Friend --
Over the past week, Prime Minister Netanyahu has announced plans to build thousands of settlement units in and around East Jerusalem.
Some of these announcements have been hugely controversial and problematic. But none of them approached the gravity of today’s announcement of plans to move forward with construction of E-1 -- a settlement that would devastate chances for a viable Palestinian state with a capital in East Jerusalem.
Today, we are calling on the leadership of AIPAC and all pro-Israel Jewish organizations to speak out against this announcement.
And we’re asking Jewish Americans who are committed to Israeli-Palestinian peace to join our call. Please add your name here.
For decades, AIPAC, American Jewish leaders and elected officials have been briefed in depth on what it would one day take to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. They have been shown the significance of areas like E-1 and Givat Hamatos (another settlement announced this week), which cut through Palestinian population centers.
They've been told by retired military commanders, urban planners and peace negotiators that these projects constitute red lines that Israel must not cross if it hopes to keep the possibility of a viable state of Palestine alive.
And, for two plus decades, Israeli governments have listened not only to the experts, but to the US and the other governments of the world. While some have proceeded with other very harmful settlement expansions, they have -- until now -- refrained from crossing these ultimate red lines.
This week, one week before the latest election and three weeks before the start of the Prime Minister's corruption trial, the Israeli government has decided to cross every remaining red line all at once.
Every organization that claims to support a two-state solution needs to stand up and speak out in this moment, before construction begins. Add your name to call on establishment leaders to oppose Netanyahu’s plan to destroy the two-state solution.
With the sequential announcements of intent to build in the areas of E-1, Givat Hamatos/Har Homa and Atarot, Prime Minister Netanyahu has painted a clear picture of what it looks like when a government of Israel no longer even feigns interest in resolving its conflict with the Palestinians, is unbound by the rule of law and is given an unquestioning green light for its plans by the United States. With the full blessing of the Trump White House, the government of Israel has outlined its plan to forever be the only sovereign state between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea and to confine Palestinians to small, unconnected enclaves of limited, stateless “autonomy.”
This is all unfolding on the eve of AIPAC’s convention this weekend.
Our question is what those gathering under the AIPAC banner next week will do, after claiming for years to support a two-state solution?
As importantly, what will American political leaders who have suggested that going to AIPAC simply expresses bipartisan support for the state of Israel say? Will they object to the Prime Minister’s plans, knowing full well that the course he has set is itself destroying bipartisan support for Israel?
What a sad moment this is for the state of Israel, for the Palestinian people, and for Americans who have poured their heart and soul into helping Israel to be a democratic state and a Jewish home of which their children and grandchildren would be proud. What a dangerous moment this is for Israelis as their desperate prime minister cynically places his own political survival ahead of the interests and security of his country.
If the pro-Israel establishment fails to respond -- if instead they stand and cheer for the US and Israeli governments that are facilitating these moves -- they will bear considerable responsibility for the future of perpetual occupation, deteriorating democracy and unending conflict that Israel faces in the years ahead.
If we want to achieve a different, better future, now is the time to speak out and take action.
Thank you for joining our call,
Jeremy Ben-Ami
President, J Street
