The BBC and Independent report that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he intends to name a new settlement in the occupied Golan Heights after US President Donald Trump. The BBC reports that Netanyahu said the move would honour Trump’s recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan in March. Israel seized the Golan from Syria in 1967 and annexed the territory in 1981. The move has not been recognised internationally. Syria said Trump’s decision was “a blatant attack on its sovereignty”. Netanyahu, who has secured a fifth term in office in the recent Israeli elections, has been on a trip to the region with his family for the week-long Passover holiday. “All Israelis were deeply moved when President Trump made his historic decision to recognise Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights. I intend to bring to the government a resolution calling for a new community on the Golan Heights named after President Donald J Trump”, he said in a video message.

The Independent reports that decrying what they described as “Nazism” and “economic terrorism,” Iranian authorities on Tuesday vowed to persevere in the face of Washington’s decision on Monday to harden punishments against countries purchasing the country’s oil. “Escalating economic terrorism against Iranians exposes panic and desperation of US regime – and chronic failures of its client co-conspirators,” Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif wrote on Twitter on Tuesday. “Probably the most important [security matter] is the issue of Trumpism in the world, which has characteristics similar to Nazism,” Iran’s Defence Minister, Brig Gen Amir Hatami said as he arrived in Moscow for a security conference.

In the Guardian, Larry Elliott writes: “Ending the Iranian sanctions waiver could be own goal for Trump”, arguing that preventing Iran’s oil from reaching the market will raise prices and US business costs.

The BBC, Guardian, Independent and Financial Times report that according to a statement by the country’s state media, a Saudi prisoner has been executed and crucified – one of 37 people executed on Tuesday on charges of terrorism. The BBC reports that the statement added the men were charged with “adopting terrorist extremist ideology, forming terrorist cells” and harming the “peace and security of society”. One of the men executed was aged just 16 at the time of his arrest, according to Amnesty International. Executions are usually carried out by beheading. Crucifixion following an execution is reserved for crimes seen by the authorities as even more serious. In Tuesday’s executions, those accused had allegedly attacked security headquarters, killing a number of officers, the Saudi Press Agency statement said. The punishments were carried out in several locations including the Saudi capital, Riyadh, Mecca and Medina.

The Financial Times, Telegraph, Independent and the Guardian report that voters in Egypt have approved amendments to the constitution which strengthen the position of Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the president, and allow him to extend his rule until 2030. The Financial Times reports that the electoral commission said 88 per cent of voters backed the changes which, opponents say, will cement dictatorship and undermine the independence of the judiciary. Eleven per cent voted no. Pro-regime media and supporters of the President said the measure would help stability and give him time to finish projects he started. The amendments expand the powers of the President by giving him the authority to appoint the heads of all judicial institutions. Another change gives the army the right to intervene in politics by adding to its tasks that of defending democracy, freedoms and the “gains of the people.” The electoral commission says turnout was 44 per cent in the referendum which was held over three days.

The Independent reports that a new report from Amnesty International has said migrant domestic workers in Lebanon are being subjected to “shameful” human rights abuses due to the laws that govern their employment. A months-long investigation by the group found that an “inherently abusive” migration sponsorship system was to blame for the poor treatment of women domestic workers in the country. Testimony collected from more than 30 domestic workers living in Lebanon revealed “significant and consistent patterns of abuse”, including human trafficking, withholding salary, physical and verbal abuse, restrictions on freedom of movement and deprivation of food. The kafala (sponsorship) system, common across the Middle East, ties the legal residency of migrant workers to their employer, which gives them “total control” over the employees’ lives. The system has been described as modern-day slavery by campaigners.

The Guardian includes a letter from Geoffrey Bindman, a QC and visiting professor at University College London, and Stephen Sedley, a former court of appeal judge, which argues the misuse of the term ‘Zionist’ as a surrogate for ‘Jewish’ has to be dealt with case-specifically. They write: “The Jewish Labour Movement, a pro-Zionist group within the Labour party, has no entitlement to speak for Jews at large in seeking to stigmatise all criticism of Zionism as antisemitic. The undoubted misuse of “Zionist” as a surrogate for “Jewish” has to be dealt with case-specifically, not by immunising Zionism from all criticism.”

The Financial Times reports that Ceyla Pazarbasioglu, the World Bank’s vice-president for equitable growth, finance and institutions, has said there is no end to poverty without financial inclusion. Pazarbasioglu also warned that unless finance is expanded in the right way, it has the potential to backfire dangerously — a cautionary note that is informed in part by her previous roles at the International Monetary Fund and as a government official in her native Turkey. Pazarbasioglu is on the front line of a key battleground in global development. In 2017 there were still 1.7bn adults in the world without an account at a financial institution or a mobile money provider, according to the latest Global Findex database published by the World Bank. In the Middle East and Africa, she says, fintech’s role in financial inclusion is seen as a way to help foster entrepreneurship and lower unemployment among the regions’ burgeoning youth populations.

The Independent reports that the death toll from the war in Yemen has soared past 70,000, as rights groups warn landmines strewn across the country have caused hundreds of casualties and blocked aid. In the past five months alone 10,000 people have been killed, nudging the death toll past 70,000, a report by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (Acled) has reported. The global mapping project added that of the total deaths, more than 7,000 civilians had been killed in direct attacks, with a Gulf-led coalition responsible for the highest number of civilian deaths. The figure of 70,000 also includes an unspecified number of collateral civilian deaths.

The Telegraph reports that an investigation by Aaron Gekoski, a British environmentalist photographer, has uncovered that a tourist destination outside Marrakech seems to be an exploitative scam. Visitors to Morocco have long flocked to the roads outside Marrakech to take photographs of goats who climbed into the low boughs of the Argania tree. Such pictures are widely shared on social media and often decorate the pages of guide books to Morocco. Gekosi’s investigation though, found that local farmers appear to be bringing the goats in from other areas and forcing them into the trees before charging tourists to take photographs of them. When the goats eventually tire from balancing on the tree branches they are brought down and new goats are swapped in.

In the Israeli media, Maariv reports that Jared Kushner said that the Trump administration’s plan for Israeli-Palestinian talks will be unveiled after Ramadan, which is to end in early June. Kushner refused to comment on whether the plan was based on the two-state solution, saying only that both sides would have to make difficult compromises. Kushner said the plan was highly detailed, and that its authors had focused on the question of how to improve the Palestinians’ lives while simultaneously ensuring Israel’s security.

Haaretz report an op-ed in the New York Times by Trump’s Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt, who blamed Hamas for the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. He said: “Hamas has driven the people of Gaza into lives of misery in a bid to stay in power,” adding that as long as the group doesn’t renounce violence and recognise Israel, the United States cannot “fix” the situation.

Yediot Ahronoth and Haaretz report that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, while on a family trip to the Golan, announced that he intends to name a community on the Golan Heights after US President Donald Trump. “A few weeks ago, I brought about President Trump’s formal recognition of eternal Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. We need to express our appreciation by naming a community or a quarter in the Golan Heights after Donald Trump. I’ll put that to the cabinet shortly.” In the outgoing government, Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon and Deputy Minister Michael Oren drafted the “Net Golan” plan, which revolves primarily around massive construction of housing in the Golan, establishing a railway line connecting the area to central Israel and a massive investment in infrastructure, education, health care, and creating jobs, but that the plan has yet to get off the drawing board.

Kan Radio reports that Prime Minister Netanyahu and Finance Minister Kahlon are scheduled to meet tomorrow to discuss the planned merger between the Likud and Kulanu. Kulanu has demanded that it retain control over the finance and economy portfolios [in the next government], and that it receive 10 per cent representation in the Likud’s institutions.

Israel Hayom reports on a proposal by the ultra-Orthodox parties to resolve the disagreement over the Conscription Law. The first section is an agreement to pass the law that was developed by the security establishment, but with the addition of a declaratory section that will allow anyone who wishes to study the Torah to do so. The second is to pass a Basic Law of the value of Torah study. The third is passing the Override law to prevent the Supreme Court from cancelling Knesset laws, before passing the Conscription Law.

Yediot Ahronoth reports on continued tension in the United Right between the leaders of the Jewish Home and the National Union. Senior members of the Jewish Home said yesterday that party leader Rabbi Rafi Peretz was furious about the list of demands that Bezalel Smotrich presented to the Likud without his knowledge. The source said that the Jewish Home said some of the demands were unacceptable, including the issue of parliamentary immunity: “Smotrich’s demand on immunity is unacceptable to us and [was presented] without our consent. He’s mounted an entire campaign on that issue in the coalition negotiations instead of focusing on the issues that are truly important to us.”

Maariv reports that Blue and White Chairman Benny Gantz attacked National Union head Bezalel Smotrich on Twitter. Gantz tweeted: “Establishing a government whose only purpose is immunity for Netanyahu. An attempt to postpone the hearing, selling out the basic values of democracy. How sad and how unsurprising. Blue and White will lead the struggle against the prime minister’s attempt to buy for himself a coalition that constitutes a legal fortress. We won’t let that happen.”

Kan Radio reports that IDF troops demolished the home of Omar Abu-Leila, in the village Azawiya. Abu-Leila committed the terrorist attack near Ariel in March in which Staff Sgt. Gal Keidan of Beer Sheva and Rabbi Ahiad Ettinger of Eli were murdered. The terrorist was killed in exchanges of fire with an Israel Police SWAT team following a three-day manhunt. Clashes erupted near the home between Palestinians and IDF troops.