Last week, the Trump administration released the full version of their proposed 2018 federal budget. The budget includes large increases for immigration enforcement and for the military, and sweeping cuts to education, health care, food assistance, and other valuable social programs. Here's what we're reading to learn more.

On March 29, 2002, fifteen years ago, the Israeli military launched Operation Defensive Shield.  I was living in Ramallah at the time, working with the Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haq.  Defensive Shield followed a number of smaller military invasions of Ramallah and we all knew a day in advance that the invasion was coming. You could see the Israeli tanks and armored personnel carriers massing around the city as the military prepared for their invasion. 

Mohammad Sabaaneh is a Palestinian cartoonist, whose book “White and Black: Political Cartoons from Palestine” was recently published by Just World Books. Mohammad was born in Kuwait in 1979 and has been working as a cartoonist since 2002. His work has been published in many Arabic-language newspapers.

The Palestinian hunger strike, which was launched on April 17, has now entered its second month with over 1,600 prisoners joining the strike. By way of comparison, Gandhi's longest hunger strike lasted for 21 days.

This strike was launched to protest the abusive conditions that exist in the Israeli military prison system, including the use of solitary confinement, restrictions on family visits, and the continued use of administrative detention where Palestinians are held without charge or trial.

Pedro Sosa is director of the AFSC Project Voice Immigrant Rights Program in Oregon and Washington. 

This piece was written collaboratively by Willie Colon, Tony Heriza, Tonya Histand, and me with many other contributors. Nathaniel Doubleday curated the images shared here. This piece was shared on the opening day of the Centennial summit on April 20^th, 2017. Take a look at the Centennial video “Love in Action” as well.  – Lucy

“I think this is a time when we can be extremely optimistic precisely because of the political chaos of our time; that we can organize and create the communities we want right now. We just do it without asking permission. We just go ahead and do it.” --Erica Chenoweth

This morning, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a memo rescinding previous Department of Justice efforts to reform federal drug sentencing guidelines and instead directing prosecutors to seek the most severe penalties available. Here’s what we’re reading to learn more.

Jeff Sessions rolls back Obama-era drug sentencing reforms, by Ryan J. Reilly via Huffington Post