Donald Trump's administration greenlighted a surge in settlement
construction and planning and attempted to set in motion Israel's formal annexation of the West Bank by Israel.
Trump's unprecedented departure from decades-long US policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has made the two-state solution more difficult to attain and has significantly complicated the efforts of future U.S. administrations to help broker peace between Israel and its Palestinian neighbors.
Americans for Peace Now (APN) congratulates Joseph Biden on his election as
the 46th President of the United States, and Kamala Harris, our nation's next Vice President, and wishes them
success in their pursuit of a more just and responsible foreign policy.
Today, on the 25th anniversary of the assassination of Israel’s Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, we at APN honor Rabin’s legacy by continuing to build the movement for Israeli-Palestinian peace.
APN’s President and CEO Hadar Susskind said: “Yitzhak Rabin was a soldier and a general who fought for his country in a time of conflict. But his legacy is that of a man who recognized the legitimate national aspirations of the Palestinian people, who chose peace over war, who chose to extend his hand to those who had been his enemies, and who ultimately lost his life in the pursuit of peace.
As we honor that legacy, we remind supporters of Israeli-Palestinian peace worldwide that the conflict between the two peoples is an existential threat to both, that it must and can be resolved, and that determined leadership such as Rabin’s is necessary for progress toward resolution.
Together with our Israeli colleagues at Israel’s Peace Now movement, APN is determined to help achieve Rabin’s goal of Israeli-Palestinian peace and reconciliation.
The progressive Hatikvah list to the World Zionist Organization (WZO), of which Americans for Peace now is a member organization, scored an important achievement last week at the 35th Zionist Congress.
The gathering was held virtually between October 20th and October 22nd with some 500 delegates from 14 countries in attendance.
Actor also links his ‘Princess Bride’ character to Yitzhak Rabin...
“You know, I have been in the revenge business so long, now that it’s over, I don’t know what to do with the rest of my life.” When you take a man like [former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak] Rabin, who held every imaginable position from soldier to statesman and turned from soldier and warrior into a peacemaker, that is the greatest transformation a human being can come to. I certainly hope that no one has to be a warrior in this world.
[Patinkin this week emceed a memorial held by Americans for Peace Now, an organization that the actor has been involved with for decades, marking the 25th anniversary of Rabin’s assassination by a Jewish extremist.]
Read the entire interview HERE
In response to reports that the State Department may baselessly
label prominent human rights organizations ‘antisemitic,’ nine organizations from the Progressive Israel
Network released the following statement:
The Progressive Israel Network (PIN) strongly condemns the Trump administration’s reported intentions to declare Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Oxfam, and potentially other human rights organizations as antisemitic and to urge other governments not to support them. As leading Jewish progressive organizations committed to pursuing democracy, equality, and peace in Israel, we oppose any attempt to smear or silence human rights organizations because they criticize Israeli government policies. Standing up for human rights is a core Jewish value.
Actor Mandy Patinkin and singers Netta Barzilai, Ahinoam (Noa) Nini, Peter Yarrow, Ali Paris, and David Broza will perform at Americans for Peace Now’s October 20th event, commemorating the late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who was assassinated 25 years ago by an Israeli extremist.
Speaking at the event will be Rabin’s granddaughter Noa Rothman, Congressman Jamie Raskin, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, and American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, as well as other American and Israeli public figures and an official Palestinian representative.
Americans for Peace Now (APN) strongly condemns the Israeli government's advancement of plans for construction of almost 5,000 new homes in West Bank settlements.
As APN's sister organization Shalom Achshav (Peace Now) points out, the approval of these settlement homes makes 2020 a record year in terms of plans approved for settlement construction since Peace Now started systematically documenting the building of settlements in the West Bank in 2012. The tally so far is 12,159 units approved in 2020, with the possibility for another round of settlement construction plan approval before year's end.
In the mid-1990s, I spent most of my working hours talking to Palestinians in the West
Bank. I covered Palestinian affairs for Haaretz, and during that period I was speaking day-to-day with more
Palestinians than with fellow Israelis.
On the night of Nov. 4, 1995, having just heard from the news desk editor that Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin had been shot, I called Palestinian officials for reaction. I was on the phone with Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat when I heard on Israel Radio that Rabin’s spokesman was about to make a statement.
As Eitan Haber hushed the crowed, I started translating for Erekat: "The government of Israel announces in dismay, in great sadness, and in deep sorrow, the death of Prime Minister and Minister of Defense Yitzhak Rabin, murdered by an assassin tonight in Tel Aviv."
As I cried, I could hear Saeb’s voice crack. I had known Dr. Erekat for years, a relationship that began when he was the editorial writer of the Palestinian daily al-Quds, briefing Israeli reporters on Palestinian politics while sharing a smoke on the steps of the newspaper’s East Jerusalem office. Over the years, we laughed a lot together. Now we were crying.