Cutting off payments to Palestinian families won’t stop terror – so why has it become such an issue? FMEP’s Lara Friedman explains what’s really behind the Israeli government’s campaign against the Palestinian Authority.

The High Court of Justice on Thursday postponed for two months the implementation of a controversial law that legalizes wildcat West Bank outposts constructed on private Palestinian land in certain restricted cases. The legality of the highly contentious Regulation Law was challenged in the High Court by left-wing NGO’s Peace Now, Yesh Din and Association for Civil Rights in Israel on behalf of 27 Palestinian local councils and 13 Israeli civil society organizations.

East Jerusalem, despite having been occupied in 1967 like the rest of the Palestinian territories, is unique in its lack of PA institutions. Palestinians there do not face an added layer of repression from an indigenous regime.

The Government Press Office revoked the credentials of an Al Jazeera reporter Wednesday for allegedly being an “active partner in Palestinian resistance” amid Israeli efforts to boot the network from the country.

“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s attacks on the media are creating a climate that threatens journalists’ lives,” writes Ben Caspit.

Hundreds of Israeli soldiers, police officers, and municipal inspectors made their way to the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Issawiya on Tuesday mornin, to demolish two large apartment buildings, an agricultural business, and a store.

The UAE is to provide $15m a month in aid to Gaza, a Palestinian politician said on Thursday, in the latest report of the Gulf country and its ally Mohammed Dahlan seeking greater influence in the enclave.

It appears that President Mahmoud Abbas wants to convene the Palestinian National Council, after a hiatus of more than 20 years, which would allow the Palestinian movement to move toward a change in leadership.

The army sent the new directive to Gisha, an Israeli NGO that promotes freedom of movement for Palestinians, a day before it went into effect earlier this month.

A Hamas security man and a member of a rival group were killed on Thursday in a confrontation in the southern Gaza Strip near the Palestinian enclave’s border with Egypt, security sources said.