Washington, DC -- Americans for Peace Now (APN) today issued the following statement regarding the pending resolution in the United Nations Security Council supporting the peace process and the two-state solution, and condemning Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank and East Jerusalem:
"APN has long argued that Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank and East Jerusalem must stop. This activity undermines the prospects for peace and a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It undermines confidence in negotiations and is a boon to extremists. It threatens Israel's security and creates instability on the ground. And it paints Israelis as a people more interested in perpetuating and cementing the occupation than in making peace.
"It is indefensible that the Netanyahu government, heedless of the damage settlement activity does to Israel's own interests and indifferent to the Obama Administration's peace efforts, has not only refused to halt settlement activity but has opened the floodgates, including in the most sensitive areas of East Jerusalem. In this context, the move by the United Nations Security Council to censure Israel's settlement activity should surprise no one. By following a different course, the Netanyahu government could have avoided this painful development.
"It is not too late for the Israeli government to change course and to stop backing settlement activity. Such a change is needed to ensure Israel's security and viability as a Jewish state and as a democracy. This resolution can help Israel's leaders and public to grasp this fundamental truth.
"This UN action needs to be considered on its merits: both the context and the content of the resolution matter. The context here is Israel's dogmatic refusal to refrain from settlement activity that is destructive to peace and to Israel's future. The content of the action is a resolution whose text is consistent with longstanding U.S. policy regarding settlements, and explicitly supports negotiations and the two-state solution.
"Given this context and content, APN calls on the Obama Administration to not veto this resolution in its current form. Vetoing this resolution would conflict with four decades of U.S. policy. It would contribute to the dangerously naive view that Israeli settlement policies do no lasting harm to Israel. And it would send a message to the world that the U.S. is not only acquiescing to Israel's actions, but is implicitly supporting them."
APN is America's leading Jewish organization advocating for peace for Israel.
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