Palestinian parliament expires four years after Hamas electoral upset
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Erin Cunningham - January 26, 2010 - 1:00am

Four years after Hamas won an upset victory in the 2006 Palestinian legislative elections, prompting swift international sanctions and a Western-led diplomatic boycott, the mandate for the parliament it dominated officially expired on Monday. According to the Palestinian Constitution, new parliamentary elections should have been held Sunday, Jan. 24, in both the West Bank and Gaza Strip. But continued political division between the West Bank, governed by the Western-backed Palestinian Authority (PA), and the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, has delayed the elections indefinitely.

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Abbas to form a committee to probe U.N. fact-finding report on Gaza war
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
January 25, 2010 - 1:00am

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas ordered on Monday to form a committee to probe the recommendations of a United Nations fact-finding report over the Israeli war on Gaza last year. Abbas issued on Monday a presidential decree calling for forming a committee to investigate and study the report's recommendations, saying that the committee has to bring back a response after probing the report's recommendations.

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Long the glue of Gaza, clans say Hamas is undermining tribal justice
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Erin Cunningham - January 22, 2010 - 1:00am

The residents of Gaza have a name for the period of tribal lawlessness that plagued their impoverished territory between Israel’s withdrawal in 2005 and the Hamas takeover of 2007. Marred by rampant tit-for-tat murders, kidnappings, theft, and checkpoints run by armed clans, Gazans call these years ayam al-fowda, or the “days of chaos.” Those days are gone, however, after 2-1/2 years of strong Hamas rule successfully disarmed the territory’s rival clans – made up of just one or sometimes several extended families – and restored order again to Gaza’s streets.

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Fayyad is attempting to make Fatah weak, movement's officials say
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Khaled Abu Toameh - January 20, 2010 - 1:00am

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad's government has been working to weaken Fatah by drying up its financial resources and isolating it in the political and security fields, Fatah officials said on Tuesday. The latest allegation came as members of the Fatah Revolutionary Council continued their deliberations for the sixth consecutive day in Ramallah to discuss the faction's financial status and the crisis with Hamas.

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Gaza war: Palestinians battle bitterly over Palestinian forces' conduct
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Ilene Prusher - January 19, 2010 - 1:00am

On this day last year, a cease-fire between Hamas and Israel took effect after three brutal weeks of fighting that left close to 1,500 people dead. And while today, the guns are largely quiet, the truth of what happened in that devastating war is still being bitterly fought over – not between Palestinians and Israelis, but among Palestinians themselves.

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The PA will have to yield to pressure
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Sami Abdel-shafi - (Analysis) January 18, 2010 - 1:00am

It seems ever more evident that while the US-led international community is urging a resumption of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, Palestinians increasingly feel the exercise is fruitless. More and more Palestinians are questioning the use of what has become a perpetual on-again off-again process.

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‘Karameh’ for Palestinians at a time of indignity
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
by Daoud Kuttab - (Opinion) January 14, 2010 - 1:00am

Although the Arabic word karameh simply means dignity, it has become an expression that has many more usages and meanings.

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Inter-Palestinian Fighting Spreads to Lebanon
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Middle East Report
by Rachelle Kliger - January 14, 2010 - 1:00am

A row between the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and a clan affiliated with Fatah has turned violent as both sides claim control over a mosque in a Beirut suburb. The Furqan Mosque, located in the southern suburb of the Lebanese capital, has become a new battleground for the intra-Palestinian struggle. Two people were lightly wounded in a brawl between the parties on Tuesday, according to Lebanese news reports.

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MIDEAST: Will You Marry Poor Me
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Inter Press Service (IPS)
by Eva Bartlett - January 14, 2010 - 1:00am

The Israeli siege imposed shortly after Hamas's election in early 2006 has ruled out marriage for many. Palestinians traditionally marry young, between 18 and 25, but more and more now pass their mid-twenties single. With unemployment levels above 45 percent, and the price of most goods doubled or more, living, and marrying, are becoming unaffordable.

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In West Bank, conditions 'not ripe' for Palestinian uprising
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Edmund Sanders - (Opinion) January 10, 2010 - 1:00am

Born in a refugee camp in this restive West Bank city, Ammar Arafat threw his first stone at 13. At 15, he was jailed for scaling the fence at an Israeli military camp with explosives under his shirt. Upon release, he took up arms again and landed back in prison. Freshly out of jail for the second time, Arafat, 20, is mulling his next move. But nowadays, he has traded in his explosives vest for a designer military jacket with shiny Armani buttons. A more mature Arafat said he wants to enroll in college, find work as a Palestinian police officer and build a stable life.

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