New Israeli bill bars NGOs from petitioning the High Court on behalf of Palestinians

What We’re Reading

Israeli politics

Israeli Cabinet Panel to Consider Bill Barring High Court Petitions on Behalf of Palestinians,

A bill that would bar nongovernmental organizations from petitioning the High Court of Justice on behalf of Palestinians will be debated by the Ministerial Committee for Legislation on Sunday.

Netanyahu’s vision of one-state-one-people solution,

“Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is promoting neither the two-state solution nor one state for the two people, but one state on Israeli and West Bank territories, only for the Jews,” writes Akiva Eldar.

US-Israel relations

FMEP Legislative Round-Up: May 12, 2017,

Read about the latest Middle East-related developments on Capitol Hill.

Occupation/Human rights

Israeli cabinet source: IDF fears defunding PA will increase terrorism,

“Almost all of Israel’s security and intelligence agencies are opposed to proposed Knesset legislation that would cut off tax transfers to the Palestinian Authority due to its payment of salaries to terrorists imprisoned in Israel, a senior cabinet source told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday.”

WATCH: What do Palestinians on hunger strike want?,

Mohammed Matry, a former political prisoner, talks about the prisoners’ strike in which he participated in the 1980s, Israel policy of forced feeding, and the basic demands of Palestinian prisoners today.

A timeline of Palestinian mass hunger strikes in Israel,

Al Jazeera compiled a timeline of notable mass hunger strikes in Palestinian history and looked at what has been achieved.

Top Arab MK joins hunger strike — for a day,

At a protest tent in the northern Arab-Israeli city of Nazareth, Joint (Arab) List chair Ayman Odeh said that his day-long fast was meant to bring attention to the “just demands” of the “political prisoners” for better conditions.

IDF accuses B’Tselem of ‘manufacturing’ conflicts,

In a rare move, the army’s spokesperson lambasted the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem on Wednesday for publishing a video of an IDF officer guarding outside the a West Bank settlement, which he said was filmed purely to “manufacture an incident.”

Palestinian politics

Palestinian elections highlight Hamas-Fatah division,

Palestinians vote in municipal elections on Saturday, but only in the West Bank and not the Gaza Strip, illustrating the persistent inability of rival movements Fatah and Hamas to overcome deep divisions.