Activists: Now, yes now, is the time for US to push for MidEast peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Christian Science Monitor
by Ariel Zirulnick - September 28, 2012 - 12:00am

Cambridge, Mass. A major Israeli-Palestinian activist group is bucking conventional wisdom by arguing that now is the right time to engage Americans in the moribund Middle East peace process. The presidential campaign season is traditionally a terrible time to make any progress on foreign policy, especially during elections focused on pocketbook issues.

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Family blames sewage, trash for deaths of 8 children in Gaza camp
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
September 26, 2012 - 12:00am

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- A family in Gaza that lost eight children over two years says the lack of sanitation around their home in al-Bureij refugee camp is responsible for their deaths. The Salim family lives meters from a landfill in the central Gaza camp, and their home is surrounded by open sewage and trash. Omar Salim, 30, told Ma'an that his son Mohammad pleaded not to be taken to the hospital when he fell ill with a fever and had blue spots on his skin.

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Gaza fuel crisis grows as smuggling from Egypt declines
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
September 24, 2012 - 12:00am

GAZA, Sept. 24 (Xinhua) -- The fuel smuggled to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip through tunnels with Egypt have declined within the last five days to 70 percent, leading the fuel crisis in the coastal enclave to deteriorate, officials said Monday. Mohamed al-Abadela, spokesman of the Gas Stations Association in the Gaza Strip, told Xinhua that the amount of fuel used for cars and electric generators dropped from 600,000 liters to 200, 000 liters per day.

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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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‘Forgotten Neighborhood’ Underscores the Poverty of an Isolated Enclave
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Jodi Rudoren - September 9, 2012 - 12:00am

GAZA CITY — In the Forgotten Neighborhood, houses have walls but no floors: people sit, eat and sleep on the sand.

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Gaza: an early warning of disaster
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Robert Turner - (Opinion) September 9, 2012 - 12:00am

The international system is often accused of failing to give adequate early warning; of being myopic and not furnishing the appropriate powers with data and analysis that would allow an effective, timely response to predictable disasters. With the recent publication of the report, Gaza in 2020: a Liveable Place?, it would be hard to level these accusations at the UN country team in the occupied Palestinian territory.

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Palestinians slipping deeper into poverty -UN
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Robert Evans - September 6, 2012 - 12:00am

GENEVA, Sept 5 (Reuters) - The United Nations UNCTAD agency issued a gloomy outlook for the Palestinian economy on Wednesday, arguing that tougher Israeli policies and settlement expansion were pushing the occupied territories and Gaza deeper into poverty. The situation had been aggravated in 2011 by a sharp drop in foreign aid, which for years provided a vital support, dimming any hope for an upswing even in the longer term, a report from the trade and development body said.

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Free Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Zvi Barel - (Opinion) September 5, 2012 - 12:00am

The time has come to free the Gaza Strip, to lift the closure against it and to maintain a "normal" relationship both with its Hamas leadership and its population. The time has come to allow European nations and the United States to make direct investments in the Strip and allow the Gaza economy to develop, like its counterpart on the West Bank. The time has come to stop bluffing and pretending that the Gaza blockade punishes Hamas, impedes missile fire and serves Israel's security needs.

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Gaza's children in an 'unliveable' siege cannot wait for 2020
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Julia C Hurley - (Opinion) September 4, 2012 - 12:00am

Last week, the United Nations released a report questioning whether or not Gaza will be liveable by 2020, with the conclusion that if the siege continues, then living there will become literally impossible. Gaza's development has been thrown off track, and "de-development" has set in, leaving the UN saying that "even if the political situation were to improve dramatically over the next years, the issues identified in this study would still need to be addressed as a matter of urgency".

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Water crisis will make Gaza strip 'unliveable'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by John Vidal - August 31, 2012 - 12:00am

The Gaza strip faces a water crisis that will soon make it "unliveable" unless plans for a $500m desalination plant are approved by banks, delegates at a water conference in Stockholm were told this week.

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