The Palestinian Authority officially declared an end to the coronavirus lockdown in the occupied West Bank on Monday, nearly three months after the first state of emergency was declared.

On June 1, 2018, 21-year-old Razan al-Najjar was shot and killed by an Israeli sniper while working as a volunteer paramedic with the Great March of Return in Gaza. The COVID-19 pandemic has made it clearer than ever how critical health care workers are to our communities. On June 1, please join AFSC and people around the world for our social media day of action to honor Razan and all Palestinian health care workers.

Joe Biden’s idea of criticizing Israel was being 90 minutes late to dinner at the Netanyahus on the day the Israelis insulted him as vice president in 2010 by announcing more settlements. And Biden embraces Trump’s move of the embassy to Jerusalem and offers only mild criticism of annexation plans.

As the incidence of COVID-19 infections is disproportionately affecting many communities of color (most notably in the US, African Americans, Latinx, Native Americans, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders), there is concurrently a significant rise in racism and xenophobia. That includes Oregon’s threefold increase in hate crimes this year and black males saying they fear being profiled for wearing masks.

Steven Cook of the Council on Foreign Relations has an article at Foreign Policy saying that the U.S. should phase out aid to Israel and “end the special relationship” because the peace process has attained its real objective: Israel is established as a secure country with a standard of living rivaling the UK and France, and no real military threat.

After a lull in cases over the previous period this week saw a slight spike in cases of COVID-19, most alarmingly in Gaza where the coronavirus had been kept in check until now.

In a statement launched today, tens of Palestinian civil society organizations, professional associations, unions, human rights and advocacy groups, and networks, representing an overwhelming majority of Palestinian civil society, called on governments to adopt “effective countermeasures, including sanctions” to “stop Israel’s illegal annexation of the Occupied West Bank and grave violations of human rights.”

In response to Israeli plans to annex parts of the West Bank, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has announced that Palestinian Authority is walking away from agreements with Israel and the U.S. Ahmad Al-Bazz interviews Abdul Sattar Kassem on what this move will amount to, and the future of the Palestinian struggle following Israeli annexation.

Netanyahu will move ahead to annex territories in Palestine near the Green Line containing Jewish settlements, says Yair Golan of Meretz. “He will explain to the rest of the world, Alright, we did what was reasonable, what was accepted by the Palestinians in former negotations, and what was heavily accepted by President Trump according to his future plan.”

Joe Biden on BDS: “the BDS movement, which singles out Israel — home to millions of Jews — and too often veers into anti-Semitism, while letting Palestinians off the hook for their choices.”