I.M.F. Says West Bank Economic Growth Is Imperiled by Israel and Arab States
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner - April 7, 2010 - 12:00am

The International Monetary Fund is preparing a report on the Palestinian economy that praises the actions of the West Bank government and the large donations of Western countries, especially European ones, but argues that healthy recent growth rates are imperiled by the parties that claim to have the most at stake — Israel and the Arab states.

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Gandhi says Jewish settlements obstruct establishment of Palestinian state
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
April 5, 2010 - 12:00am

Rajmohan Gandhi, the grandson of late Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi, said here Monday that the Jewish settlements in the West Bank obstruct the establishment of the future Palestinian state. Gandhi, chairman of the Initiatives of Change International, an NGO working for peace, reconciliation and human security worldwide, toured the West Bank and met with several Palestinian leaders. Gandhi told a news conference in Ramallah that the Jewish settlements, the road barriers and the separation wall in the West Bank are "more illegal and humiliating than I believed."

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Palestinian Christians to be barred from Old City
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
April 1, 2010 - 12:00am

Palestinians, particularly Christians will be barred from entering Jerusalem's Old City and accessing the Church of the Holy Sepulchre on Saturday, when eastern Orthodox Christians observe Sept An-Nour, or Saturday of light. Church officials were informed by Israeli police that only international pilgrims would be allowed to access the area, Jerusalem officials said on Wednesday.

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Israel ends probe into Palestinian protester death
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
April 1, 2010 - 12:00am

Israel's military says it will not file any charges in the death of a Palestinian protester last year. Thirty-one-year-old Bassem Abu Rahmeh was killed when a tear gas canister fired by troops hit him in the chest during a protest last April against Israel's West Bank separation barrier. The army claimed Abu Rahmeh was in a group of people throwing rocks at troops. But video footage showed the protesters shouting at soldiers, not throwing anything. The Israeli military said Thursday it closed the investigation after determining the canister was not intentionally aimed at Abu Rahmeh.

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Rachel Corrie's family takes case to court in Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Edmund Sanders - March 30, 2010 - 12:00am

The American parents sit stoically in a sky-lit courtroom, listening to testimony about how an Israeli military bulldozer crushed their daughter to death seven years ago. They hear about the dangerous game of chicken played for several hours that winter afternoon in 2003, between bulldozers and international activists trying to protect Palestinian homes, before Rachel Corrie disappeared under a creeping mound of dirt.

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The meaning of Exodus
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Moshe Dann - (Opinion) March 30, 2010 - 12:00am

As if Jews needed a reminder in the form of a modern rendition of "Pharaoh's heart hardened," President Obama provides an example, emphasizing an important lesson: The Egyptian dictator/king was part of the process of liberation and, ultimately, of God's will and the destiny of the Jewish People.

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'Israel to allow clothes, shoes into blockaded Gaza'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
March 29, 2010 - 12:00am

Israel will allow a shipment of clothes and shoes to be delivered to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip for the first time in its almost three-year-old tight blockade of the enclave, Palestinian officials said on Monday. They said the first 10 truckloads would be arriving via the Israeli-controlled Gaza border point on Thursday. Israel is under international pressure to relax its blockade, which the United Nations says punishes Gaza's 1.5 million people over their leaders - the Islamist group Hamas, who are pledged to Israel's destruction.

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Israel glorifies its own murderers
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Christopher Hazou - (Opinion) March 25, 2010 - 12:00am

In their March 17 Times Op-Ed article, "Why glorify the murderers?" Ron Kehrmann, Yossi Mendelevich and Yossi Zur make a number of misleading statements and remove all historical context in their effort to demonize Palestinians as people who hate Israeli children more than they love their own.

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Popular committee says organizer tortured
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
March 23, 2010 - 12:00am

An organizer of popular resistance activities in the village of Al-Ma'asara alleged he was tortured while in Israeli prison, a report from the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee said on Monday. According to a statement from the committee, Al-Ma'asara organizer Omar Ala Ad-Din was detained as he passed through the Container checkpoint, an internal West Bank military post, on 14 March.

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'Pitchfork remained on ground during purported attack'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Hanan Greenberg - March 22, 2010 - 12:00am

Was a pitchfork attack thwarted? Many serious question marks are brought up by the IDF's initial investigation into the functioning of the soldiers involved in Sunday's incident next to Awatra in which two Palestinians carrying a pitchfork were killed by IDF soldiers. At the end of the debriefings on the incident and on the incident that took place on Saturday in which two other Palestinians were killed during a protest near Nablus, investigation material will be passed on to the military prosecutor, where it will be decided whether the military police will launch an investigation.

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