Fayyad seeks $300 million to ease cash crisis ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency July 27, 2011 - 12:00am CAIRO (AFP) - Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad said Tuesday that the Palestinian Authority needed $300 million "urgently" to help ease a financial crisis. The PA "urgently needs $300 million to overcome the bottleneck and deal with the financial crisis," he told reporters in Cairo after an extraordinary meeting of Arab League representatives. The crisis stems from the fact that pledged aid has not yet come through. Fayyad said the PA had received $331 million in 2011, including $79 million from Arab countries, as well as an additional $30 million from Saudi Arabia. » Read more

Palestinian leader wants rallies to back UN bid ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press by Mohammed Daraghmeh - July 27, 2011 - 12:00am RAMALLAH, West Bank — Invoking the Arab Spring, the Palestinian president on Wednesday urged his people to take to the streets for massive rallies in support of his government's bid to get the U.N. to recognize an independent Palestinian state. The call by President Mahmoud Abbas for peaceful, "popular resistance" throughout the West Bank was likely to fuel Israeli concerns that the U.N. vote in September and any large demonstrations could spark a new round of violence. » Read more

Hamas launches plans to fully control Gaza-Egypt borders: spokesman ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua July 26, 2011 - 12:00am GAZA, July 26 (Xinhua) -- The deposed government of Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip had launched a security plan to fully control the borderline area between Egypt and the coastal enclave, a Hamas official said Tuesday. Ihab al-Ghussein, spokesman of the Hamas ministry of interior told Xinhua "the ministry is exerting every possible effort to keep a full control of the borderline area between the Gaza Strip and prevent more violations of the law." » Read more

Israel sues 34 Bedouin for costs of repeated demolitions of their homes ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Jack Khoury - July 27, 2011 - 12:00am The state filed an unprecedented suit against 34 Negev Bedouin in Be'er Sheva Magistrate's Court on Tuesday, seeking NIS 1.8 million in damages for the expense repeatedly incurred in evicting the defendants from state land and demolishing their homes. The state, through the Israel Lands Administration, told the court that the defendants had built homes in the Al-Arakib area, northeast of Be'er Sheva, on what had been state land since the time of Ottoman rule. » Read more

Palestinian children endure systematic abuse from Israel's military courts, say reports ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National by Hugh Naylor - July 27, 2011 - 12:00am BEIT UMMAR, WEST BANK // Military justice came to Sami on March 8 when two-dozen Israeli commandos raided his home shortly after midnight. The 15-year-old Palestinian's family watched as soldiers bound his hands, slipped over a blindfold and arrested him without offering an explanation. Sami recounted in an interview how he was forced to walk three kilometres beyond his village, Beit Ummar, to a nearby Jewish settlement. » Read more

Why Netanyahu is suddenly unpopular in Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor by Joshua Mitnick - July 26, 2011 - 12:00am Tel Aviv Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been put firmly on the defensive for the first time since his election, with tens of thousands of people protesting the surging cost of housing. With his approval ratings in a double-digit dive, Mr. Netanyahu canceled a trip to Poland today to unveil a series of measures aimed at cooling off real-estate prices that have risen by more than one third since 2007. » Read more

UN: Palestinians ready for statehood ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency July 27, 2011 - 12:00am UNITED NATIONS (AFP) -- The Palestinian Authority is ready to govern a nation but deadlock with Israel has made a two-state solution far from certain, the UN special envoy for the Middle East peace process said Tuesday. Peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians have been on hold for 10 months. They broke down shortly after Washington relaunched the first direct negotiations between the two sides for nearly two years. » Read more

Defusing Palestinian Statehood Bid at the UN ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Atlantic by Hussein Ibish - (Editorial) July 27, 2011 - 12:00am For most of 2011, Palestinian leaders have been privately and publicly speculating about potential statehood initiatives at the UN General Assembly meeting in September. The PLO may present some plan in effect asking the UN to recognize Palestine as an independent state, which wouldn't make it so, but it would put Israel and the U.S. in a very awkward position. These ideas have been opposed by both Israel and the United States, which have described them as "unilateral," and met with a mixed response among European states. » Read more

Israel's Foreign Ministry Borrows From the Settlers for Its Propaganda ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by Gal Beckerman - (Blog) July 27, 2011 - 12:00am Israel’s deputy foreign minister and Twitter warrior, Danny Ayalon, recently released a video over YouTube that is doing quite well — posted on July 11, it now has nearly 180,000 hits. In it, Ayalon tries to explain why he thinks the West Bank should not be referred to as “occupied” and that settlements are not in effect settlements. » Read more

Palestinian UN Vote No Longer A Certainty ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Week by Stewart Ain - July 26, 2011 - 12:00am As the Palestinians prepare to unveil Thursday a draft of their resolution requesting United Nations’ recognition next month of an independent Palestinian state, many analysts believe such UN action is not inevitable. » Read more