Fayyad concedes PA tortured Hamas detainees ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency (Editorial) January 5, 2010 - 1:00am Bethlehem – Ma'an – Caretaker Prime Minister Salam Fayyad implicitly admitted in a report published on Sunday that Palestinian Authority security forces have tortured Hamas detainees over the past two years. An Associated Press report on the subject, citing interviews with Hamas inmates, rights activists, Hamas officials and Fayyad himself, said that most torture had ended in October. Fayyad’s comments, however, amounted to the first time a senior PA official conceded that abuses were committed by the security forces, many of which are trained by the US, Russia, and other world powers. » Read more

Jerusalem should be at the center of peace efforts ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons by Daoud Kuttab - January 4, 2010 - 1:00am The first decade of the twenty-first century has been a disastrous one for Palestinians. Negotiations efforts were dealt a dramatic blow, historic leaders and potential leaders were killed, assassinated or imprisoned and, worst of all, the scourge of internal strife returned to Palestinians in the form of the destructive Hamas-Fateh division. » Read more

Israeli officers cancel UK trip over arrest fears ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency (Editorial) January 5, 2010 - 1:00am Bethlehem – Ma’an – Israel cancelled the departure of a military delegation to Britain last week after authorities there said they could not guarantee the officers would be safe from arrest. The Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth reported on Tuesday that the delegation included a colonel, lieutenant colonel and a major. Approached by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affiars, the UK government said it could not promise the three would not face arrest. » Read more

Israel okays new Jerusalem settlement buildings ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency (Editorial) January 5, 2010 - 1:00am Bethlehem – Ma'an – Israeli authorities approved on Monday the construction of four new settlement apartment buildings Palestinian land in occupied east Jerusalem. According to Israeli media, the country’s Jerusalem Planning and Building Committee approved the new structures, intended to house 24 settler families adjacent to a Jewish religious school, in the heart of the annexed Palestinian capital. » Read more

Almost irreversible ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons by Ghassan Khatib - January 4, 2010 - 1:00am The first decade of the twenty-first century, which ended a few days ago, witnessed the undoing of all the positive milestones and achievements that had occurred in the Palestinian-Israeli peace process in the last decade of the twentieth century. That decade started with the first international peace conference in Madrid. This was followed by the first Arab-Israel multilateral and bilateral negotiations, which ended with the signing of the first Palestinian-Israeli peace agreement, the Oslo Accords. » Read more

Israeli PM hints at possible improvement in stalemated peace process with Palestinians ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua (Editorial) January 4, 2010 - 1:00am JERUSALEM, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday referred to a "change in the air" over the stalled peace process with the Palestinians, adding to speculation that the two neighbors might resume peace talks soon. "In recent weeks, I have felt that there is a certain change in the air, and I hope that this will mature, allowing the start of the diplomatic process," local daily Ha'aretz quoted Netanyahu as telling lawmakers from his Likud party at an internal meeting. » Read more

Palestinians stop torturing Hamas inmates ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Toronto Star January 4, 2010 - 1:00am NABLUS, WEST BANK–Palestinian security forces in the West Bank have stopped torturing Hamas prisoners, ending two years of systematic abuse, Hamas inmates said in jailhouse interviews. The change in practice, said to have taken effect in October, was confirmed by a West Bank Hamas leader, human rights activists and the Palestinian prime minister. It defuses a potential problem for Washington, because the U.S. has been closely involved in training Palestinian troops under the control of Western-backed President Mahmoud Abbas, a rival of the Hamas militants. » Read more

Palestinians Bid to Join International Finance Body ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line by Benjamin Joffe-Walt - January 5, 2010 - 1:00am The Palestinian Authority is forming a "national team" to drive the bid to gain membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO), it was announced on Monday. The team, approved during Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad's weekly cabinet meeting in Ramallah, will lead efforts to reform Palestinian economic institutions as part of the campaign to gain permanent observer status and eventually membership in the international trade body. » Read more