“A plain-English reading of the law makes clear that it seeks to silence, deter, and punish U.S. persons for exercising the basic right to free political speech in calling for and supporting policies that challenge settlements and occupation,” writes Lara Friedman.

“We need them to tell us where the hell they are going,” Husam Zomlot, the Palestine Liberation Organization envoy to Washington, said Thursday at a meeting in his office with reporters. “It’s about time we hear it.”

“Looking at Israel today, we can see a state premised on the privileging of one group, and all too often perpetuating the erasure and displacement of another. We also see an obsession with demographics and the maintenance of an ethnic majority,” writes Naomi Dann.

“The first person in the world, outside of the U.S., expected to react to such events like those in Charlottesville is the prime minister of Israel – the state of the Jewish people. So where the Israeli government keeps quiet, we speak out,” writes Stav Shaffir.

The Prime Minister’s Office is seeking to increase by tens of millions of shekels the budget for evacuating and resettling residents of the illegal West Bank outpost of Amona. It asked the Finance Ministry this week for a further 30-70 million shekels ($8.25-$19.25 million) on top of what is already allocated to develop Amichai, the new settlement for those being moved from Amona.

A right-wing legal aid group representing the pair says sting operation that led to their arrest was a ‘provocation.’

Tens of Gazans crossed into Israel on Tuesday, July 25, travel permits in hand. As they prepared to board the weekly bus from the Erez Crossing to Amman, they were presented with an ultimatum: sign a form saying you won’t return home via Israel for at least year, or head back into Gaza.

The United Arab Emirates and other unnamed donor countries agreed to provide $15 million a month to Gaza to improve conditions in the embattled Strip, Palestinian official Samir Al-Mashharawi said

“With Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu facing corruption charges and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Chief Negotiator Saeb Erekat dealing with health issues, analysts say that a political upheaval is on the docket in the coming few months in Israel/Palestine,” writes Alaa Tartir.

Labor Party leader Avi Gabbay and Likud Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon have decided to work together after meeting recently. Ya’alon quit the Likud party last year when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu removed him as defense minister. The prime minister gave the job instead to the leader of the Yisrael Beiteinu, Avigdor Lieberman, as part of the agreement that paved the way for Lieberman’s party to join the coalition government.