Welcome to FMEP’s Weekly Settlement Report, covering everything you need to know about Israeli settlement activity this week. To subscribe to this report, please click here.…

1. Bills, Resolutions, & Letters 2. SFRC Amends/Passes Israel Wish-List Legislation 3. Hearings 4. On the Record Heads up: New CRS report  — Israel: Background…

“The memorandum of understanding ‘was based on the understanding that the level of aid it established was a ceiling, not a floor; the bills seek to legislate the opposite,’ said Lara Friedman, the president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace.”

“Now that the embassy has been moved, many in Congress will surely argue that the intent of the law was to keep the embassy in Jerusalem, even though there is nothing in the bill that explicitly forbids a president from moving it back. And, as long-time observer of Jerusalem affairs, Lara Friedman told me, ‘If Congress wanted to prevent the Embassy being moved back to Jerusalem, or wanted to put in place penalties for such an action, a new law would be required (one that I have no doubt would pass easily if it looked like a president was seriously contemplating such a reversal).’”

“‘The fundamental message of this episode,’ argues Lara Friedman, president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace…’is that Congress is not going to do anything if Israel annexes.’ A staffer at an activist organization who has followed the letter’s progress puts it more pungently: ‘Bibi and [Israeli Ambassador to the US Ron] Dermer must be laughing their asses off.’”

Thursday, May 21st 11:00am – 12:00pm EST Settler groups, backed by consecutive right-wing governments, have invested millions of shekels in excavating, preserving and curating Jerusalem‘s…