Top news stories from Israel/Palestine: May 15, 2019

What We’re Reading

US-Israeli/Palestinian relations

Trump’s election has boosted Israeli settlement construction,

Israel’s government went on a spending binge in its West Bank settlements following the election of President Donald Trump, according to official data obtained by The Associated Press.

Months Before Palestinian Official Banned From U.S., Trump Envoy Invited Her to the White House,

Three months before the U.S. State Department refused to grant a visa to senior Palestinian official Dr. Hanan Ashrawi, she was publicly invited to the White House by President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy to “speak in person” about the administration’s peace plan.

Occupation/Human rights

Settlement Report 2018 – A Glance at 10 Years under Netanyahu,

Construction starts in settlements were 9% above average in 2018.

One million face hunger in Gaza after US cut to Palestine aid,

More than a million people in Gaza risk going hungry next month unless international donors fill a $60m (£46m) funding black hole largely created by cuts to Palestinian refugee aid by the Trump administration, a UN agency has said.

Hundreds in Tel Aviv mark year since Gaza border killings,

Israelis and Palestinians commemorate a year since Israeli troops killed over 60 Palestinian demonstrators in a single day during the Great March of Return. Some protesters call to boycott the Eurovision Song Contest taking place in Tel Aviv.

Gaza's wounded recall last year's deadly May 14 protests,

As Palestinians mark Nakba day, those wounded in last year’s ‘March of Return’ protests discuss how their lives changed.

What my Palestinian family lost at Israel’s founding — and what it means for me,

Three generations later, the Nakba seems both long ago and ever present.

My Father Tried To Hide The Nakba - But It Found Me.,

When 71 years ago this month, the creation of the State of Israel led to a mass Palestinian exodus, only about 150,000 Palestinians out of nearly one million who had lived on the territory managed to remain within the new state. Among them were my grandparents.

Airbnb Faces Renewed Criticism Over Listings in Occupied West Bank,

“Ultimately we would like Airbnb to reverse its decision but we know that won’t be easy,” Salem Barahmeh, executive director of the Palestine Institute for Public Diplomacy, told AFP.

Israeli politics

Anti-miscegenation activist calls out Likud MK over daughter dating Arab Israeli,

The head of a far-right anti-coexistence organization sent an open letter to a prominent Likud lawmaker on Tuesday, urging him to break up his daughter’s relationship with an Arab Israeli.

Palestinian politics

Hamas-Fatah standoff vexes Egypt as mediator,

There has been speculation that Egypt has given up on mediating a reconciliation between rival Palestinian factions Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Fatah in the West Bank, but so far Egypt hasn’t said it will throw in the towel.