July 29th

Israel Blows Up "illegally Built" Palestinian Home
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
July 29, 2008 - 5:07pm

Israeli security forces blew up a Palestinian four-storey apartment block near East Jerusalem on Monday because Israel said some of the structure had been built without planning permission. An Israeli police spokesman said security forces had surrounded the structure in the Palestinian suburb of Beit Hanina north of central Jerusalem, before bulldozers began preparing it for demolition. It was blown up in the evening.

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Mideast Deal Seems Beyond Reach As Rice Hosts Talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Arshad Mohammed - July 29, 2008 - 5:03pm

Israeli and Palestinian negotiators meet this week to work toward the long-shot U.S. goal of achieving a comprehensive peace deal this year that even Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says is out of reach. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice plans to meet separately, and then together, in Washington on Wednesday with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and former Palestinian Prime Minster Ahmed Qurei, the two sides' lead negotiators.

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Livni Says Kadima Lost Way Under Olmert
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
July 29, 2008 - 5:01pm

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni stepped up a campaign to oust Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, charging on Monday that their centrist Kadima Party had lost its way under his leadership. Livni, a favourite in public opinion polls to succeed Olmert, whose tenure has been threatened by a series of corruption probes, spoke at a rally in Jerusalem ahead of a party leadership vote scheduled for mid-September.

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Poverty In Gaza Hits "unprecedented" Level
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Inter Press Service (IPS)
by Omid Memarian - July 29, 2008 - 5:00pm

In both the West Bank and Gaza, young people aged 15 to 24 are the most likely of any group to be unemployed, while the number of households in Gaza below the poverty line has reached an historic high of nearly 52 percent, according to a new report by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) issued Thursday.

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Hamas, Fatah Pursue War Of Words Over Detentions
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Mohammed Assadi - July 29, 2008 - 4:58pm

Hamas warned its Fatah rivals on Tuesday that a crackdown against the Islamist group by forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas could spark a revolt in the occupied West Bank. A senior Palestinian security official in Ramallah dismissed the threats by "irresponsible people". Abbas's security forces have detained at least 150 Hamas supporters in the West Bank in response to a sweep in the Gaza Strip, where Hamas seized nearly 200 Fatah sympathizers after a bomb blast killed five Hamas militants and a girl on Friday.

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Israel Suspends Shooting Colonel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bbc News
July 29, 2008 - 4:54pm

An Israeli colonel has been sent home for 10 days amid allegations he told one of his soldiers to shoot a Palestinian detainee at a checkpoint. The soldier says Col Omri Borberg ordered him to shoot the man at close range with a rubber-coated bullet. Unknown to the Israelis, a Palestinian girl filmed the incident and the video was published by a human rights group. Media reports say Col Borberg failed a lie-detector test about his claim not to have ordered the soldier to shoot.

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Could Peace Break Out For Israel And Syria?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from International Herald Tribune
by Janine Zacharia - July 29, 2008 - 4:53pm

Israel and Syria have suddenly found fresh reasons to try to make peace after eight years of stalemate. President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, concerned about the survival of his regime, wants to reap the political and economic benefits of ending his nation's isolation from the West. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel, mindful of his own precarious political future, seeks to wrest Syria out of Iran's orbit and stop it from funneling weapons to the Lebanese group Hezbollah, which used them against Israel in the 2006 war.

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July 28th

The International Herald Tribune assesses the possibility of a peace between Israel and Syria (1). A colonel in the IDF faces allegations that he ordered a soldier to shoot a Palestinian detainee at close range (2). A report issued by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency shows that poverty in Gaza has reached an all time high of almost 52 percent (4). Pressure mounts on Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to step down (5). Israel demolishes a Palestinian home near East Jerusalem which was allegedly built without planning permission (7).

Obama: We’ll Make Sure Palestinians Have A State
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Yitzhak Benhorin - July 28, 2008 - 4:39pm

"The Palestinian people are having a very tough time right now economically, and it is in US interests to make sure that they have a sense of hope and opportunity and a Palestinian state. I think it's in Israelis' interest as well," US Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama told NBC's Meet the Press Sunday on the heels of his Mideast tour.

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Palestinian Family Losing Jerusalem Home After Five Decades
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP)
July 28, 2008 - 4:37pm

"I was married here, I had my five children here and I want to die here," says a defiant Fawzia al-Kurd, determined that Jewish settlers will not drive her family from their home in occupied east Jerusalem. But sadly for the Al-Kurds, whose single-storey two-room house of golden stone that has been their home for the past 52 years, Israel's High Court has ruled differently. They are to be expelled, and the house, a wing of which has already been taken over by settlers will be lost forever.

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