Investor creates Palestinian facts on the ground
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Financial Times
by Tobias Buck - September 17, 2012 - 12:00am

Over the years, Palestinians have learnt to rue the sight of cranes and bulldozers going about their work on a West Bank hilltop. For more than four decades, such machinery has usually heralded the construction of a new Jewish settlement on occupied Palestinian land – and delivered a fresh blow to Palestinian hopes for an independent and viable state.

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Palestinian economic protests point to uncertain future for PA, Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
by Ben Sales - (Opinion) September 16, 2012 - 12:00am

TEL AVIV (JTA) – Could the Palestinian Authority's budget woes end up costing Israel? Growing economic protests in the West Bank could lead to increased regional instability and perhaps even the end of the Palestinian Authority, experts are warning. At this point, however, they say the protests are unlikely to result in an eruption of violence against Israel.

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Zahhar: Gaza more secure than West Bank
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
(Interview) September 15, 2012 - 12:00am

BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) – Seven years after Israel disengaged from the Gaza Strip, several things have changed both at the political and the economic level, Hamas official Mahmoud Zahhar said Friday. Speaking to Ma’an, Zahhar asserted that “Gaza is free of occupation, and contiguity with the outside world is easier as visitors from all over the world visited the coastal enclave.”

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The Fayyad opportunity is fading
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Ari Shavit - (Opinion) September 13, 2012 - 12:00am

The news generated by the Middle East in recent years has usually been bad. Hamas took over the Gaza Strip, the Muslim Brotherhood took over Egypt and Turkey became an aggressive neo-Ottoman power. The Iranian rebellion was quashed, Iraq was drawn into the Shi'ite sphere of influence and Syria turned into a gruesome slaughterhouse. Even in Libya, which raised hopes for a while, the American ambassador was murdered on Wednesday.

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Israel takes cut of Palestinian tax revenues
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
by George Hale - September 13, 2012 - 12:00am

RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- Israeli authorities have seized millions of shekels in tax revenue for the Palestinians to compensate for an Israeli company's unpaid electricity bills, officials said Wednesday. Finance Ministry officials say Israel kept 35 million shekels ($9 million) of the 260 million shekels ($66 million) in customs taxes it collected on behalf of the Palestinian Authority in September. The Israeli Ministry of Finance confirmed the deduction.

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Protests renew in Ramallah despite Palestinian PM's measures to ease economic crisis
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
September 12, 2012 - 12:00am

RAMALLAH, Sept. 11 (Xinhua) -- Despite Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad's declaration to introduce easing measures against the high cost of living, a new demonstration was organized in the city of Ramallah Tuesday night calling for the immediate end of the economic crisis. In Ramallah, hundreds of angry protesters marched towards the headquarters of President Mahmoud Abbas. They held banners calling for a final resolution to the economic crisis.

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Salam Fayyad catches Palestinians' flak as West Bank protests continue
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Hugh Naylor - September 12, 2012 - 12:00am

RAMALLAH // As large protests sweep the West Bank for a second week, no official has faced as much criticism over the ailing economy as Salam Fayyad. Palestinian demonstrators have burnt effigies of the Palestinian Authority (PA) prime minister in previous rallies and yesterday rallied outside his office and called for his resignation. Video from Monday also showed protesters throwing their shoes at a poster of Mr Fayyad.

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Israeli PM orders transfer of tax revenues to cash-strapped PNA
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
September 12, 2012 - 12:00am

JERUSALEM, Sept. 11 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered Tuesday night the transfer of 250 million NIS ( around 63 million U.S. dollars) of Palestinian tax revenues to the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), which is facing a severe financial crisis.

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Palestinian farmers wither in tough climate
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Jihan Abdalla - September 12, 2012 - 12:00am

BEIT UMMAR, West Bank, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Once a mainstay of the local economy, Palestinian agriculture in the rocky West Bank is in decline as farmers struggle to protect their livelihoods and their lands. Deprived of water and cut off from key markets, farmers across the occupied territory can only look on with a mix of anger and envy as Israeli settlers copiously irrigate their own plantations and export at will.

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Palestinian Tax Increases Canceled in Move to Calm West Bank Protests
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
September 11, 2012 - 12:00am

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) — In a reversal aimed at ending protests that have swept the West Bank, the Palestinian Authority announced Tuesday that it had canceled recent tax increases. But a union leader rejected the concession and said street demonstrations would continue.

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