their children, their families, that it will be ok?

The calls with the State Department, webinars with our partners, Congressional briefings and actions, all of them are crucial, and we will continue to push for an immediate ceasefire and to address the underlying issues that led to the this most recent round of violence. But beyond that, we will continue to speak up for the humanity and inherent value of both Israelis and Palestinians.

We will not be silent as so many elected officials, commentators and “Jewish community leaders” fall back on the old tribalist approach and demand that people “take a side”. This is not a sporting event, and we are not interested in scoring points for our team or cheering on others as they do so. I will not celebrate the death of others and I will not cheer the destruction of their homes.

We have so much work to do. I am deeply grateful to be doing it with you.

B’Shalom,

Hadar

May 12, 2021

APN supported a letter sent by 25 members of the House of Representatives to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, urging him to take urgent action to prevent the displacement of Palestinians from their homes in the East Jerusalem neighborhoods of Silwan and Sheikh Jarrah.

READ THE LETTER

As violence in Jerusalem triggers hostilities across Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip, Americans for Peace Now (APN) urges all the parties and stakeholders to take action to prevent further bloodshed and to stop the escalation toward war.

The steep escalation of the past weeks requires responsible leadership in the short term, and underscores the need for renewed US-led Israeli-Palestinian diplomatic engagement to end the occupation and advance peace efforts. Recent developments again demonstrate that the current situation is not viable and requires immediate attention.
The Biden Administration may not have wanted to prioritize Israel/Palestine. They may have hoped to maintain the status quo. But the status quo is no more, and looking away does not make this crisis go away.

Update: this action, now closed, ran from May 7-10, 2021. 

Monday is Yom Yerushalayim, Jerusalem Day. This city, sacred to billions of people across the globe, is not only the spiritual center of multiple religions. It is also the home of real people.  Families, men, women and children. Jewish and Muslim. Israeli and Palestinian. And this city is in crisis.

In Sheikh Jarrah, in Silwan, Palestinian families are being forcibly evicted from their homes, only to be replaced by Israeli settlers. This crisis has been building for a long time. Our colleagues at Shalom Achshav have been on the ground fighting against this, and we here in the US have been pushing for our government to speak up and take action. 

Today members of Congress, led by Representatives Marie Newman and Mark Pocan, are urging Secretary of State Tony Blinken and the Biden Administration to do just that. 

See the full text of the letter here.

Members of Congress need to speak up and to push the Administration to act before it is too late. And they need to hear from you. 

We at Americans for Peace Now are following with horror the reports from Israel, as the casualty tally of the disaster on Mount Meron keeps rising.

Washington, DC – The world's leading human rights organization, Human Rights Watch (HRW), today issued an important report, which highlights the systemic oppression, discrimination and blanket violations of Palestinian human rights under Israel's almost 54-year-old occupation. The report lumps these violations together with the discrimination that Palestinian citizens of Israel suffer and defines them all as "Apartheid."

Americans for Peace Now (APN) welcomes a new congressional letter urging the Biden administration to use all the tools at its disposal, including the recently released Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism and the Nexis Document, in its efforts to combat antisemitism.

Update: this action, now closed, ran from April 22-27, 2021.

At Americans for Peace Now, we strive to be clear about what we believe. We believe that antisemitism—like racism, islamophobia and other forms of hatred—is a serious and growing problem here in the US and around the world.

We have opposed the codification of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, based on the fact that it uses overly broad brush strokes, and in doing so is often used to quash legitimate criticism of unacceptable Israeli government policies. In the past few weeks, two new efforts have been put forth to address the issues of antisemitism.

We are pleased to be working with Representatives Jan Schakowsky, Mark Pocan, Pramila Jayapal, Andy Levin and Jamie Raskin to bring these to the attention of Secretary of State Blinken, and the entire Biden Administration, and to urge them to consider these definitions in their efforts to combat antisemitism. 

See the full text of the letter to Secretary Blinken here.