American Muslims for Palestine has just posted a great new video on the Israel Anti-Boycott Act, Senate 720, making clear the stakes in this legislation: The US Congress is selling out our right to free speech to the highest bidder, and to lobbyists.

Oregon Senator Ron Wyden has turned himself into a knot on the Israel Anti Boycott Act. He wants to defend your right to picnic for BDS, but the ACLU says you could go to jail if you tweet support for a UN boycott, under the bill. Katie Miranda reports from senator’s latest town hall, in Tualatin, Oregon.

The power of the Israel lobby is in the news. AIPAC overplayed its hand with anti-boycott legislation that Democrats are stepping away from. While Sheldon Adelson is trying to get Trump’s National Security Adviser fired for being insufficiently supportive of Israel. We have a long way before the lobby is openly addressed, though.

UN documents: After a three-year decline, settler violence has been on the rise during the first half of 2017. During this period, UN documented 89 incidents attributed to Israeli settlers resulting in Palestinian casualties (33 incidents) or in damage to Palestinian property (56 incidents). On a monthly average, this represents an increase of 88 per cent compared with 2016.

Seth Andersen says there are lessons the Palestine Solidarity Movement can learn from Norman Finkelstein: “‘Zionism is racism’, ‘Israel is a settler colonialist state’, ‘a settler colonialist project needs to be decolonized’’ If you’re a left-leaning person and you are working for justice in Palestine, you have probably come across statements like these. And as true as they may be, we have to ask ourselves a fundamental question: “Who are we talking to?” As Norman Finkelstein put it: ‘Zionism for most people is a hairspray, a cologne’. And I think he has a point. The broad public has no idea what we are talking about.”

Yossi Gurvitz wrote that when American Jews seek to influence Israel as Jews they are reinforcing the illiberal ethnocratic nature of the state. Jonathan Ofir disagrees and says it is possible to engage with Israel as both Jewish and a liberal.

Swarthmore professor Sa’ed Atshan addresses the controversy surrounding a speech he was scheduled to give at a Quaker private school that was cancelled under pressure from parents: “The most difficult moment for me since the talk’s cancellation came after speaking at an American Friends Service Committee event. A Friends’ Central student approached me, sharing that she had come imagining a “monster” based on what she was told about Palestinians. She was genuinely surprised to see that was not the case and felt comfortable approaching me. It took a lot for me to restrain my tears.”

Israeli occupying forces have erected a new military observation tower inside Area A of the West Bank, which is supposedly under Palestinian Authority administration, in the municipality of Dura. Palestinians are protesting the installation, but Israeli forces are confronting them.

The Democratic groundswell against the Israel Anti Boycott bill continues to build, and progressive party leaders are falling into line. Senator Elizabeth Warren tells a town hall she does not support the Anti-Israel Boycott Act that is roiling the Democratic base.

Noam Chomsky says advocating for the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes in Israel is “not a moral position” because while it makes the BDS campaigners feel good, they create false hope, return will never happen, and Israel would respond with nuclear weapons if the world were to support the right of return.