Newshour: Bahrain conference

this evening (monday 20th), 9.06-9.18pm, on bbc world service radio 

newshour (presented by james coomarasamy) leads with …

“Palestinians boycott US-led economic conference:

Palestinian officials say they won’t attend a US led conference in Bahrain aimed at bolstering the economies of the occupied West Bank and Gaza. The Palestinians say they won’t participate, and that nobody can negotiate on their behalf.”

including contributions from …

• bbc reporter tim franks 

• aryeh eldad, former mk, resident of kfar adumim

• shabtai shavit, former director of mossad

• ahmed majdalani, palestinian minister for social development 

• ziad khalil abu zayyad, spokesman for fatah 

Newshour: Two developments

this afternoon (monday 20th), 2.20-2.29pm, on bbc world service radio (partly repeated 10.18pm on the world tonight on bbc radio 4)

newshour (presented by razia iqbal) includes …

“Two separate developments suggest the landscape may be shifting. Last month, before winning the Israeli general election, the prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised to annex parts of the occupied West Bank – in other words, make them fully part of the state of Israel. And there’s wide speculation that next month President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner may at last unveil his ‘deal of the century’ to chart a new way forward for the Israelis and Palestinians. So how’s all this playing out in Israel and the occupied territories?”

including contributions from …

• bbc reporter tim franks 

• aryeh eldad, former mk, resident of kfar adumim

• shabtai shavit, former director of mossad

• ahmed majdalani, palestinian minister for social development