Man wrote hate e-mails to numerous Peace Now activists including director Yariv Oppenheimer.

A 21-year-old man who has already been indicted for various "price-tag" attacks, including several against activists and employees of Peace Now, was arrested again on Sunday night in connection with death threats he sent via e-mail to members of the organization yesterday.

Police suspect 21-year-old linked to previous price-tag attacks; Peace now dir.-gen. says he received death threat.

Peace Now filed a complaint with police Sunday evening over a series of so-called "price-tag" attacks, which were carried out against the organization's activists.

A number of the organization's leading activists, including Director-General Yariv Oppenheimer, were sent death threats to their personal e-mail accounts on Sunday evening.

Americans for Peace Now is pleased to announce the hiring of Rabbi Alana Suskin as its new director of strategic communications.

Rabbi Suskin will join our team in Washington, DC on December 5th.

An experienced pulpit rabbi and a progressive political activist, Rabbi Suskin has for years leveraged Jewish values and ethics to advance causes of peace and justice.

By ZELDA HARRIS
11/14/2011

There can never be social justice in a country with restrictive and anti-democratic laws that strengthen antagonism.

I love Hayarkon Park. It's very close to my home, so I was pleased to accept an invitation last Friday to a Peace Now meeting held in the park's Council for a Beautiful Israel Center.

Peace Now Director Yariv Oppenheimer said that "Israeli democracy has been surrendered to right-wing extremists and is in a state of bankruptcy."

Read the entire article

In recent days, Peace Now has been facing attacks from many corners. Peace Now's Settlement Watch director received death threats, and a bomb threat was called in at their Jerusalem office. They have also been targeted by an onslaught of anti-democratic bills in the Knesset. But Peace Now refuses to be silenced.

Yariv Oppenhiemer responds to the anti-democratic Knesset measures, saying "we are the real patriots."

In the face of death threats, Hagit Ofran says "she who believes does not fear."

By Amichai Atali

JERUSALEM (AP) -- Israel has ordered the shutdown of a dovish Israeli-Palestinian radio station, officials and the station's operators said on Sunday.

(NOTE: The station's director Mossi Raz is a former director of Peace Now in Israel)

"...it is shocking to see Israel's democratic government propose measures that could silence its own critics."

(Yedioth Ahronoth, 11/18/11, by Uri Misgav, p. B18 - Translation by Israel News)

Last Tuesday, Hagit Ofran, director of Peace Now's Settlement Watch project, received a surprising visit.  Six settlers, members of the small "Eretz Shalom" [Land of Peace] movement, wished to express regret for the events of the day.  They were headed by Rabbi Menahem Froman, who despite his severe illness, insisted on holding the visit.

The outpost, Derekh Ha'avot, established early 2001 and is home to about 35 families; according to report 60 percent of the community is on Palestinian farmland.

By Chaim Levinson

Yesterday an Israeli Ministerial committee voted to support two new bills that directly target Israeli democracy. See relates articles from the Washington & Jerusalem Posts.

The purpose of these bills is to quash Israeli civil society groups, including those fighting for peace, human rights and civil rights, by fatally curtailing their ability to raise funds.

"Today the government made it clear that it is not the law that rules in Israel, but the law breakers" (Michael Sfard, attorney for Peace Now and Yesh Din)

Peace Now's Yariv Oppenheimer: "The government is trying to stifle the law and does not care about the position of the attorney-general, who determined that the proposed law is unconstitutional," said Oppenheimer. "Israeli democracy has been surrendered to right-wing extremists and is in a state of bankruptcy."

Ha'aretz: "Peace Now activist Ofran: 'We must not fear. We are here, and we are many'"

Jerusalem Post: "16 years on: Annual Tel Aviv rally remembers Rabin"


Prominent speakers included Hagit Ofran, director of Peace Now's Settlement Watch project: "The graffiti was sprayed in my home, but the taunts are in all of our stairwells. The tag may have marked me, but we all pay the price. We must not fear. We are here, and we are many.

by Trudy Rubin, Inquirer Opinion Columnist

JERUSALEM - When Hagit Ofran woke up Tuesday - within days of the 16th anniversary of the murder of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin - she found death threats spray-painted on her door.

(Ofran is pictured on her stairwell amidst the graffiti-ed death threats)

As everybody who cares about foreign policy (and hasn't been living under a rock) knows by now, earlier this week the PLO was admitted as a full member by UNESCO, triggering pre-existing U.S. laws that mandate an immediate and 100% cut-off in U.S. funding to UNESCO.  These laws likewise mandate such a cut-off of funding to the UN, any specialized agency of the UN, or any affiliated organization of the UN who follows suit.  With the Palestinians reportedly planning to apply for membership in at least 16 more agencies, the specter of a far-reaching U.S. withdrawal from international agencies - including from agencies like the IAEA and WIPO, looms large.  And with it looms the specter of far-reaching consequences for U.S. international influence, leverage, and engagement, and for the U.S ability to protect and promote its interests across the whole spectrum of issues around the globe.

Absent from the reporting and debate around this issue is any real notice of the fact that the rationale that existed for passage of these laws in 1990 and 1994 no longer exists.  Objectively speaking, what we are seeing today is U.S. policy at the UN being hijacked by a pair of legislative anachronisms.

In recent weeks members of Congress have written to UNESCO to let leaders of that organization know that upgrading the status of the PLO will jeopardize U.S. funding to that organization. On 10/5/11, Rep. Granger (R-TX), Chair of the Appropriations Committee's Foreign Operations subcommittee, issued a statement warning UNESCO that upgrading the PLO's status could lead to a cut-off of U.S. funding. Rep. Lowey (D-NY), ranking minority member on the ForOps subcommittee, issued a similar statement on 10/5/11.

Lara Freedman, director of policy and government relations with Americans for Peace Now, blamed strong pro-Israel lobbying by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, and American Jewish and right-wing Christian communities.

"The narrative that says that 'the Palestinians' decision to go to the UN is a form of diplomatic terrorism that cannot go unpunished' has firmly taken root," she said.

"It is all under dispute and anything beyond the 1967 lines needs to be established under international law," Ofra said. "In the big settlements there is constantly construction. These are massive cities that are treated as such by Israel." She added, however, that smaller outposts in the West Bank - often consisting of several trailer homes and a cabin on a hilltop - are also seeing a push in growth.

"The settlement movement is consistently growing," she said.

"The status quo - in which Israel continues to pursue policies that are anathema to the two-state solution and in which the Obama administration is unable or unwilling to exercise convincing leadership to restore credibility to its peace policy - will lead only to further isolation and marginalisation of both Israel and the United States in the international community," the group (Americans for Peace Now) warned.