Palestinian Authority cuts off electricity to Gaza

What We’re Reading

Gaza

PA tells Israel it will no longer pay for Gaza’s electricity,

The Palestinian Authority on Thursday informed Israel it would no longer pay for electricity that the Jewish state supplies to the Gaza Strip, as a power crisis in the Hamas-run enclave deepened.

World Bank: Gaza power cuts causing ‘humanitarian crisis,

Without Israeli cooperation and other practical changes, foreign aid alone cannot rescue stagnant Palestinian economy, the World Bank says.

UN Coordinator for Humanitarian Aid and Development Activities releases emergency funding for fuel for hospitals in the Gaza Strip,

According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, fuel to power back-up generators at seven out of 13 hospitals in Gaza is expected to run out within three days.

Palestinian politics

Abbas versus Barghouti, Round 2,

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is furious at Fatah activists who called for a Day of Rage five days before he is scheduled to meet with US President Donald Trump.

Hamas to unveil revised charter on May 1,

The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas said Wednesday it is to unveil an amended version of its 1987 founding charter next week, without detailing the change.

US-Israel relations

US defends Breaking the Silence as ‘important’ for Israeli discourse,

The US State Department on Wednesday defended the controversial Breaking the Silence NGO as fulfilling an “important” role in Israeli society in a briefing that addressed a wide range of issues pertaining to Middle East peace.

Trump team arrives in Israel to discuss presidential visit,

An advance team from Washington arrived on Thursday to discuss logistics of US President Donald Trump’s likely visit next month, amid reports that he will be coming to Israel on May 22 and staying for a single night.

Israeli newspaper claims Trump will recognize entire Jerusalem as Israel’s capital during trip,

US President Donald Trump will reverse longstanding US policy by officially recognizing the entire city of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, but will not implement his election campaign pledge to relocate the American embassy from Tel Aviv, the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper claimed Thursday. There was no confirmation of the report.

US Senate wins free speech offender prize for anti-Semitism bill,

Muzzle ‘awards’ take aim at those deemed encroaching on freedom of expression; lawmakers highlighted for stringent college campus clampdown.

Israeli politics

Opinion: Germany's foreign minister calls Netanyahu's bluff — and rightly so,

Given an ultimatum of meeting with Breaking the Silence and B’Tselem or meeting Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel very simply made the right choice to forego Netanyahu. And not in order to “defy” Netanyahu, as per a breathless Bloomberg headline, or to give any message at all.

Netanyahu looks like a bully, but he doesn't care,

“Any blowback Netanyahu receives after snubbing the German foreign minister will be short-lived: his base is behind him, he has the patronage of the U.S., and the status quo will remain exactly as it is,” writes Lisa Goldman.

What Yair Lapid got wrong about Barghouti,

Israeli leaders are applying a double standard when they insist that Jewish terror is a legitimate struggle for achieving national goals, while Palestinian terror is unacceptably brutal use of violence, Daniel Bar-Tal and Ilan Baruch.

Palestinian prisoners' hunger strike

In Photos: Palestinians launch general strike in support of imprisoned hunger strikers,

A general strike was held across the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem on Thursday, as thousands of Palestinians shut down their shops and businesses in solidarity with some 1,500 Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike as part of the “Freedom and Dignity” strike, organized by imprisoned Fatah leader Marwan Barghouthi.

Behind the Palestinian hunger strike are countless stories of suffering,

The unprecedented action is not just a bid for improved conditions, but a call for the most basic of human rights and treatment in Israeli prisons.

Occupation/Human rights

Israel's 'Checkpoint Q': a daily hurdle for Palestinians,

To one side loom towers manned by Israeli soldiers who keep watch from behind bulletproof glass. To the other stand concrete walls charred by fire bombs, pitted with bullet holes and scrawled with Palestinian graffiti. In between, barriers and steel fences block traffic or corral vehicles and pedestrians.

WATCH: Settlers attack Palestinian school, harass students,

Settlers are caught on video throwing stones at a Palestinian school in Burin, and a settlement security guard fires his gun into the air. But the soldiers who arrive on the scene take no action against the attackers.