In recent years, a slew of bills banning the boycott of Israel or its settlements have come to the fore in the US Congress and state legislatures. “Over the past two years, we’ve seen a proliferation of legislation at the state and federal level,” said Lara Friedman, president of the Washington, DC-based Foundation for Middle East Peace.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 17-4 for the Taylor Force Act after modifications were made to get Democrats on board.

The passage of the Taylor Force Act in its current form would bar U.S. participation in the water agreement trumpeted by senior Trump administration official Jason Greenblatt last month, an informed Congressional staffer told Jewish Insider on Thursday.

At the Shamasne family’s basement home in Sheikh Jarrah, days before a final deadline to evacuate the property, there was no sign that the occupants intended to leave.

Israel is blocking Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas from leaving Ramallah due to his failure to calm the tensions surrounding new security measures at the Temple Mount, according to senior Palestinian sources.

Israel’s minister of strategic affairs is gathering intelligence and compiling blacklists on Israeli citizens who support the boycott movement.

Officials in the Palestinian Authority who are closely following reports about the suspicions against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are coming to the conclusion that the possibility he might be prosecuted in the coming months makes any effort to resume peace talks irrelevant.

Israeli Prime ­Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is known for being a political survivor, but the revelation this past week that a former top aide will testify against him has led to speculation that his indictment in relation to allegations of corruption is increasingly inevitable.

The public deserves an explanation about what took place behind the closed doors of decision-makers and how they justify having reached the decision to cut power to Gaza, writes Tania Hary.

“The Palestinian national movement was built on representation, activism, and achievement,” write Hussein Agha and Ahmad Samih Khalidi. “Today, none of these elements of success are evident.”

Jordan’s King Abdullah II has begun a rare visit to the occupied West Bank to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, amid shared tensions with Israel over the al-Aqsa Mosque compound.