December 3rd

PLO official barred from leaving West Bank ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency December 3, 2010 - 1:00am Israeli authorities barred PLO official Ziyad Salous from leaving the West Bank Thursday, Palestinian sources said. Salous, the director of Public Relations for the organization, was detained at the Allenby Bridge border crossing for three hours before being denied entry to Jordan. Salous was en route to a conference on Palestinian prisoners in Algeria

Palestinian shot in An-Nabi Saleh ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency December 3, 2010 - 1:00am Israeli soldiers shot a Palestinian in the leg during an incursion Thursday in the West Bank town of An-Nabi Saleh, near Ramallah, local sources said. Palestinians in the village said Omer Saleh At-Tamimi was shot with live ammunition while demonstrators confronted the Israeli soldiers, throwing stones. Israeli military forces were said to have shut down all entrances to the village, stopping Palestinians from entering or leaving. Residents also said Israeli soldiers detained several people, including Helmi At-Tamimi. » Read more

Evening clashes in East Jerusalem ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency December 3, 2010 - 1:00am Clashes erupted in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Al-Isawiya on Thursday evening, between residents and Israeli forces conducting patrols on the area northeast of the Old City. Eight residents were treated for tear-gas inhalation, head of the Union of Arab Medics Mohammad Al-Gharabli told Ma’n. An Israeli police spokeswoman, Luba As-Semmari said clashes erupted when two Molotov cocktails were thrown on a police checkpoint at the entrance of the neighborhood, and said no injuries were reported. » Read more

Journal of an Ordinary Grief ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor by Rayyan Al-Shawaf - December 3, 2010 - 1:00am “What is homeland?” asks famed Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish in his Journal of an Ordinary Grief, an intriguing but uneven collection of ruminations and autobiographical fragments that first appeared in Arabic in 1973 and is now being published posthumously in English. He has several answers. The most powerful? “To hold on to your memory – that is homeland.” » Read more

US mum on efforts for Israeli settlement freeze ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP) December 3, 2010 - 1:00am The United States declined Thursday to say whether or not efforts by Washington to have Israel impose a new settlement freeze on Jewish settlements in the Palestinian territories had failed. In Jerusalem, the US administration informed the Palestinian Authority "that the Israeli government did not agree to a new settlement freeze," a Palestinian official said on condition of anonymity. But State Department spokesman Philip Crowley declined to confirm the remarks. "As we've said many, many times, we're not going to give you a play-by-play," Crowley told reporters. » Read more

Mideast Conflict Plays Out In A House Divided ATFP World Press Roundup Article from National Public Radio (NPR) by Lourdes Garcia-Navarro - December 3, 2010 - 1:00am On the surface, Jerusalem's Old City seems like the ideal melting pot of cultures and religions. Muslims, Christians and Jews live in this ancient walled enclave of less than half a square mile. It is a place that seems so removed from the modern world that surrounds it, and yet is so intrinsically a part of it. But an undercover war is being waged here: The Old City is the beating heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and everyone wants a piece of it. 'Revival Of Jewish Life' » Read more

December 2nd

Palestinian minister asks Israel to back WTO membership ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua December 2, 2010 - 1:00am RAMALLAH, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) has officially asked Israel to lift its opposition to Palestinian attempt to join the World Trade Organization (WTO). Palestinian minister of economy, Hassan Abu Lebda, told Xinhua that he met Israeli trade and labor minister, Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, in Jerusalem Wednesday and "told him of the Palestinian request as a Palestinian right." Media reports on Thursday quoted Ben-Eliezer as saying that Israel will back the Palestinian request to get observer status at the WTO. » Read more

Frustration Behind Abbas' call for unilateralism ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua by Adam Gonn - December 2, 2010 - 1:00am JERUSALEM, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has once again raised the possibility of unilaterally declaring a independent Palestinian state without signing a peace agreement with Israel. After a meeting with German President Christian Wulff in Bethlehem on Tuesday, Abbas told reporters that if talks with Israel fail then the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) will look for other options to achieve independence. » Read more

Palestinian delegate to U.S.: Congress shouldn't interfere in Mideast peace process ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Natasha Mozgovaya - December 2, 2010 - 1:00am While the Jewish community of Washington, D.C. was busy lighting the first Hanukkah candle, the Palestinian mission to the United States held an event at the Ritz-Carlton in Pentagon City marking at the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. Several weeks before the Republicans are to take command of the U.S. House of Representatives on Capitol Hill, the head of the Palestinian mission to the U.S., Maen Rashid Areikat, sounded quite frustrated with the peace process - and wary of the prospects of the conduct of a Republican-controlled House of Representatives. » Read more

Israel discloses technology to deal with rockets ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Statesman by Daniel Estrin - December 2, 2010 - 1:00am An Israeli military unit on Wednesday showed off a new system to counter chemical attacks. It quickly measures temperature and wind direction to determine areas to evacuate and then feeds hospitals casualty assessments. » Read more