East Jerusalem | The American Task Force on Palestine

Why Netanyahu is engaging Obama in a spat over E. Jerusalem 'settlements'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Joshua Mitnick - November 10, 2010 - 1:00am

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is engaging the US administration in a high-profile debate over settlement building two days before he meets Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to address the impasse in negotiations. For Mr. Netanyahu, the very public spat – the first in months – may be a way of girding himself before agreeing to a new freeze of settlements in the West Bank, a move that would infuriate his hard-line critics.

PNA de facto controls Jerusalem's Arab neighborhoods: report
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
November 10, 2010 - 1:00am

JERUSALEM, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) is the de facto sovereign in Jerusalem's Arab neighborhoods as Israeli institutions gradually sever ties with their residents, local daily Ma'ariv reported on Tuesday. While senior officials in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing government often pledge that Jerusalem will forever be united under the Israeli sovereignty, the PNA exercises its control in the Arab neighborhoods in its eastern sector, the report said.

Whose Jerusalem?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
(Editorial) November 10, 2010 - 1:00am

Jerusalem is not a settlement, the Prime Minister of Israel stated unequivocally, and what Jew could disagree? Jerusalem is the city of gold, the beating heart of the Jewish people, the place where it all began and where it continues. Jerusalem receives our prayers as often as they are uttered; it is the magnet for all those in exile, pulling us in its direction. Jerusalem is not a settlement because a settlement implies something temporary, extemporaneous, movable — and Jerusalem cannot be moved. The ancient stones anchor it forever.

The Palestinians of Israel are poised to take centre stage
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Seumas Milne - (Opinion) November 10, 2010 - 1:00am

In a quiet street in the Sheikh Jarrah district of occupied East Jerusalem 88-year-old Rifka al-Kurd is explaining how she came to live in the house she and her husband built as Palestinian refugees in the 1950s. As she speaks, three young ultra-orthodox Jewish settlers swagger in to stake their claim to the front part of the building, shouting abuse in Hebrew and broken Arabic: "Arab animals", "shut up, whore".

Israel's own citizens are the new target of extremist settlers
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Jesse Rosenfeld - November 9, 2010 - 1:00am

West Bank settlers entered the Arab city under the cover of an armed escort. As they proceeded, security forces chased Palestinian youth down alleys, firing tear gas, stun grenades and foam-covered bullets. Masked in keffiyahs, local high school students who had been striking against the settlers' provocations reorganised, throwing stones at the Israeli forces from behind makeshift barricades.

After U.S. chides Netanyahu over East Jerusalem construction, more settlement plans unveiled
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Nir Hasson, Chaim Levinson - November 9, 2010 - 1:00am

Israel published two major new settlement plans on Tuesday, threatening to undermine Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's latest trip to Washington. More than 1,000 Jewish homes were approved for construction beyond the Green Line in East Jerusalem, along with a second plan to build 800 homes in the West Bank settlement of Ariel. The U.S. administration had been trying to persuade Netanyahu to declare a second settlement freeze in the territories. The State Department said it was very unhappy when it learned of the plans to build in East Jerusalem.

West Bank most-wanted terrorist list has dwindled to almost nil
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Avi Issacharoff - November 8, 2010 - 1:00am

There is not a single security suspect being sought by Israel in the northern West Bank for the first time since the outbreak of the second intifada in 2000. In the southern West Bank, there are only a few names on the security establishment's wanted list. The situation is a reflection of both the improved security situation in the West Bank and the increasing cooperation between Israeli and Palestinian Authority security forces.

Israel Plans 1,000 Housing Units in East Jerusalem
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - November 8, 2010 - 1:00am

JERUSALEM — Israel has published plans for some 1,000 new housing units in a hotly contested area of Jerusalem, advancing the approval process at a delicate time when the United States is pressing Israel to renew a freeze in settlement construction and get stalled peace negotiations with the Palestinians back on track.

U.S. "deeply disappointed" at Israeli housing plans
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Politico
by Laura Rozen - (Analysis) November 8, 2010 - 1:00am

The United States expressed deep disappointment over Israeli government plans to build 1,300 new housing units in contested East Jerusalem, the State Department said Monday. "We were deeply disappointed by the announcement of advanced planning for new housing units in sensitive areas of East Jerusalem," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told journalists Monday. "It is counterproductive to our efforts to resume direct negotiations between the parties."

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