This week covering: Israel’s High Court orders the state to defend the Regulation Law a second time; Yesh Din petitions to rehear the Amona outpost case given recently revealed implications of the ruling; the Ofra settlement moves to retroactively legalize a sewage treatment plant; and more.

“For many ordinary Palestinians, the move simply reinforced what they already believed: The U.S. was never an honest broker between the two parties, and the pipe dream of pursuing statehood under a historic peace deal is over,” writes Dalia Hatuqa.

“Trump has only confirmed what many of us already know: all those living in this this country live under a single Israeli sovereign, and the U.S. is an avid supporter of that regime,” write Mairav Zonszein and Aziz Abu Sarah.

“Let’s not pretend that there was a peace process for Donald Trump to obstruct,” writes Michael Omer-Man.

US Ambassador David Satterfield answered questions on Trump’s Jerusalem statement.

“Given the sheer outrage of Trump’s policies on Jerusalem and on Palestinian rights more broadly,” writes Nadia Hijab, “it is easy to fall into despair. Yet at such a time it is important to remember the longer-term trends working in the Palestinians’ favor and to position the Palestinian national movement – at both the political level and that of civil society – to best advantage.”

The vast majority of former US ambassadors to Israel were opposed to the move by President Donald Trump to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, saying the move was deeply flawed and likely to lead to violence.

France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian on Friday said Washington has excluded itself from the Israeli-Palestinian peace process after US President Donald Trump’s widely criticized recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, adding that there was a risk of a new intifada.

“Far from signalling a doomsday scenario, Trump has removed the emperor’s clothes to reveal the farce of the peace process. Now what next for the Palestinians?” asks Noura Erekat.

To protect the legitimacy of the database and shield it from criticism, the UN must clarify its function, and show that it is not a punitive device but a vital resource for furthering business transparency and enabling business and state compliance with their existing obligations under international law.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit challenging an Arizona law that bars state and local governments from doing business with companies that boycott Israel and its settlements.

Do disparate approaches to international law and peace plans automatically put Unesco at odds with Israel and the US?

“They [the Trump administration] aimed a shot at the heart of the two-state solution, which is Jerusalem,” says Husam Zomlot, the head of the General Delegation of the Palestine Liberation Organisation to the US. “The two-state solution, from the US point of view and mediation, is dead.”

Tahseen Elayyan, head of the monitoring and documentation department at the Palestinian human rights NGO al-Haq, told Al Jazeera that the raids and the attempts to push the Israeli curriculum on Palestinian schools are related to Israel’s ultimate goal of expelling Palestinians from the land.

The head of the left-leaning Labor party said preserving a “united” Jerusalem under Israeli sovereignty is more important than clinching a peace deal with the Palestinians.

An Israeli cabinet minister said on Friday the phrasing of US President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital suggested openness to eventual Palestinian control of part of the city.