Americans for Peace Now (APN) extends its gratitude and appreciation to 191 members of the House of Representatives for the letter they sent to Israel's government, sharply criticizing its intention to annex parts of the West Bank and urging it to reconsider its unilateral annexation plan.
Israel’s peace camp this week lost one of its icons. Zeev Sternhell, one of the world’s leading
scholars on fascism and one of Israel’s clearest anti-occupation and anti-settlements voices, died in Jerusalem
at the age of 85.
Professor Sternhell was closely associated with Israel’s Peace Now movement and one of its first members.
In 2008, four months after winning the lucrative Israel Prize, he was the target of a violent hate crime. A pipe bomb planted at the doorstep of
his Jerusalem home injured him. Next to the bomb and around Sternhell’s home, fliers were found promising a
million shekels prize to anyone who would kill a Peace Now activist.
Years later, American-born Jewish terrorist Yaakov Teitel, now serving a life imprisonment sentence, admitted to planting the bomb.
In 2016, in a Haaretz op-ed, Sternhell publicly came to the defense of Americans for Peace Now and the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem when he defended their appearance before the UN Security Council to talk about West Bank settlement construction and violations of Palestinian human rights.
To analyze the state of affairs among the Palestinian public and its
leadership as Israel moves to annex large swathes of the West Bank, join APN’s Zoom webinar with leading
Palestinian pollster Khalil Shikaki, the director of the Ramallah-based Palestinian Center for Policy and
Survey Research.
Friday, June 26, 12:00 pm (Eastern)
Pummeled by the Israeli occupation, Palestinian Authority diplomatic ineptness in the West Bank and Hamas governance incompetence in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian public is now facing the specter of West Bank annexation. Mahmoud Abbas’ PLO, utterly committed to two-state diplomacy with Israel, is hard-pressed to respond to this paradigm-changing move by the Israeli government.
This story by Oren Cohen, the former Palestinian affairs correspondent of the daily newspaper Hadashot, is a part of APN’s Virtual Dove series, a collection of stories told by practitioners in the field of Israeli-Palestinian relations, stories that highlight the human and the humanity in the conflict.
APN and fellow members of the Progressive Israel Network have sent the letter below to Alternate Prime Minister Gantz and Foreign Minister Ashkenazi, urging action to stop Israeli annexation in the West Bank.
Update: this action, now closed, ran in June 2020.
With the blessing -- indeed the urging -- of Donald Trump’s White House, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in the midst of preparations to annex vast swaths of the West Bank. A joint committee, manned by representatives of Netanyahu and Trump, and headed by Trump’s ambassador to Israel David Friedman, is working on a detailed map delineating the territory – as much as 30% of the West Bank – that Israel will claim as its own.
A group of members of the House of Representatives is signing a letter (click HERE to read the letter) to Prime Minister Netanyahu and his ministers of defense and foreign affairs urging them to reconsider this destructive measure.
Tell your member of Congress to join the letter!
CLICK to jump down to the Hadar Susskind letter
Intro to Hadar Susskind's letter (with matching donation offer!) from Chair of the APN Board, Jim Klutznick, and Board Member and Former Chair Luis Lainer:
Americans for Peace Now is an organization with a long and storied history. At our best, we're not just an organization, we're a leading voice in the movement to bring peace for Israelis and Palestinians.
We've been through changes over the years, and today we want to tell you about the important
step that we just took to reinvigorate APN and our work.
Last month we hired Hadar Susskind as our President and CEO. Hadar got right to work. He is deepening our collaborative efforts with other organizations, revitalizing government affairs, rejuvenating fundraising efforts and putting APN at the forefront of the Jewish communal conversation.
You need to get to know him better. The best way to do this is to read his letter below.
We are so committed to APN and to Hadar's new leadership path that we
pledge to match your contributions, dollar for dollar, up to $30,000. Your donations will effectively be doubled.
You know APN - now please get to know Hadar. Read his introduction and make a gift to support APN today. Let's give Hadar the ability to get the job done.
We both wish you health and strength during these difficult times, and appreciate your continued support.
|
Jim Klutznick Chair of the Board, APN |
Luis Lainer Board Member and former Chair |
APN was one of the first organizations to publicly condemn
the President of the Zionist Organization of America Mort Klein's racist tweets about Black Lives
Matter. APN now joins with fellow member organizations of the Conference of Presidents of Major
American Jewish Organizations in sending this letter to Mr. Klein, which concludes with:
"At this delicate and critical juncture in American history, Jews of all colors must stand up for black lives and against senseless hatred and divisive bigotry. It is time to find our common humanity, not to search for ways to keep us apart. There is no room for hate in organized Jewish life."
The Israeli government’s decision to annex large parts of the West
Bank is now on the forefront of the political agenda in the public and in the Israeli Knesset.
Listen to Knesset Member Merav Michaeli of Israel’s Labor Party, who is currently a member of the opposition, discuss annexation on this APN briefing call from Thursday, June 11.
In her eight years in Israeli politics, following a successful career in television and print journalism, MK Michaeli has established herself as a clear, courageous progressive voice, focusing on peace, social justice, and women’s rights. One of Israel’s leading feminists, Michaeli has been socially active since the late 1990s, when she established a lobbying organization to assist and promote sexual violence victim centers across Israel. As a Knesset member, she has consistently speaks out against the occupation and against the Israeli government’s inaction in pursuit of an end to the occupation.
Update: this action, now closed, ran from June 9- June 30, 2020.
Go HERE to sign the letter
Americans for Peace Now and our Israeli sister organization Peace Now (Shalom Achshav) are raising our voices in solidarity and asking Israelis and Americans who care about peace to sign on to this letter.
The government of Israel, with the encouragement of the Trump administration, intends to begin annexation of the West Bank as soon as July 1st. Annexation would have disastrous repercussions for Israelis and Palestinians and would threaten US national security interests.
Israeli and American citizens are urging the government of Israel to abandon its unilateral annexation plan and to instead pursue negotiations with the Palestinian leadership to reach a conflict-ending peace accord.
Please add your name to these and the growing list!
Peter Beinart * Nicole Berner * Martin I
Bresler * Rachel Faulkner * Tom Feldman *
Dan Fleshler * Dr. Robert O. Freedman * Aviva
Futorian * Judith Gelman * Gili Getz *
Joe Goldman * Ginna Green * Rabbi Steve Gutow
* Jonathan Jacoby * Steven Kaplan * Nancy
Kaufman * Jim Klutznick * Shawn Landres *
Luis Lanier * Rabbi Michael Latz * Rabbi Amichai
Lau-Lavie * Libby Lenkinski * Rachel Lerner
* Ruth Messinger * Aviva Meyer * Mik
Moore * Jo-Ann Mort * David Myers *
Kathleen Peratis * Marcie Setlow * Mark Silverberg
* Daniel Sokatch * Mary Ann Stein * Judith
Tuller * Michael Walzer * Peter Weiss