Diverting attention from Palestine

What We’re Reading

US-Israel relations

Opinion: Diverting Attention from the Tragedy of Palestine,

“The current Israeli government repeatedly plays up the idea that with so much other turmoil in the Middle East, it is somehow not appropriate to focus international attention on the unfinished business in Palestine,” writes Paul Pillar. “This is one of what has been a series of excuses for inaction.”

Trump, Abbas gear up for White House meeting,

US President Donald Trump will meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas Wednesday for their first face-to-face talks, with the PA leader hoping the billionaire businessman’s unpredictable approach can inject life into long-stalled peace efforts.

US approves possible $440 million arms sale to Israel,

The State Department approved a “Possible Foreign Military Sale” to Israel, according to a Defense Security Cooperation Agency press release published on Friday.

Palestinian politics

Israel says 300 inmates end hunger strike; Palestinian official says it's not so,

An Israeli minister said on Sunday that 300 Palestinians agreed to end an almost two-week-old hunger strike begun in protest of the conditions of their detention. Qudwa Faris, head of the prisoners unit in Palestine, however, denied the Israeli claim, telling MEE in a telephone interview that all 1,500 Palestinian prisoners were continuing with the hunger strike.

New Hamas chief to be announced soon: officials,

The new leadership of Palestinian Islamist terrorist group Hamas will be announced in the coming days, officials said Sunday, while it also prepared to unveil a new version of its charter.

Hamas' political document: What to expect,

As the Palestinian Hamas movement gears up to release the long-awaited updated version of its founding charter, rumours surrounding the changes to the document have put many on edge.

Occupation/Human rights

Israeli government bars Palestinians from joint memorial ceremony,

The Israeli Defense Ministry canceled all permits for Palestinian peace activists from the West Bank to attend a joint ceremony on the eve of Memorial Day.

Guess which of these human rights Israel guarantees to Palestinians,

The right to equality? The right to free movement in and out of the country? How about the right to freedom from arbitrary arrest and exile? Or the right to marriage and family?

Is Israel's boycott ban undemocratic?,

Can Israel reconcile being a so-called defender of liberal values, yet curb free speech?

Gaza

Much more than power at stake in Israel-Hamas electricity standoff,

With Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announcing that he will stop financing Gaza’s electricity needs, Israel must decide whether to save Gaza’s residents and the Hamas regime with them.

Israeli politics

Opinion: An Israeli Civil War Is Inevitable,

“Israel is now a zero-sum game, in which the annexers face off against the democrats seeking an end to the occupation. Only one will survive,” writes Rogel Alpher.

In Israel's official portrait, only Jewish lives matter,

A new government report published on the eve of Israel’s Independence Day only concerns itself with infant mortality statistics and life expectancy of Jewish citizens. What does that say about Israel’s attitude towards non-Jews?