This sample of photos from 16 August–15 November 2017 aims to convey a sense of Palestinian life during this quarter. The Hamas-Fatah reconciliation agreement, the one hundredth anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, and Palestinian Authority attacks on press freedoms (including its arrest of human rights defender Issa Amro) are featured in the images, as are protests of land expropriation, home demolitions, a successful science competition, and the commemoration of Yasir Arafat's birthday.

This quarter began less than one month after the 20 January 2017 inauguration of U.S. president Donald Trump, whose stated positions on settlements and the two-state solution, at times contradicting decades of U.S. policy, had far-reaching implications for Palestinians. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was emboldened by the regime change in Washington and the new administration's lack of organization and experience. Within two months of the inauguration, observers marked a sharp increase in the demolition of Palestinian homes and in announcements of renewed Israeli settlement construction. In fact, just two days after Trump was sworn into office, the Jerusalem municipality approved the construction of 566 new housing units, which had earlier been delayed under pressure from outgoing U.S. president Barack Obama. And on 24 January, the Israeli government announced plans for 2,500 new settlement units in the West Bank. In early February, Israeli lawmakers passed the so-called Regularization Bill, retroactively legalizing the expropriation of private Palestinian land. As settlement plans continued to grow apace, the end of the quarter saw the submission of a measure extending Israeli sovereignty to Ma'ale Adumim before a Knesset committee. Some MKs were also considering the annexation of the E1 zone into Ma'ale Adumim, which would effectively sever the northern from the southern West Bank and create a impassable zone for Palestinians around East Jerusalem. Bedouin communities inside E1 resisted persistent expulsion threats and demolition orders, while the world's soccer governing body FIFA refused to take on the issue of soccer clubs inside settlements.

This section comprises JPS summaries and links to international, Arab, Israeli, and U.S. documents and source materials from the quarter spanning 16 February to 15 May 2017. Highlights include Black4Palestine's petition in support of hunger-striking Palestinian prisoners (the “Dignity Strike”); Palestinian grassroots response to PA security coordination with Israel and the Israeli assassination of youth activist and noted thinker Basel al-Araj; and an EU letter denouncing Israeli demolition of Palestinian homes funded by that European body. Also featured are Hamas's new charter, a translation of an interview with Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas on security coordination, the protest resignation of ESCWA executive secretary Rima Khalaf at the withdrawal of a UN report on Israeli apartheid, and a draft report on worldwide anti-Semitism.

Chronology is an archive of day-to-day events in Palestinian affairs and the Arab-Israeli conflict over the quarter 16 August–November 2016. It is also a source for researchers who want to be able to track various issues over time. This is part 132 of a chronology begun in Journal of Palestine Studies vol. 13, no. 3 (Spring 1984).

The Settlement Monitor covers items—reprinted articles, statistics, and maps—pertaining to Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights. They are reproduced as published, including original spelling and stylistic idiosyncrasies. Significant developments this quarter: As the first half of 2016 came to a close, Israel continued demolishing Palestinian homes in Area C of the West Bank and stepped up punitive and agenda-driven demolitions across East Jerusalem. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu also approved 800 new settlement units and announced another 600 in Beit Safafa after a spate of violent attacks in June and July. While officials in the United States were preoccupied with upcoming presidential elections, the Jerusalem Municipal Council for Planning and Building pushed forward with stalled expansion plans for the Ramot settlement, while Israel declared an area south of Bethlehem as state land to expand the Gush Etzion settlement bloc. Finally, Israel attempted to appease its settlers further by exploring means to override the High Court's decision to evacuate the illegal Amona outpost.