“The Palestinian movement Fatah has expelled one of its most prominent leaders, Nasser al-Qudwa, and stripped him of his party membership, in a major twist to an internal debate on how to campaign for the upcoming legislative elections on 22 May.”

"Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority (PA), has announced the suspension of all agreements signed with Israel. The 84-year-old's declaration on Thursday came after an emergency meeting of the Palestine Liberation Organization in the wake of Israel's demolition this week of several Palestinian buildings in Sur Baher village - a move Abbas described as an act of "ethnic cleansing"."

"So it’s time to fantasize, to dream about a general election, but a different kind, a dream about democracy. It won’t happen soon, but one day it will. Israel will have to become a democracy because it doesn’t have the right to exist otherwise. Without real elections, it’s not a democracy. What it imagines as democratic is an electoral trick. A fundamental rule in democracies is the universal right to vote. One person, one vote."

"The political component of the administration’s peace plan—which Jared Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior advisor, is overseeing—has not yet been unveiled. There are many reasons to be skeptical about the Trump administration’s proposed economic workshop in Bahrain. For one, laying out an economic plan ahead of a political vision is simply the wrong way around."

"The UN had “repeatedly warned that the conflict cannot be managed in perpetuity”, she said, adding that without any change in approach, there would only be more deterioration, “radicalization on all sides, more suffering and conflict.” The political and peacebuilding chief told Council members that Israeli settlements continue to expand, despite having “no legal effect” and constituting a “violation of international law”."