Palestinian court hands late leader Arafat's fugitive moneyman 15 years for corruption
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
June 7, 2012 - 12:00am

A Palestinian anti-corruption court has sentenced the shadowy moneyman of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to 15 years in prison. Mohammed Rashid, whose whereabouts are unknown, was convicted of siphoning off millions of dollars in public funds. He was also fined $15 million and his properties were ordered confiscated. He was sentenced Thursday in absentia in a court in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

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Fatah, Hamas to hold talks on new PM
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
June 5, 2012 - 12:00am

Senior Hamas and Fatah leaders will meet Tuesday to discuss nominations for the prime minister of a unity government, a Fatah official said Monday. Fatah central committee member Jamal Muhesin told Ma'an that Azzam al-Ahmad, who leads Fatah's reconciliation delegation, would discuss possible candidates with Moussa Abu Marzouq, deputy-chief of Hamas' politiburo. Al-Ahmad and Abu Marzouq will hand their recommendations to Fatah leader and President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas chief Khalid Mashaal, Muhesin said.

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Meshaal returns to take a firmer hold on Hamas
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
(Editorial) June 5, 2012 - 12:00am

Khaled Meshaal, the leader of Hamas's political bureau, has reversed his decision to step down. Whether this is a genuine change of heart or the springing of a slick political trap, it is best understood as good news for the Palestinians and the cause of peace.

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Meshaal's U-turn a setback for Hamas hardliners critical of his reforms
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Hugh Naylor - June 4, 2012 - 12:00am

Khaled Meshaal is standing for re-election to lead Hamas four months after announcing he would step down. The decision is a setback for hardliners in the Islamist movement who have criticised Mr Meshaal's recent reforms, which include dismantling Hamas's headquarters in Damascus, reconciling with its Palestinian rival Fatah and tentatively embracing unarmed struggle against Israel. Hamas' senior leadership refused to accept Mr Meshaal's decision in January not to seek another term as the group's Political Bureau head, sources say.

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Palestinian Authority cracks down in West Bank town
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
by Noah Browning, Ali Sawafta - June 4, 2012 - 12:00am

In the narrow streets of the Palestinian refugee camp in Jenin and the scruffy villages beyond, masked special forces bundle suspects into civilian cars with grim regularity, whisking them away to faraway Jericho prison. The near-nightly crackle of gunfire, sometimes from drive-by shootings against police stations, has accompanied a crime wave in the northern city of Jenin, once a hub of militants and suicide attackers who struck into nearby Israel.

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Where did the PA’s money go?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Barry Rubin - (Opinion) June 3, 2012 - 12:00am

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad says that his regime is short of funds. And meanwhile a reader asks me: “Can you please explain to me why 20 years after Oslo and billions in dollars in foreign aid, the Palestinian Authority still has not built modern hospitals? Or rather, why do the donor countries pour money down the PA drain without expecting even some face-saving results?” Good question. Short answer: Swiss bank accounts.

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Crisis of confidence
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Ahram
by Saleh Al-Naami - (Opinion) June 1, 2012 - 12:00am

Suddenly the sound of laughter broke the silence on a bus transporting dozens of students from the centre of the Gaza Strip to the district where university campuses are located in southern Al-Rimal in Gaza City. One student had mentioned that delegates from Hamas and Fatah were in Cairo again to finalise details about a consensus government as stipulated in the Doha Declaration.

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Abbas committee declares largest Palestinian workers union illegal
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
May 31, 2012 - 12:00am

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- A committee set up by President Mahmoud Abbas has found the union of public sector employees has no legal standing, six years after it first started representing government workers. The committee report, of which Ma'an obtained a copy, concludes: "There is no legal body or organized legal framework for the so-called 'public sector workers union'."

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How the Palestinian Boycotts Can Work
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Monitor
by Ilan Baruch - (Opinion) May 24, 2012 - 12:00am

About a year ago I left the foreign ministry after 36 years of diplomatic work. I left for political reasons: I felt that I could no longer faithfully represent a government striving to achieve political ends that I viewed as unrealistic and immoral, a government intent on abandoning the goal of ending the occupation by coming to an arrangement based on “two states for two nations.”

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Palestinian prisoner deal shows non-violence works
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Ali Sawafta - May 16, 2012 - 12:00am

RAMALLAH, West Bank, May 15 (Reuters) - Standing up to Israel through non-violent resistance can produce encouraging results, Palestinians said on Tuesday, after a prisoner hunger strike produced some Israeli concessions. The deal under which some 1,600 Palestinian prisoners agreed on Monday to end a month-long fast against Israel's prison policy was struck on the eve of Nakba (catastrophe) Day that marks Israel's founding in a 1948 war when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were driven out of their homes.

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