While electrical blackouts are common across the West Bank, scheduled outages are due to continue as the Palestinian power distributor has not paid overdue bills from the Israeli energy provider since 2014.

Trump’s acceptance of the legality of Israeli settlements in the West Bank actually hastens the end of Zionism’s discriminatory ideology. What had always been the reality will be on full display for the world to see: Israel is an apartheid state. And the call for simply equality will be Israel’s ultimate defeat.

The Palestinian Authority has blocked access to dozens of news websites and social media accounts in the occupied West Bank in its ongoing crackdown of opposition voices and those critical of Mahmoud Abbas’ presidency.

Mahmoud Abbas called for the first general elections in 13 years. However, many analysts and Palestinian citizens remain skeptical fair elections will be held any time soon. 

Palestinian Authority leaders say they are moving towards cutting ties with Israel over its “war crimes” committed in Sur Bahir on Monday, when Israeli authorities demolished 10 buildings on PA-controlled land. But critics told Mondoweiss they don’t expect much more than “empty threats” from the PA.

The Palestinian Authority is in crisis, and high rates of poverty and unemployment, few prospects of free and democratic presidential elections, and the unveiling of the widely unpopular American “deal of the century” around the corner, will only exacerbate the already dire situation. “The collapse of the PA is definitely something we could see happening, especially if this financial and political situation worsens,” Palestine Policy Fellow at Al-Shabaka, Dr. Yara Hawari, told Mondoweiss.

On Thursday evening Jared Kushner avoided confirming if his plan, which has been kept secret, will include a Palestinian state but spoke at length about an “economic visions for the region” and a “business plan” to address “what’s been holding” Palestinians “back economically.”

Every month, Israel collects some $190 million in customs duties on goods being imported into the Palestinian territory and transfers it to the PA. But recently it has been withholding $10 million per month, meant to represent the amount paid by the PA to the families of political prisoners and “martyrs” killed by Israel. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is refusing to accept the reduced tax revenues, which has plunged the government into its worst financial crisis in years. This is leading Israel to start discussing a plan of action should the Palestinian Authority collapse completely.

Looking back on this year, it is difficult to choose one moment, one tragedy, or one political decision that stands out among the rest. Palestinians witnessed a tumultuous year in 2018, as they saw hundreds killed from the West Bank to Gaza, their rights slowly stripped away inside Israel, and the heart of Palestinian identity, Jerusalem, pushed further out of reach. But as evidenced by the ongoing fight for the rights of refugees in Gaza’s Great March of Return, the fight against expulsion in places Silwan and Khan al-Ahmar, and the fight for equal rights as citizens in Israel, the fight for Palestinian rights continued as well.

After nearly two months of arbitrary detention, brutal interrogations, a hunger strike, and sexual harassment, 31-year-old Suha Jbara is expected to be released from Palestinian Authority custody in the next two days.  Jbara, a Palestinian activist with American and Panamanian citizenship, was arrested by PA security forces on November 3rd over accusations that she collected and distributed money through “illegal methods,” a claim herself and her family vehemently deny. Her father spoke to Mondoweiss about the “nightmare” that his daughter and family have experienced over the past two months.