Despite ban, Palestinians build the settlements
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Statesman
by Ben Hubbard - November 10, 2010 - 1:00am

It's a startling fact: The workers building Israel's West Bank settlements have generally been Palestinians — even though Palestinians widely consider these communities a toxic threat to their dream of an independent state. Now comes a twist: earlier this year, the Palestinian government passed a law forbidding work in the settlements — and its determination to stamp out the phenomenon is being sorely tested in recent weeks, as a settlement building boomlet has emerged in the West Bank.

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PA’s path to independence
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
by Daoud Kuttab - (Opinion) November 4, 2010 - 12:00am

I can see the path to the state of Palestine. And education is an integral part of it. Palestinians have always prided themselves on being among the highest educated among all Arabs, but if this was true in the past, it is not true anymore, and it is certainly not true for Palestinians in the occupied territories.

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A rabbi struggles to protect his Palestinian flock
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent
by Donald MacIntyre - November 1, 2010 - 12:00am

Arik Ascherman is sitting inside a fortified and heavily guarded Israeli police compound in the West Bank. With him are two Palestinian farmers he has persuaded to report a theft, and a uniformed officer whom he is educating in the story of Alexander the Great and the Gordian Knot.

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Mövenpick's West Bank hotel is testament to political stability
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Harriet Sherwood - November 1, 2010 - 12:00am

An international five-star hotel opens for business today in Ramallah in testament to political stability and economic growth in the West Bank city once synonymous with Yasser Arafat's besieged headquarters and Palestinian militancy. The Mövenpick Ramallah – part of the Swiss chain – boasts five restaurants and bars, 171 rooms including two presidential suites, a range of luxury banqueting and conference facilities, a heated outdoor pool, a gym and – eventually – a spa.

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Stability in West Bank Transforms a City of Chaos
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - November 1, 2010 - 12:00am

NABLUS, West Bank — A mass wedding that took place here one recent balmy evening was the latest step toward the rebranding of this Palestinian city from a focus of chaos and violence to a model of stability in the West Bank. A wedding of 47 couples last month in Nablus, a city once a focus of violence, was part of an effort to change the city’s image. The 47 couples on the stage had not come together as a group before, and they were complete strangers to most of the 10,000 or so Palestinian revelers crowded into the amphitheater in the municipal park.

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The olive groves where peaceful solidarity grows
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Seth Freedman - October 28, 2010 - 12:00am

With the olive harvest in full swing across the West Bank, reports are flooding in of settler attacks on Palestinian farmers trying to gather their crops. Acts of arson, sabotage and theft all make for great copy, and rightly so: the atrocities committed by Israeli extremists in the name of nationalism and religion must be condemned.

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The Obsession with Olive Trees
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Dar Al-Hayat
by Hassan Haidar - (Opinion) October 28, 2010 - 12:00am

Israel, its government, army and settlers have become morbidly obsessed with olive trees. Rarely does a day pass by without a battle being waged against these trees, which turn into the number one enemy of the state at every harvest season, because they always remind it that it is occupying a land that is not its own. The stubbornness of roots that run deep makes Israelis lose their temper, frenziedly attacking to pull them out and break their branches, in a desperate attempt to erase this symbol from the memory of the Palestinians.

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Trading beyond the Green Line: the real deal for Palestine
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Raja Khalidi - (Opinion) October 26, 2010 - 12:00am

The Bank of Israel earlier this month issued a report on Israeli-Palestinian trade links that should make policymakers on both sides of the Green Line ponder deeply the premises of current and future economic relations.

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Palestinians work on West Bank settlement boom
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
by Wyre Davies - October 26, 2010 - 12:00am

For men like Abdel Salam Alami it is good, well-paid work. They even get insurance if they're injured on the job. Yet this construction is extremely controversial. The issue of settlements is at the heart of the faltering peace talks. The Palestinians say they take up land needed for a viable future state. The international community says they are obstacles to peace. Israel is under pressure to renew at least the partial freeze on building in the occupied West Bank, which expired last month.

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Abu Libdeh: Rawabi can absorb settlement workers
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
October 24, 2010 - 12:00am

RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- PA National Economy Minister Hassan Abu Libdeh said Saturday that the first planned Palestinian city in Ramallah could be "a real opportunity to absorb Palestinian workers employed in settlements," a statement read. The Rawabi City project, he said, could provide between 8,000 to 10,000 jobs during the construction period and up to 3,000 jobs in the city itself once complete.

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