Gaza flotilla renews debate on Israel's blockade
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Joshua Mitnick - June 28, 2011 - 12:00am

A year ago, deadly clashes between Israeli soldiers and pro-Palestinian activists on a Gaza-bound flotilla of aid forced Israel to relax its blockade on the Gaza Strip and lift a ban on consumer goods such as chocolate – giving the local economy a boost for the first time in years. But as a second flotilla gathers in the Mediterranean to test Israel’s maritime closure of Gaza, land restrictions on Gaza trade are also still a bone of contention. The scaled-back blockade is still an economic drag, with tight restrictions on exports and imported building materials.

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Building Boom in Gaza’s Ruins Belies Misery That Remains
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner - June 25, 2011 - 12:00am

GAZA — Two luxury hotels are opening in Gaza this month. Thousands of new cars are plying the roads. A second shopping mall — with escalators imported from Israel — will open next month. Hundreds of homes and two dozen schools are about to go up. A Hamas-run farm where Jewish settlements once stood is producing enough fruit that Israeli imports are tapering off.

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Saudis give $70m for Palestinian housing in Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Statesman
June 22, 2011 - 12:00am

A U.N. agency aiding Palestinian refugees said Wednesday that Saudi Arabia is contributing $70 million for new housing units in the Gaza Strip. Israel has authorized construction of the 1,200 new homes and 18 badly needed schools in Gaza, in what would be one of the largest housing projects in the seaside territory in years. Israel, which controls the cargo crossings into Gaza, has largely banned the entry of construction materials into the coastal strip since Hamas militants seized control in 2007. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005.

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UN marks 5 years of Gaza siege
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
June 14, 2011 - 12:00am

"If the aim of the blockade policy was to weaken the Hamas administration, the public employment numbers suggest this has failed," a UNRWA spokesman said Tuesday as the UN marks Gaza's fifth year under intense Israeli siege. Commenting on a report released by the UN agency charged with providing care and services for the one million refugees living in the Gaza Strip, on the fifth anniversary of the siege, spokesman Chris Gunness added "it has certainly been highly successful in punishing some of the poorest of the poor in the Middle East region."

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Gaza unemployment levels 'among worst in world'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
by Jon Donnison - June 14, 2011 - 12:00am

Gaza's unemployment rate was among the world's highest, at 45.2% in late 2010, the UN has found, as Israel's blockade of the territory enters its fifth year. Real wages meanwhile fell by more than a third, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said. Its report says that private businesses have been hardest hit by the continuing ban on virtually all exports. Israel tightened sanctions on Gaza in 2006 after militants captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

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Israel bears responsibility
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Issam Younis - (Blog) June 6, 2011 - 12:00am

Since 1967, Israel has controlled the movement of individuals and goods in the Gaza Strip through force, military orders, and executive measures and policies. This "over-control" has only served the interests of Israel, connecting the Israeli economy to the Gaza Strip through its six crossings.

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A radicalizing factor
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Ghassan Khatib - (Blog) June 6, 2011 - 12:00am

The recent developments in Egypt that led to changes in the Egyptian regime, together with the reconciliation of Fateh and Hamas, have once again brought to the surface the Israeli blockade of Gaza and possible ways of lifting it. The most recent illustration of this was Egypt's decision to open the Rafah crossing with Gaza to travelers, which seemed to be an incentive for Gaza's rulers, Hamas, to proceed with the reconciliation pact.

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Weakening the chances for peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Ephraim Sneh - (Blog) June 6, 2011 - 12:00am

Applying the term "blockade" to the Gaza Strip involves not a little hypocrisy. It ignores both the nature of the regime there and what that regime has done in Gaza in its four years in power.

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Interview: Gaza needs 5 bln USD for reconstruction process: official
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
by Emad Drimly, Osama Radi - June 2, 2011 - 12:00am

Head of Palestinian Contractors Union Osama Kaheil said Wednesday that the Gaza Strip is in need of five billion U.S. dollars for the reconstruction process including the infrastructure and the economical sectors that had been paralyzed for years. Kaheil said in an interview with Xinhua that the Gaza Strip is not only in need of reconstructing what the Israeli occupation had destroyed during the three-week Israeli operation Cast Lead in late 2008, adding "the Gaza Strip is in need of comprehensive reconstruction process that includes all sectors."

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EU commissioner calls for 'immediate,' opening of Gaza Crossings
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
May 18, 2011 - 12:00am

EU Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva called for the "immediate, sustained and unconditional opening of crossings for the flow of humanitarian aid, commercial goods and persons," following her trip to the coastal enclave Tuesday. It was a message she also conveyed to Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak in Tel Aviv, when she met with the official after her Gaza visit. Her trip, a statement from her office of International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response said, "highlighted the dramatic human and far-reaching effects of the blockade of the Gaza Strip."

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