Erekat denies PA to withdraw support of Goldstone report ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Ali Waked - October 2, 2009 - 12:00am Top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat denied on Friday reports that the Palestinian Authority has decided to withdraw its bid to adopt the Goldstone report on alleged war crimes in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead. Thursday night Israeli Ambassador o the UN in Geneva Aharon Leshno Yaar said his Palestinian counterparty told the UN body in Geneva that the Palestinian Authority plans to announced it's withdrawal at the Human Rights Council's vote on Friday. » Read more

Lieberman: Norway too 'hostile' to have monitors in Hebron ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Barak Ravid - October 2, 2009 - 12:00am Israel should consider ousting Norwegian monitors from Hebron due to Oslo's "hostility" toward Israel, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told the cabinet Thursday. » Read more

Britain becomes Palestinian-Israeli legal battleground ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua by David Harris - October 2, 2009 - 12:00am Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak had a narrow escape when he visited Britain earlier this week. Immediately prior to his meeting with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, a group of Palestinians attempted to use the court system to have him arrested for alleged war crimes. Their bid failed. The case is just the latest in a string of attempts by Palestinians in Britain to protest Israeli actions in the Palestinian territories. » Read more

UN: number of `abject poor' in Gaza triples ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press by Ben Hubbard - October 2, 2009 - 12:00am The number of Gazans living in "abject" poverty has tripled this year to 300,000, or one in five residents, the Gaza head of the U.N. agency helping Palestinian refugees said Thursday. Gaza's economy has foundered under an Israeli-Egyptian border blockade imposed after the Islamic militant group Hamas seized control of the territory in 2007 from forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. John Ging, the U.N. Relief and Works Agency's top official in Gaza, called the rise in poverty a "predictable consequence" of the border blockade. » Read more

Heavy Israeli police presence in Jerusalem; clashes feared ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency October 2, 2009 - 12:00am Israeli police imposed strict restrictions over Muslim worshippers coming to pray Friday at the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Israeli sources said that men holding Jerusalemite or Israeli identity cards (blue cards) who are over fifty and women with the same ID cards who are over 45 will be permitted to enter the old city and holy sanctuary. Young men and women will be turned away, West Bank Palestinians are strictly prohibited from the area. » Read more

Hamas vows to maintain ceasefire - if Israel reciprocates ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency October 2, 2009 - 12:00am Hamas prefers peace to war but will nonetheless resume armed resistance if Israel opts to continue regular attacks on Gaza, senior Hamas leader Ahmad Yousef explained. The official, who serves as an advisor to Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh on foreign affairs, said that the current ceasefire between the Islamic movement and Israel was for the benefit of Palestinians in the Strip, but that Hamas reserved the right to defend them. » Read more

Can the Muppets Make Friends in Ramallah? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Samantha Shapiro - October 2, 2009 - 12:00am This season’s episodes of “Shara’a Simsim,” the Palestinian version of the global “Sesame Street” franchise, were filmed in a satellite campus of Al-Quds University, a ramshackle four-story concrete structure that houses the school’s media department and a small local television station. The building sits in an upscale neighborhood on the outskirts of the West Bank city of Ramallah, not far from the edge of the Israeli settlement Psagot. Like many structures on the West Bank, the Al-Quds building seems to be simultaneously under construction and decaying into a ruin. » Read more

Palestinians say Goldstone report 'remains alive' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press October 2, 2009 - 12:00am Palestinian diplomats in Geneva say a U.N. report on war crimes in Gaza "remains alive" despite dropping their support for a resolution endorsing the 575-page document. Deputy ambassador Imad Zuhairi says the resolution in the U.N. Human Rights Council was deferred to March to get more of the body's 47-members on board. He denies that the surprise decision to delay the resolution came after heavy pressure from the United States. Washington and its close ally Israel have rejected the report compiled by a U.N. team led by former South African judge Richard Goldstone. » Read more

Palestinians Halt Push on War Report ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Neil MacFarquhar - October 2, 2009 - 12:00am In a startling shift, the Palestinian delegation to the United Nations Human Rights Council dropped its efforts to forward a report accusing Israel of possible war crimes to the Security Council, under pressure from the United States, diplomats said Thursday. The Americans argued that pushing the report now would derail the Middle East peace process that they are trying to revive, diplomats said. » Read more