For decades the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has eluded well-intentioned peacemakers. Diplomats have talked, shaken hands, snapped photos — and returned home from summits with strikingly little to show for their efforts. Meanwhile, the occupation of Palestinian territories grew more restrictive. Israel’s settlements developed into towns and small cities as Palestinians were penned into smaller and smaller spaces. While diplomats shuffled from Madrid to Oslo to Wye River, from Camp David to Taba to Annapolis and resort towns in between, the illegal settlements expanded. And the window for two states closed. Read full article > >

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One state for Palestinians and Israelis

JERUSALEM – A Palestinian prisoner who had been on a hunger strike for more than two months to protest his detention without trial called off his fast after reaching a deal with the Israeli authorities, the Israeli Justice Ministry said Tuesday. Read full article > >

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Palestinian prisoner calls off hunger strike in deal with Israeli authorities

JERUSALEM — A Jerusalem court ruled has ruled against plans to build a luxury housing development on the remains of a Palestinian village abandoned in the 1948 war that followed the establishment of Israel. Read full article > >

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Israeli court grants reprieve to abandoned Palestinian village

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu condemns a unity deal between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, saying it damages prospects for peace.

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Israel condemns Fatah-Hamas move

The political leader of the Palestinian Islamist movement, Hamas, is due to visit Jordan, 13 years after it expelled Hamas leaders.

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Hamas leader goes back to Jordan

Israel charged five Jewish settlers on Sunday with orchestrating a riot in an army base in the West Bank in a bid to foil plans to dismantle illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory.

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Israel Charges Five Settlers With Army Base Rampage

SOMETHING SURPRISING happened Tuesday in a Middle East diplomatic landscape that most people assumed was frozen over: Israeli and Palestinian negotiators met face-to-face for the first time in 16 months. That they did so was partly to the credit of Jordan’s King Abdullah, who has been working feverishly to restart negotiations, and partly to the credit of the “Quartet,” the diplomatic amalgam of the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations, which has been pressuring the two sides for months. Read full article > >

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A small sign of progress toward Mideast peace

JERUSALEM — Israeli and Palestinian negotiators met for the first time in more than a year in Amman on Tuesday and agreed to keep talking at further meetings, Jordan’s foreign minister said, adding that Israel had received written Palestinian proposals on borders and security and would respond. Although the minister, Nasser Judeh, was careful not to characterize Tuesday’s talks and the coming meetings as negotiations, the discussions in Jordan marked a resumption of direct contacts between the Israelis and Palestinians after a protracted impasse in peace efforts. Read full article > >

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Israelis and Palestinians meet, agree to keep talking

Israeli and Palestinian negotiators are due to meet in Jordan on Tuesday, after more than 15 months of deadlock in peace talks.

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Israelis and Palestinians to meet

Palestinian and Israeli negotiators will meet in Jordan on Tuesday in an effort to revive moribund peace talks, although none of the sides involved suggested any reason to view the meeting as a sign of significant progress.

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Palestinians and Israelis Will Talk This Week

JERUSALEM — Defying a crackdown on Jewish extremists ordered by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, vandals set fire to a mosque in the West Bank on Thursday and defaced it with Hebrew graffiti after Israeli forces tore down structures in an unauthorized settlement outpost. The arson attack in the Palestinian village of Burqa, near Ramallah, was the latest in a string of similar attacks on mosques in the West Bank. It came a day after an unused mosque was vandalized in a Jewish neighborhood of Jerusalem. Read full article > >

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Vandals torch West Bank mosque, Jewish extremists suspected

KHAN AL-AHMAR, West Bank — A plan by the Israeli authorities to relocate about 2,000 Palestinian Bedouins living in the desert hills east of Jerusalem is raising concerns among U.N. officials and human rights advocates about Israel’s aims in a strategic area of the West Bank. The hills are dotted with more than 20 encampments of Bedouins, formerly nomadic goat and sheep herders who migrated from Israel’s southern Negev region in the early 1950s to the West Bank. Their hamlets, consisting of groups of corrugated metal and wooden shacks covered with plastic sheeting, are visible from roads crisscrossing the area. Read full article > >

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Israeli plan to move West Bank Bedouin stirs controversy

American proponents of a close, even “special,” relationship with Israel often justify their support for the Jewish state on the grounds that “Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East.” Indeed, a quick look at Freedom House’s 2011 Map of Freedom shows a speck of “free” in a sea of “not free.” In contrast to this designation, there are many who are well aware of the controversies surrounding Israeli treatment of Palestinians. Less well known, however, and deserving equal attention, is the growing tide of anti-democratic governance within Israel itself. A number of recent developments show that freedom in Israel is not immutable and shouldn’t be taken for granted.

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Not Living Up to Its Reputation: Human Rights in Israel

Converts to the urban sport of parkour, young Palestinians practice how to run for their lives in a Gaza cemetery.

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T Magazine: The Graveyard Shift

King Abdullah II conferred with President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority, but his visit sent many messages.

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King of Jordan Visits the Palestinian West Bank