Top news stories from Israel/Palestine: September 27, 2018

What We’re Reading

US-Israeli/Palestinian relations

Trump: Two-state Solution Will Be 'Like a Real Estate Deal',

A two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will be “like a real estate deal,” President Donald Trump said in a press conference on Wednesday evening.

After Trump Meeting, Netanyahu Backs Palestinian State Under Israeli Security Control,

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told reporters Wednesday he was not surprised by U.S. President Donald Trump’s remark that he favored a two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, saying “Everyone defines the term ‘state’ differently.”

Palestinians reject presence of Israeli soldiers in future state,

The Palestinian Authority on Thursday threw cold water on an Israeli demand that a future Palestinian state contain security zones manned by IDF troops, rejecting the proposal outright and underlining one of several obstacles facing the US administration as it readies to embark on a Mideast peace push.

Occupation/Human rights

Israel’s Stranglehold on Area C: Development as Resistance,

Israel’s efforts to tighten its grip on the West Bank have been unprecedented since the current Israeli cabinet formed in 2015. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Area C.

Israel Knowingly Gave Private Palestinian Land to West Bank Outpost,

An investigation by Haaretz has found that the Settlement Division assigned the rights to land in the settlement outpost of Mitzpe Kramim, two months after the government was informed that the plots were in fact Palestinian-owned and had been transferred to the World Zionist Organization department in error, despite claims to the contrary.

‘A liberal society and respect for human rights are critically important for the well-being of the individual’: an interview with Michael Sfard,

Leading Israeli human rights lawyer Michael Sfard talked to Fathom about his new book, The Wall and the Gate: Israel, Palestine, and the Legal Battle for Human Rights.

Home ▹ British excavation giant JCB warned about potential... British excavation giant JCB warned about potential violations of international law in the occupied Palestinian territories,

JCB’s products have reportedly already been used to level access roads to the village.

Israeli politics

Bennett threatens to quit government if Palestinian state established,

“As long as the Bayit HaYehudi is in the government, there will be no Palestinian state. That would be a disaster for Israel.”