Joe Biden met with Mahmoud Abbas in the occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem on Friday to announce “confidence-building measures” in an attempt to boost the standing of the Palestinian Authority, but Palestinians are skeptical that the moves will have any meaningful impact. “Biden represents a continuity of Trump’s policies, especially on Jerusalem,” Jalal Abu Khater, a Palestinian writer and analyst from Jerusalem, tells Mondoweiss.

Nine European Union states announced their support for the Palestinian civil society organizations that were arbitrarily deemed “terrorist institutions” by the Israeli government last year. The EU states rejected the Israeli designation, citing lack of proof.

A joint strategic partnership signed by Joe Biden and Yair Lapid promises to combat the BDS movement.

New evidence reveals that US plans to build an embassy in Jerusalem would place the diplomatic compound on privately-owned Palestinian land that was confiscated from its owners by Israel, following the Nakba and the establishment of the state in 1948. 

Polling by Huwaida Arraf, a Democratic House candidate in Michigan, shows that her position of cutting off aid to Israel is not unpopular. “Palestine is a political positive…Attitudes toward military aid to Israel undermine claims by AIPAC that strong support for Israel is ‘good politics… [S]ix in ten (60%) voters under 45 want aid to Israel reduced or ended,” a memo to donors asserts.

From July 13 to 16, President Joe Biden will visit the governments of Israel and Saudi Arabia, deepening his complicity in their human rights abuses. As Black and Palestinian organizers in the U.S. who visited Palestine last week, we see President Biden’s widely criticized trip for what it is: a war crimes tour. If Biden cares about human rights at all, he should #CancelTheTrip—as thousands of grassroots activists have demanded—and stop funding the weapons behind their war crimes.

Palestinian Christians join international human rights organizations and a growing number of church bodies in naming Israel as an apartheid state. 

Following the US investigation into Abu Akleh’s killing, which was ruled “inconclusive”, her family are still urging for an open independent investigation by the US, UN, and the ICC.

The Biden administration’s effort to sweep Shireen Abu Akleh’s killing under the rug shows its keenness to extend Trump’s “Abraham Accords” in the Mideast. Those deals make war with Iran more likely, and promote Israeli arm sales and impunity for human rights violations. And as for the Palestinians, they will be completely buried by the Gulf Arab leadership in the rush to please Washington.

Ben & Jerry’s has now sued its parent company Unilever to try to stop it from facilitating sales of ice cream in the occupied West Bank. Unilever’s move to continue sales there undermines the “social integrity Ben & Jerry’s has spent decades building.” According to the company its board voted 5-2 to sue Unilever.