Top news stories from Israel/Palestine: November 29, 2017

What We’re Reading

US-Israeli/Palestinian relations

Mike Pence: Trump mulling ‘when and how’ to make embassy move,

“President Donald Trump is actively considering when and how to move the American embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem,” Pence said Tuesday at an event in New York organized by the Israeli mission to the United Nations in partnership with the World Jewish Congress marking the 70th anniversary of the U.N. General Assembly vote to recognize Israel on Nov. 29, 1947.

Could US aid to PA be cut off even without Taylor Force Act?,

Since November 17, significant attention has been fixed on a 2015 Congressional law that calls for the shuttering of the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s (PLO) diplomatic mission following Palestinian leadership support for International Criminal Court (ICC) cases against Israelis. At the same time, a separate provision in the 2015 legislation, out of the eye of many Washington DC policy makers, could have an equally strong impact on US-Palestinian ties.

What a US embassy in Jerusalem means to Palestinians,

New comments by US officials reiterating a pledge by President Donald Trump to move the country’s embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem reflect the futility of peace negotiations, Palestinians say.

Palestinian politics

PA employees blocked from resuming work at Gaza ministries,

Palestinian Authority employees were prevented from returning to work at a number of ministries in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, a union said, in another sign of tension ahead of a reconciliation deadline.

Palestinian popular movement to press Hamas, Fatah on reconciliation,

The Popular Conference to Support the Palestinian Reconciliation, End the Division and Restore National Unity convened on Nov. 18 at the Rashad al-Shawa Cultural Hall in Gaza City.

Occupation/Human rights

Israeli Attorney General Seeks to Save Buildings in West Bank Outpost From Demolition,

As a March demolition deadline approaches against 15 buildings in Netiv Ha’avot, an outpost of the West Bank settlement of Elazar, Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit is considering the issue of building permits that would spare portions of six of the buildings.

Bedouins of West Bank's Jabal al-Baba face displacement, again,

Bedouin families displaced from the southern Negev desert ended up here, in what was to become the occupied West Bank. And now they face displacement again.

The Lights in the Distance,

The Nation magazine reviews Raja Shehadeh’s new book, Where the Line is Drawn: a tale of crossings, friendships, and fifty years of occupation in Israel-Palestine.

70 years on, Israel continues to ignore UN partition plan,

“While Arab countries are willing to recognize Israel and advance toward regional peace, Israel refuses to accept the principle of the 1947 UN Resolution 181 for the partition of the land,” writes Akiva Eldar.