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A Palestinian official said that the US is looking to build confidence between Palestine and Israel. A member of the Executive Committee of the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization), Ahmed Majdalani said, “The US administration is seeking to build confidence between the Palestinian and Israeli sides”. Majdalani warned that any effort to build confidence without a political horizon or halting Israeli settlement building will only lead to consolidate the status quo. He said, “The US administration feels the situation in Tel Aviv is immature, so they cannot pressure the fragile Israeli government as this may lead to its collapse. No steps, however, have been taken to this end”. The PLO official said that Washington is looking to revive the International Quartet. The International Quartet for the Middle East was formed in 2002.

It includes the US, the EU, Russia, and the United Nations to mediate between the Palestinians and Israelis to reach a political settlement. However, negotiations between the Palestinians and Israelis collapsed in 2014 as a result of Israel’s refusal to halt settlement activity in the occupied West Bank. Israeli and Palestinian estimates indicate that there are at least 650,000 settlers living in 164 settlements and 124 outposts in the West Bank, including in occupied East Jerusalem. All Israeli settlements in occupied territories are considered illegal under International Law. The US Supreme Court partially lifted a New York state ban on residential evictions during the coronavirus pandemic, giving a victory to a group of landlords who challenged it. The court granted an emergency request by landlords to temporarily lift part of the ban in a 6-3 decision.

The court’s order was unsigned and emphasized that it applied only to a part of the state law that barred evicting tenants who file a form claiming they have suffered economic difficulty as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. The original case was brought by a group of small landlords who said they had suffered economic hardship as a result of the law. It allowed the suspension of eviction proceedings simply by filling out a form. The court said New York could no longer enforce a provision that allows renters to stave off eviction by submitting a hardship declaration form that tells the state they lost income or had more expenses during the pandemic or that moving would harm their health. The pause on evictions expires at the end of August, but the court’s ruling allows some evictions to resume.