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Dismal lack of classrooms in East Jerusalem
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency August 24, 2010 - 12:00am The education of Palestinian children in East Jerusalem is subject to "ongoing neglect," a joint report issued by two Israeli rights group said Tuesday. The Association of Civil Rights in Israel and Jerusalem-based NGO Ir Amim say the education system in East Jerusalem remains short of 1,000 classrooms for Palestinian students. According to the report, only 39 schools were built for Palestinians over the past year despite promises made in court to build 644 by 2011. |
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Abbas appoints new chief of staff following scandal
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency August 24, 2010 - 12:00am President Mahmoud Abbas issued a decree appointing a new chief of staff to replace Rafiq Husseini, who was dismissed in February over a sex scandal, Ma'an learned Tuesday. Dr Hussein Al-A'raj previously served as governor of Hebron, undersecretary of the ministry of local governance from 2004 to 2005, and served as the chief of staff of Palestinian Authority civil servants. Before working in government, Al-Araj lectured at the An-Najah National University in Nablus in the Faculty of Economy and Administrative Sciences. |
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US 'mindful' of Palestinian stance on settlements
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency August 24, 2010 - 12:00am The US said it remained "mindful" of the Palestinian position on an end to settlement construction, a State Department spokesman said Monday. US State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters that Israel's temporary moratorium, which expires three weeks after talks launch, would be up for discussion when leaders meet on 2 September. "We’re very mindful of the importance the issue is within the negotiation. That’s why we want to get in the negotiation. None of these issues can be resolved outside of this negotiation," Crowley said. |
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How to bolster the coming Mideast peace talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor August 23, 2010 - 12:00am When Hillary Rodham Clinton announced that the US had invited the leaders of Israel and the Palestinians to resume direct peace talks next week, the secretary of State did not mince words about the obstacles to success. “The enemies of peace will keep trying to defeat us and to derail these talks,” she said Aug. 20. That is why the negotiations will need “actions by all sides” to support the process. |
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WEST BANK: Big obstacles in road to direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times by Maher Abukhater - (Blog) August 23, 2010 - 12:00am Even before direct Palestinian-Israeli negotiations kick off in Washington on Sept. 2, the road there is littered with political landmines. The Palestinians stated when they agreed on Friday, under U.S. and international pressure, to resume direct negotiations that if Israel resumed settlement construction in the West Bank, the talks would stop. |
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Mideast peace talks to look forward to?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post by David Makovsky - August 24, 2010 - 12:00am The announcement Friday that Middle East peace talks would be launched Sept. 2 was not exactly met with an outpouring of enthusiasm. Yet progress on security and other issues suggests there is reason to believe peace talks can produce results. |
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End of settlement freeze could derail Mideast talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Times by Eli Lake - August 23, 2010 - 12:00am Peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians that are set to begin next week in Washington may be scuttled before they even get going. Israel has yet to commit to extending a freeze on construction of settlements that the Palestinian side says it needs to continue negotiations. That settlement freeze is set to expire Sept. 26. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas stated in a letter to President Obama that he would not participate in the direct talks if Israel continued construction in the West Bank and Jerusalem. |
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Talks ‘Doable,’ Says Palestinian Official
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Isabel Kershner - August 23, 2010 - 12:00am The chief Palestinian negotiator said Monday that he believed reaching an agreement with Israel within a year was “doable,” echoing remarks by the Israeli prime minister a day earlier that a peace agreement would be difficult but “possible.” But the otherwise sharply differing declarations presented as the basis for going into the direct talks, scheduled to start in Washington on Sept. 2, reflect the complexity of the effort required to get the two sides to this point, and the daunting challenges that lie ahead. |
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One Solution: Two States
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by Lara Friedman - August 18, 2010 - 12:00am The steady march of settlements, the rightward shift in Israeli politics, the growing sense that a conflict-ending peace agreement is impossible — all these things are feeding some pundits’ impulse to declare the death of the two-state solution as a means of ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But what are the alternatives? |