January 5th

How Israel is implementing the settlement freeze ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) by Marcy Oster - January 4, 2010 - 1:00am While an Israeli magician sat in an ice cube in Tel Aviv for 64 hours in a bid to shatter a world record, settler leaders in Jerusalem prepared to smash an ice cube of a very different sort this week opposite the prime minister’s residence. » Read more

Jews raise voices for brutalised Gaza ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News by Linda S. Heard - January 5, 2010 - 1:00am Last week in Cairo, Hedy Epstein, a frail 85-year-old American woman, embarked on a hunger strike for the first time in her life to protest the ongoing blockade of Gaza. She has no idea how her body will hold up, she says, but that isn't her priority. She is one of more than 1,300 international participants from 42 countries who flew to Cairo with the aim of participating in the Gaza Freedom March, initially planned to coincide with the first anniversary of Israel's Operation Cast Lead. » Read more

Rights group slams planned 'Israelis only' highway in West Bank ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz (Editorial) January 5, 2010 - 1:00am Less than a week after Israel's highest court ordered the state to lift its ban on Palestinian motorists from a highway that stretches into the West Bank, left-wing activists are denouncing new plans on Tuesday to build a road on West Bank land which they claim is intended for use by Israelis only. » Read more

Palestinian children suffer from inadequate TV shows ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star by Daoud Kuttab - January 5, 2010 - 1:00am Television penetration in the Palestinian territories is nearly 100 percent. Almost every home – no matter how poor the family – has a television set in its sitting room. Television viewership is higher than average among Palestinians for two primary reasons: First, because of the continuing conflict, people feel the need to watch television to keep up with the events that will often directly affect their lives. And second, with high levels of insecurity and trouble lying outside Palestinian homes, the television has often become the only source of entertainment. » Read more

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