The state comptroller has harshly criticized the Israeli and Jerusalem authorities for their treatment of the city’s Arab residents, including deficient social services and educational opportunities, neglected sanitation and high poverty rates.

The dream of building a better life outside the Strip, a testament to the ever-deepening sense of hopelessness in Gaza, has pushed thousands to take advantage of the relative opening of Rafah Crossing. The opening of the crossing has met the needs of many who seek education, medical treatment, or employment abroad. But Rafah Crossing cannot meet the needs of Gaza’s two million residents for access

Samaria Regional Council Chairman Yossi Dagan sent a letter to Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon and Transportation Minister Israel Katz, claiming that Omri Padan, the local franchisee of the monster fast food chain and a co-founder of Peace Now, is breaking anti-boycott laws by not opening branches beyond Israel’s pre-1967 lines.

A controversial plan to build a cable car to Jerusalem’s historic Old City passed a major hurdle Monday when the National Infrastructure Committee rejected a battery of petitions against the contentious tourism project. The estimated $55 million project, which is being advanced by the Tourism Ministry, now requires approval by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government in order to proceed.

The Palestinian territories’ struggling economy faces a major new problem: There are too many shekels in the market due to an Israeli decision limiting cash transactions. An Israeli law passed in 2018 took effect this year, forbidding businesses and employers in the country from paying cash for wages and other financial transactions over a value of NIS 11,000 (around $3,000). In this way, Israel aims to combat tax evasion, money laundering, illegal trade and counterfeit currency trade, in addition to reducing the cost of cash management. All this means the accumulation of cash in bank coffers.

The report about the environmental state of affairs has implications for Israel’s national security, says Gideon Bromberg, the Israeli Director of EcoPeace Middle East. “Israel’s people, first and foremost the residents of the south, are exposed as a result of the situation in Gaza to a multitude of threats, not only the ones we already knew about. Without urgent, vigorous action, plagues and infections will break out that could cost a great many lives, both in Israel and in Gaza, and no fence or Iron Dome can thwart them.”

Muhammad Shehada writes, “Kushner’s red herring proposal pulls the rug from under Palestinian leaders who, for decades, have remained steadfast and faithful to the two-state idea at great personal and political risk. The peace camp is now shamed and silenced for having invested faith in and wasted decades on negotiations that led to Kushner’s deal, while hardliners are now conveniently and gleefully shouting at them: ‘We told you so!'”

As the Trump administration maintains the friendliest U.S. relationship with the Israeli right in history, Texas has become one of the most pro-Israel states in the country. It has forged ties with Israeli settlements and aggressively enforced a law targeting advocates of boycotting Israel. Its exports to Israel last year topped $900 million, and its imports from Israel are valued at $1.5 billion, according to the Texas Economic Development Corporation, making Texas the fourth biggest Israeli trade partner in the U.S.

Netanyahu told his Likud faction on Monday that he would postpone the reshuffle until early next week in order to hold consultations in the faction and the coalition. This would mean that Netanyahu would automatically become justice minister on Tuesday. But Justice Ministry officials told the prime minister that he cannot hold the post for even a moment due to his multiple criminal investigations.

Likud sources have reportedly said there is no chance that MK Bezalel Smotrich will be appointed justice minister after the lawmaker stated he would like to see Israel governed by religious law.