Netanyahu Says Some Settlements to Stay in Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - January 24, 2010 - 1:00am

JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said Sunday that several Jewish settlement blocs in the West Bank would always remain part of Israel, a comment that upset the Palestinians even as the Obama administration’s Middle East envoy was trying to coax them back into peace talks. The prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, helped plant a tree in a West Bank settlement near Jerusalem on Sunday. Mr. Netanyahu spoke about the Etzion bloc on Sunday.

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With Mideast peace talks stalled, activists fear a new intifada
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Joshua Mitnick - January 22, 2010 - 1:00am

US peace envoy George Mitchell met Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday to try to break a diplomatic impasse that some say could give rise to a new Palestinian uprising, or intifada. After a nearly year-long vacuum in negotiations, Palestinian and Israeli peace activists say that Israel has escalated arrests of protesters to prevent wide-scale demonstrations.

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Who desecrated Arab graves?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Hanan Greenberg - January 21, 2010 - 1:00am

The Palestinians claim that Jewish worshipers escorted by IDF troops vandalized graves, sprayed graffiti and shattered tombstones at the West Bank village of Awarta Tuesday. The Jewish groups that held the pilgrimage denied the allegations, while IDF officials said they were shocked by the possibility that soldiers escorting the worshipers might be behind the controversial acts. Others pointed the finger at the Palestinians and human rights organization B'Tselem that filed the complaint, claim the acts were an attempt to create a "provocation."

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Who desecrated Arab graves?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Hanan Greenberg - January 21, 2010 - 1:00am

The Palestinians claim that Jewish worshipers escorted by IDF troops vandalized graves, sprayed graffiti and shattered tombstones at the West Bank village of Awarta Tuesday. The Jewish groups that held the pilgrimage denied the allegations, while IDF officials said they were shocked by the possibility that soldiers escorting the worshipers might be behind the controversial acts. Others pointed the finger at the Palestinians and human rights organization B'Tselem that filed the complaint, claim the acts were an attempt to create a "provocation."

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Sheikh Salah banned from Jerusalem
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Hanan Greenberg - December 21, 2009 - 1:00am

GOC Homefront Command Major General Yair Golan issued an order Monday banning the head of the Islamic Movement's northern branch, Sheikh Raed Salah, from entering Jerusalem for three weeks. The IDF Spokesperson's Office stated that the restraining order is aimed at keeping peace in the city, and that the army plans to have it extended to six months if Salah does not successfully appeal the order within seven days.

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Activists planning Temple Mount ascent
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Abe Selig - December 16, 2009 - 1:00am

A group of activists dedicated to bringing Jews to the Temple Mount told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday that they were hoping to see hundreds of participants take part in a planned "mass pilgrimage" to the site scheduled for Thursday morning in honor of Hannuka, which celebrates the rededication of the Second Temple after it was recovered from Hellenist Greeks more than 2,000 years ago.

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Jewish town won't let Arab build home on his own land
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from
by Jack Khoury - December 14, 2009 - 1:00am

Aadel Suad first came to the planning and construction committee of the Misgav Local Council in 1997. Suad, an educator, was seeking a construction permit to build a home on a plot of land he owns in the community of Mitzpeh Kamon. The reply he got, from a senior official on the committee, was a memorable one. "Don't waste your time," he reportedly told Suad. "We'll keep you waiting for 30 years."

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E.U. moderates stance on Jerusalem
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Howard Schneider - December 9, 2009 - 1:00am

The European Union's foreign ministers on Tuesday softened their call for a division of Jerusalem between Israel and the Palestinians, saying that the city should be shared but that the two sides should negotiate the details. The statement, issued in Brussels, marks a diplomatic victory for Israel in a contest with the Palestinians for international support.

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Akiva Eldar / Israel may have frozen settlements, but does it want peace?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Akiva Eldar - (Analysis) December 8, 2009 - 1:00am

On the eve of signing the settlement construction freeze order, Avigdor Lieberman told reporters that the settlements had never been an obstacle to peace. The proof, the foreign minister explained, is that the Jewish settlement enterprise in Judea and Samaria did not stop Egypt and Jordan from signing peace agreements with Israel.

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Peace must begin with the plight of Palestine's refugees
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Karen Koning Abuzayd - (Opinion) December 8, 2009 - 1:00am

Sixty years ago today the United Nations general assembly voted into existence a temporary body known as UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. UNRWA's task was to deal with the humanitarian consequences of the dispossession of some three-quarters of a million Palestine refugees forced by the 1948 Middle East war to abandon their homes and flee their ancestral lands. Just two decades later, the six-day war generated another spasm of violence and forced displacement, culminating in the occupation of Palestinian territory.

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