Peace Now’s annual report on settlement construction in 2017 in the West Bank (excluding Jerusalem) reveals 17% more building than the yearly average over the better part of the past decade. Of the new construction, 78% took place in isolated settlements beyond the Geneva Initiative border, a slight increase from 2016.

A new report by FMEP grantee Yesh Din and archaeologists at Emek Shaveh describes how the State of Israel has been working since the early days of the occupation to consolidate its physical control over archaeological sites and finds, and to appropriate the narrative of the entire West Bank and its heritage.

Activists who practice the annual sacrifice get closer to the site of the Temple every year, and long for the day when authorities will let them slaughter at the center of the site.

Taken as a whole, the array of ongoing projects and plans centered on the Old City and its immediate hinterlands represents an unprecedented move to fundamentally change the character and fabric of life in these areas, turning them into a Disneyland-style area in which one historical and religious narrative, the Jewish one, predominates and marginalizes/erases all others.

Ahed Tamimi was sentenced to eight months in prison for slapping a soldier. Col. Israel Shomer, who shot a Palestinian teenager in the back three times didn’t sit a single day behind bars.

A reminder that Israelis and Palestinians who commit the same crime face radically different consequences.

(1) Ahed refused to be coerced so there wasn’t enough evidence to convict her.

(2) Ahed’s case created massive global uproar from citizens to diplomats.

(3) Ahed’s arrest was supposed to deter Palestinian youth but instead it inspired them to organize.

Fourteen months after the illegal outpost of Amona was razed, its evacuees announced Sunday that they will be moving into their new homes in Amichai, the first newly constructed West Bank settlement in over 25 years.

This week covering: A new light rail will have a stop in the far-flung Ariel settlement; an employee strike at the Israeli Civil Administration might delay settlement approvals; and more.

A weekly round-up of Middle East-related activity in Congress.

The United States again threatened to leave the United Nations Human Rights Council after the international body passed five resolutions against Israel.

According to a senior US diplomat in Tel Aviv, the fact that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas refuses any contact on the matter with US officials and that he had bad mouthed David Friedman, the US ambassador to Israel, has not altered Trump’s determination.

Congress gave final approval Friday to a massive $1.3 trillion spending bill that included as a rider the Taylor Force Act, which would cut some aid to Palestinians until they end stipends for terror convicts and families of slain attackers.