June 13th

Arab League backs Palestinian statehood bid ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press May 29, 2011 - 12:00am CAIRO — The Arab League has endorsed a Palestinian bid to seek recognition at the United Nations of a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders. The League says it will prepare documents to support the bid at the next General Assembly meeting in September in New York. Egypt's official MENA news agency says the announcement came after an Arab ministerial meeting in Qatar late on Saturday. The move pits the League against the United States and Israel, which oppose the Palestinian bid. The idea for the Palestinian push came after the collapse of the latest Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. » Read more

Israel braces for border clashes in coming days ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Statesman by Josef Federman - May 29, 2011 - 12:00am The Israeli military is preparing for the possibility of violent protests along its borders in the coming days, aiming to avoid a repeat of deadly unrest that erupted earlier this month, a senior military official told The Associated Press on Sunday. Facebook-organized activists have called for demonstrations next weekend in Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan to mark the anniversary of the 1967 Mideast war, in which Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza Strip east Jerusalem and Golan Heights. » Read more

Abbas sees no hope for talks, firm on U.N. path ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Alertnet by Ali Sawafta - May 28, 2011 - 12:00am DOHA, May 28 (Reuters) - The Palestinian president said on Saturday there were "no shared foundations" for peace talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and seeking U.N. recognition of Palestinian statehood was his only option. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, addressing an Arab League meeting in Doha, expressed concern that taking the diplomatic step opposed by the United States and Israel could result in financial sanctions and urged Arab states to fill any gap. » Read more

For Israelis, "defensible" border means more land ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Alertnet by Dan Williams - (Analysis) May 29, 2011 - 12:00am JERUSALEM, May 29 (Reuters) - To ask Israeli officials how the border with a future Palestine should look is to invite a deluge of data -- from the regional military balance, to topographical surveys, to intelligence projections on Hamas strength. But no one will map it out. For while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused any return to the "indefensible" lines held before the West Bank's occupation in the 1967 war, the Israelis themselves have no ready alternative to hand. » Read more

Can Palestine become a United Nations member state? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Alternet by Louis Charbonneau - (Interview) May 30, 2011 - 12:00am UNITED NATIONS, May 30 (Reuters) - The Arab League has said it will seek full U.N. membership for a Palestinian state in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, with East Jerusalem as its capital, ignoring opposition from Washington and Israel. However, although such a move would carry symbolic force, there appears to be little chance it could succeed at present. WHAT STATUS DO THE PALESTINIANS CURRENTLY HAVE AT THE U.N.? The Palestinians are U.N. observers without voting rights. The Vatican and European Union have the same status. WHAT DO THE PALESTINIANS, ISRAELIS AND OTHERS WANT? » Read more

Medics: Palestinian beaten by Israeli soldiers at checkpoint ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency May 29, 2011 - 12:00am HEBRON (Ma'an) -- Israeli soldiers brutally attacked a Palestinian man at an army checkpoint near Hebron on Saturday evening, medics said. Israeli soldiers stopped Mahmoud Al-Battat, 19, at around 7 p.m. at a checkpoint near Ad-Dhahiriya in the southern West Bank as he returned from work in Israel, medical officials told Ma'an. Soldiers beat him until he fainted, director of operations at the Palestinian Red Crescent Nasser Al-Qabaja said. Al-Battat recovered consciousness at around 11 p.m. and phoned his family. » Read more

New government to be announced June 6 ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency May 29, 2011 - 12:00am GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- The composition of the new Palestinian Authority's technocrat government will be announced on June 6 by delegates from formerly rival parties Fatah and Hamas as a major step to the implementation of a unity agreement, an official said Sunday. » Read more

Over 1,600 Israelis enter Nablus overnight ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency June 1, 2011 - 12:00am NABLUS (Ma’an) -- Israeli soldiers escorted 1,600 Jewish settlers into the northern West Bank city of Nablus overnight Sunday to visit a shrine in the area, known to many Jews as Joseph's Tomb. While accompaniment by Israeli forces remains mandatory according to laws governing settlers, an additional 200 Jewish worshipers entered Palestinian neighborhoods without coordinating with Israeli authorities, an Israeli military spokesman said. » Read more

Egypt Lifts Blockade, Along With the Gazans’ Hopes ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by David Kirkpatrick - (Analysis) May 28, 2011 - 12:00am RAFAH BORDER CROSSING, Egypt — Hundreds of Palestinian residents of the Gaza Strip arrived here by the busload on Saturday to pass through the reopened border into Egypt, taking the first tangible steps out of a four-year Israeli blockade. “I feel this is the start of freedom,” said Hasna el-Ryes, 45, a Gaza resident waiting to cross into Egypt so she could travel to visit sons studying in Britain. “You can’t imagine how much we have suffered.” » Read more

Palestinians march, Israelis repress ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Merav Michaeli - (Opinion) June 13, 2011 - 12:00am Sources in the Israel Defense Forces are of the opinion that the scenes of Nakba Day and Naksa Day are unlikely to repeat themselves. The marches undertaken on those two days by Palestinian refugees to the border with Israel, they say, were not an act of solidarity with the Palestinians and a demand to realize the Right of Return, but rather an attempt to divert attention away from what is happening in Syria. » Read more