Every year during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, Israeli authorities approve a package to “relax” the restrictions on movement for West Bank Palestinians to facilitate worshippers’ trips to Jerusalem. As a result, tens of thousands of Palestinians headed to Qalandiya checkpoint, Bethlehem 300 checkpoint, and Zaytoun checkpoint early on Friday mornings to take advantage of the unusual regulations. Ahmad Al-Bazz reports from Qalandiya and Bethlehem to show what life under Israel control looks like.

A decision by Israeli authorities to auction off prefabricated classrooms that were confiscated from a Palestinian village last year is causing controversy among local and international leaders. “What the Israelis have done, to confiscate these classrooms, is illegal,” Palestinian human rights lawyer and activist Farid al-Atrash told Mondoweiss. “But to then go on and sell it, is reprehensible.”

“I drive through more than 15 checkpoints,” per day, Mahmoud Ali tells Mondoweiss. “That means they take away my freedom 15 times and give it back to me 15 times. My freedom is in their hands, not my hands.”

As Notre Dame burned, Ramzy Baroud thought of Gaza’s Great Mosque. While the fire at the French cathedral was likely accidental, destroyed Palestinian houses of worship were intentionally targeted.

It is planting season in Palestine. For the last few weeks Shatha al-Azzeh and her colleagues in the Environmental Unit at the Lajee Center in Aida refugee camp outside of Bethlehem have been working with young people from the camp to set up new rooftop planters.

Antony Loewenstein spends a day in the Jordan Valley reporting on the nightmarish situation for many Palestinian shepherds as they attempt to graze their land.

Israel topped the Gaza fence with 10 added feet of barbed wire in anticipation of the million demonstrators called to mark the one year anniversary of the Great March of Return next week. Despite the added fence, soldiers killed two Palestinian men at demonstrations yesterday, bringing the number of dead to 257.

The US Government today folded the former US consulate in Jerusalem, which served Palestinians, into the Embassy led by ambassador and settler-advocate David Friedman in what Hanan Ashrawi of the PLO called “an act of political assault on Palestinian rights and identity.”

Saudi’s Prince Turki bin Faisal says Netanyahu is deceiving Israelis about warming relations with Arab monarchies. “Israeli public opinion should not be deceived into believing that the Palestinian issue is a dead issue. From the Israeli point of view, Mr Netanyahu would like us to have a relationship and then we can fix the Palestinian issue. From the Saudi point of view it’s the other way around.”

After Israeli anchorwoman Oshrat Kotler had the temerity to say that the “occupation” had turned Israeli soldiers into “human animals,” she faced a wave of condemnation from Israeli leaders right up to the Prime Minister. Her violation was even talking about “occupation.” The Israeli right commands the discourse.