January 10th

Palestinian-American fights to buy Jerusalem housing project
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Maher Abukhater - January 10, 2011 - 1:00am

A wealthy Palestinian-American businessman is fighting to take over a troubled real estate firm that builds Jewish-only housing units in Arab-dominated East Jerusalem, but right-wing Jewish groups have vowed to kill the deal. Bashar Masri, a West Bank native who holds American citizenship, has offered to buy debt-burdened Digal Investment and Holdings Ltd., which has been building the 400-unit Nof Zion housing project overlooking the Old City.

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Israeli Demolition Begins in East Jerusalem Project
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - January 9, 2011 - 1:00am

Israeli bulldozers demolished part of a landmark building in a predominantly Arab neighborhood of East Jerusalem on Sunday to make way for a Jewish housing project, prompting condemnation from Palestinian officials and symbolic claims to the site from both sides. Plans for development at the landmark, the Shepherd Hotel, have been in the works since the 1980s. But Jerusalem officials did not give the final go-ahead for the project until March, at the height of tensions between Israel and the Obama administration over construction in contested East Jerusalem.

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January 7th

Pres. Mubarak urges Israel to make overtures on peace. Elliott Abrams says Mohammed Dahlan was probably not planning a coup. Occupation forces kill an innocent Palestinian man in his bed during a raid in Hebron. Palestinians say settlers uproot more olive trees. Eyad El-Sarraj wins the 2010 Palme Prize. New Israeli technology is speeding up warfare. The Greek Orthodox patriarch in Jerusalem remains behind locked doors. A flurry of international diplomacy attempts to restart peace talks. Palestinians hope to bring a resolution before the Security Council against settlements next week. Ron Gerlitz says Palestinian citizens of Israel can do much to improve their conditions. Uri Avnery says freedom of speech in Israel is under grave threat. Palestinian business interests plan to takeover a struggling Israeli real estate firm. A Hamas leader makes provocative comments on the Holocaust. The death of an unarmed Palestinian protester draws new scrutiny on Israeli military tactics. Israeli diplomacy is stalled by a bureaucratic strike. Palestinians try to cope with the costs of not working in Israeli settlements.

Palestinians count cost of settlement work ban
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Hugh Naylor - January 6, 2011 - 1:00am

Although they regard Israel's settlements as a threat, tens of thousands of Palestinians such as Mohammed Ali, 26, a labourer, fear their families would starve without them. Every morning he and dozens of other informal workers huddle near the entrance of Ma'ale Adumim, one of the largest of roughly 120 rapidly expanding settlements in the West Bank. The men wait for offers to paint Jewish houses or manicure gardens. The odd jobs can pay quadruple what they would earn in nearby Palestinian communities - that is, if they can find any work there at all.

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Israeli Diplomacy at Standstill as Foreign Ministry Staff Stage Labor Action
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line
by Benjamin Peim, David Rosenberg - January 6, 2011 - 1:00am

Everyone from the president of Russia to Filipino guest workers and new immigrants is being blocked from entering Israel as a work slowdown by the country’s diplomatic corps enters its 11th day. Foreign Ministry employees have stopped arranging official visits and processing visas for immigrants and foreign workers, and have stopped working with other branches of the government, said Amir Sagie, a member of the union’s negotiating team. The diplomats are coming to their offices and embassies, but they have shed their suits and ties for jeans and sneakers, he said.

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Protest Death Spurs Scrutiny of Israeli Tactics
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Danielle Cheslow - January 5, 2011 - 1:00am

The Israeli army’s alleged killing of Jawaher Abu Rahmah, the unarmed woman who reportedly died from tear gas inhalation during a protest of Israel’s West Bank separation barrier, is putting the army’s tactics at such demonstrations under greater scrutiny, along with its moral credibility. Gas and Tears: With the January 1 death, Palestinian activists count 21 people dead from protests against the barrier wall.

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Hamas leader denies Nazi Holocaust
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP)
January 6, 2011 - 1:00am

A senior Hamas leader on Thursday accused Israel of carrying out "countless holocausts" against the Palestinians while saying the Nazi genocide was a "lie." Mahmoud al-Zahar made the remarks during a memorial ceremony for 43 Palestinians who were killed at a UN school in the Jabaliya refugee camp during Israel's 22-day war on Gaza that began in December 2008.

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'It's not politics – it's just business'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Danny Rubenstein - January 6, 2011 - 1:00am

Bashar Masri is trying to to calm the panic. "I'm not interested in Israeli real estate or any Israeli company, not in Tel Aviv and not in Netanya," he stresses, "but in a residential project in Jabel Mukaber, a Palestinian neighborhood in east Jerusalem. I'm not a politician but a national Palestinian businessman who knows his work, and if my business serves my people – I feel better."

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Freedom of expression in Israel is a hollow pretension
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Uri Avnery - (Opinion) January 7, 2011 - 1:00am

Jonathan Pollak is due to go to prison in another few days because of his views. The official reason for his arrest was his participation in a quiet protest by cyclists demonstrating in Tel Aviv against the Gaza blockade. The police said the demonstration slowed traffic. Not nice, to slow traffic, so off to prison with him.

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Time to turn a page
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Ron Gerlitz - (Opinion) January 6, 2011 - 1:00am

The recent wave of racist attacks against Israel's Arab citizens has brought relations between Arabs and Jews in this land to a new and disturbing low point. These attacks join repeated threats by Yisrael Beiteinu and its coalition partners to revoke the citizenship of Israeli Arabs, threats that invoke blatant racist rhetoric, and government policies that have continuously discriminated against Arabs and excluded them from positions of powers, from decision-making circles and from public life in general.

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