After more than four decades of watching settlements grow to take up more and more land and damage the fabric of their lives, Palestinians view settlement construction today as a litmus test of Israeli seriousness about peace. Settlement expansion extinguishes hope among Palestinians that Israel is serious about peace. It destroys the credibility of Palestinian moderates who reject violence and tell their people that negotiations will deliver a viable state.

Settlements are also a liability for Israel. It is because of settlements that the route of Israel's "separation barrier" has been distorted, lengthening and contorting Israel's lines of defense. It is because of settlements that Israeli soldiers are forced to act as police within the West Bank, rather than focusing on their real mission - defending Israel. Settlements are also a huge drain on Israel's economy, with the government continuing to fund construction and to provide settlers a wide range of financial benefits.

Finally, settlements threaten Israel's character as a Jewish state and a democracy. They force Israel to rule over a huge - and growing - non-Jewish, disenfranchised population, contrary to basic democratic values. They erode Israel's image in the world as a democratic state that respects the civil rights of all people under its rule. And, if allowed to block a two-state solution, they will ultimately leave Israeli decision-makers with an impossible choice: be a democracy and give full rights to the Palestinians, at the cost of Israel's Jewish character, or deny rights to the majority of the people under Israeli rule - which the Palestinians will soon be - validating accusations that Israel is increasingly an Apartheid-like state.

APN believes the U.S. - both Congress and the Administration - should clearly and publicly oppose Israeli settlement activities in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and reject efforts to excuse or rationalize such activities. They should urge Israel, for its own sake, to stop making excuses and stop all settlement activity.

(Feb. 2011)