April 19th

More process than peace ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons by Ghassan Khatib - (Opinion) April 18, 2011 - 12:00am After eight months of no negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians, it is useful to clarify that recent experience has demonstrated that the existence of a peace process does not necessarily mean moving towards peace. The peace process that was launched in Madrid in 1991 included declared objectives of reaching a peace settlement between Israel on the one hand and Palestinians, Syrians, Lebanese and Jordanians on the other hand. » Read more

Palestinians will seek Security Council approval for UN membership if no peace ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press April 19, 2011 - 12:00am The Palestinians say that if a peace treaty with Israel isn’t reached by September their first choice is to go to the U.N. Security Council with such strong support and arguments that it would recommend admission of Palestine as a new member of the United Nations. That would require convincing the U.S., Israel’s ally, not to veto a resolution supporting membership for an independent Palestinian state, which won’t be easy. » Read more

Authors Pamuk, McEwan Back Bookseller Facing Israel Deportation ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bloomberg by Calev Ben-Dor - April 18, 2011 - 12:00am At Munther Fahmi’s small bookshop in East Jerusalem, Martina Quick, political counselor at the Swedish embassy to Israel, peruses a copy of Palestinian academic Sari Nusseibeh’s autobiography “Once Upon A Country.” “This is the best bookshop in the country,” says the blond, bespectacled Quick, 39. “It has the most varied selection in English about the region, including fiction, non- fiction, memoirs and travel writing. My boss, Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, feels the same way and he really knows bookstores.” » Read more

April 18th

2 Palestinian Teens Held in Killing of Israeli Family ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Isabel Kershner - April 17, 2011 - 12:00am Israeli officials announced on Sunday the arrest of two Palestinian teenagers from this village in the northern West Bank who they said were responsible for the killing of five members of the Fogel family in the neighboring Jewish settlement of Itamar last month. Israeli security officials said that the two suspects, ages 17 and 18, had confessed and carried out a reconstruction of the attack. » Read more

Gaza Killing of Italian Activist Deals a Blow to Hamas ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Fares Akram, Isabel Kershner - April 18, 2011 - 12:00am For Vittorio Arrigoni, an Italian pro-Palestinian activist who friends said fought peacefully for justice, the end was as violent as it was incongruous. Police officers from Hamas, the Islamic militant group that rules Gaza, found his body in a house in Gaza City that was empty of furniture, except for the mattress on which the body was lying, according to witnesses. The doctor who performed the autopsy said Mr. Arrigoni’s killers had used a plastic cord to strangle him. » Read more

WEST BANK: Palestinian Christians denied access to holy places in Jerusalem during Easter ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times by Maher Abukhater - (Blog) April 16, 2011 - 12:00am As Christians get ready to celebrate Easter, Palestinian Christians living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip are envious of fellow Christians from all over the world who are able to visit Jerusalem’s holy Christian sites and worship freely while they cannot. Since Israel cut off East Jerusalem from the rest of the occupied Palestinian territories in the early 1990s, Palestinian residents of the West Bank and Gaza Strip have been required to get Israeli army permission before they can enter Jerusalem. » Read more

Gaza police identify murder suspects ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency April 18, 2011 - 12:00am Gaza police on Monday released the photos of four men identified as the prime suspects in the murder of Italian activist and journalist Vittorio Arrigoni. Police said the four were currently fugitives, and apparently in hiding. The four were identified as Abdul-Rahman Al-Breizat, Mahmoud Muhammad Nimir Salfiti, Muhammad Al-Breizat, and Bilal Al-Umari. Police did not say whether any of the men were affiliated with a political, religious or military group in the coastal enclave. Two men detained earlier were not directly involved in the murder, police said. » Read more

Palestinian support for attacks drops, poll finds ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency April 18, 2011 - 12:00am Overall Palestinian support for suicide bombings against Israeli civilians, the firing of rockets into Israel has dropped since 2009, with a majority opposed to both, a poll showed on Sunday. The survey conducted by the Jerusalem Media and Communication Centre found that support for Palestinian "military operations of any kind' against Israel fell from 53.3 percent in January 2009 to 37.1 percent in April of this year. » Read more

Beit Ummar residents say town under siege ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency April 18, 2011 - 12:00am Israeli forces erected checkpoints around the town of Beit Ummar Sunday afternoon, and carried out several home invasions, delivering summons to appear for questioning to at least one resident, locals said. Town activist Mohammad Ayyad Awwad told Ma'an that the measures came as part of an increase in restrictions and harassment against residents, and following the construction of a fence along the southern side of the village, restricting movement of residents and caging them into the town center. » Read more

Palestinians mark Prisoner Day with protests, hunger strike ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua by Saud Abu Ramadan - April 17, 2011 - 12:00am Hundreds of Palestinians in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip and the West Bank marked on Sunday the Palestinian Prisoner Day with demonstrations calling on Israel to release the prisoners, as thousands of prisoners in Israeli jails went on a one-day hunger strike. In Gaza City, hundreds of Palestinians, including mothers, children and wives of the prisoners in Israeli jails demonstrated in front of the headquarters of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), calling on Israel to release more than 7,000 Palestinian prisoners imprisoned in 12 Israeli jails. » Read more