Silwan boys say beaten by settlers ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency April 28, 2010 - 12:00am Eleven- and 12-year-old Silwan boys said they were beaten by settlers in the Al-Bustan neighborhood on Tuesday night, with several witnesses corroborating the report. Muhammad Ar-Ruwaeidi, 11, and Mustafa Aj-Julani, 12, were admitted to the Hadassa Hospital in Al-Isawiya with minor bruising, and witnesses said at least one settler was injured in the ensuing fight. Witnesses told Ma'an that several Al-Bustan residents came to the aid of the two boys, who were both sitting near the protest tent of the Al-Kurd family near the home from which they were evicted last fall. » Read more

Israel expels citizen from Hebron to Gaza ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency April 28, 2010 - 12:00am A 19-year-old Hebron resident was detained by Israeli forces Tuesday night, removed from the West Bank, and expelled into Gaza, security sources said. The young man, identified as Fadi Aiada Al-Azazma, had lived with his family in Hebron for 15 years. His identity card was reportedly issued in Gaza before he moved to the West Bank. According to witnesses, Israeli forces took Al-Azazma from his workplace in Hebron and detained him for hours before deporting him to Gaza via the Erez crossing. » Read more

Settlement ban fear of Palestinian labourers ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News by Tim Franks - April 28, 2010 - 12:00am It may only be April, but on the exposed hillside settlement of Har Gilo it already feels very hot. Perhaps for that reason not many people are out and about in this small, middle-class, Jewish enclave in the West Bank between Jerusalem and Bethlehem. And most of those who are walking around have, perhaps surprisingly, Palestinian faces. They are a group of construction workers, who laugh when you mention the Israeli government's self-declared "freeze" on building in settlements. » Read more

Israel quietly freezes new building in East Jerusalem ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor by Ilene Prusher - April 27, 2010 - 12:00am If the Middle East peace process were a stock, it would be one of the riskiest investments on the market. But there are bullish indicators for renewed peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians. Both sides seem to be moving toward compromises which, although seemingly minor, might pave the way to the first serious peace talks since the failed Annapolis process that began in late 2007. » Read more

Israel tries new tactics against Palestinian protesters ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times by Edmund Sanders - April 28, 2010 - 12:00am It's the usual Friday afternoon cat-and-mouse dance between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian protesters in this West Bank village. Young village men, joined by Israeli leftists and international activists, begin blocking roads with boulders and tires; soldiers take up positions at key intersections. Israeli forces fire tear gas canisters; protesters fling rocks. Before long, the military calls in one of its most dreaded weapons. » Read more

Uphill battle to build Palestinian nonviolent movement ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) by Dina Kraft - April 28, 2010 - 12:00am Rami Burnat sits in his wheelchair toward the back of a sprawling courtyard where Palestinian speakers take turns championing the cause of nonviolent resistance. Burnat, 29, has been disabled ever since a bullet pierced his neck in clashes in late 2000, shortly after the second intifada began. Still an activist, Burnat is among a small but growing number of Palestinians trying to mount a new kind of intifada against Israel: a nonviolent one. » Read more

Pace of Planning for East Jerusalem Projects Slows ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Isabel Kershner - April 27, 2010 - 12:00am After a recent spike in Israeli-American tensions over Israeli building plans for Jewish housing in contested East Jerusalem, there appears to have been a lull in the planning process. Palestinians demand that East Jerusalem be the capital of a future state, and call for an end to settlement construction there. Some municipal officials in Jerusalem have interpreted the lull as amounting to a tacit, if temporary, freeze in the advancement of new plans. Other municipal and government officials say that regular planning meetings have been held up for purely bureaucratic reasons. » Read more

US domestic politics will drive Mideast policy ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star by Rami Khouri - (Opinion) April 28, 2010 - 12:00am I was able to follow US-Mideast diplomatic developments at close range and consult with many knowledgeable players and analysts, I sense that the Arab-Israeli peace process in the Middle East (now focused on the energetic attempt to launch Palestinian-Israeli “proximity talks”) is as much about political process in the United States as it is about diplomatic moves abroad. » Read more

Israel won't honor outpost pledge ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Tovah Lazaroff - April 28, 2010 - 12:00am Despite a 2002 road map commitment and years of pledges by successive prime ministers including Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel has no intention in the foreseeable future of dismantling any of 23 unauthorized West Bank outposts built after March 2001, The Jerusalem Post has learned. » Read more

President Abbas addresses the Israeli public through their TV sets ATFP World Press Roundup Article from April 28, 2010 - 12:00am Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas sought to soothe Israeli worries about a potential unilateral declaration by the Palestinians of their independence by next year. “We have always opposed unilateralism and we are not going to be the ones who will carry out unilateral steps,” said Abbas in an interview with Israel’s TV Ch 2 on Monday, 25 April 2010. » Read more