Hamas holds dozens of drivers in Gaza power crisis
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
by Ibrahim Barzak - March 26, 2012 - 12:00am

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Police in Hamas-ruled Gaza have detained dozens of taxi drivers for allegedly spreading "rumors" about the territory's worst power crisis in years, officials said Monday, The detentions, which began over the weekend, signaled that the Islamic militant Hamas is increasingly concerned about the political fallout from crippling shortages of fuel and electricity. Authorities did not explain what got the drivers in trouble, beyond saying the "rumors" had to do with the energy crisis.

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Total change
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
(Interview) March 26, 2012 - 12:00am

An interview with Samir Abdullah bitterlemons: What would trigger the collapse of the Palestinian Authority? Abdullah: The Palestinian Authority takes its legitimacy from two sources. The first is how far it can advance the political project and the search for independence. The second is to what extent it can provide good-quality services, manage a good economy, provide jobs for the unemployed, provide social security to the elderly and the handicapped, and provide a good climate for investment and so on.

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Fayyad says Hamas officials no show at Cairo fuel talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
March 26, 2012 - 12:00am

RAMALLAH (Ma’an) -- Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said Sunday an expected Hamas delegation had not arrived in Cairo to join talks on ending the Gaza Strip's fuel crisis. Palestinian officials headed to Egypt on Saturday to discuss the mechanism for ongoing fuel pumping into Gaza after Egypt cut off supplies through an underground tunnel network. While an Egyptian security official said Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahhar crossed from Gaza to Egypt on Egypt, Fayyad said a Hamas delegation did not join talks.

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Without a remedy, it is possible
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Ghassan Khatib - (Opinion) March 26, 2012 - 12:00am

Despite the many statements and various discussions about the possibility that the Palestinian Authority would dissolve itself, the real chance of this happening is almost nil. What is a serious possibility, however, is that the Palestinian Authority would collapse--not as a desired or planned event, but as the result of difficult economic and political obstacles facing the Palestinian people and their leadership.

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Israel Should Not Rejoice About Cornering Abbas
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'ariv
by Ben Caspit - (Opinion) March 25, 2012 - 12:00am

A letter rests on the table of the chairman of the Palestinian Authority (yes, such an entity still exists), Abu Mazen. The addressee is Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The letter is biting, explosive, a true hot potato that can burn up the entire room — but it has not yet been sent to its destination. The Palestinians have already showed the letter to the Americans, the Europeans and other entities that are now putting heavy pressure on Abu Mazen to stop or at least delay the message.

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Palestinian Refugee Schoolgirls Study Hard for an Uncertain Future
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Liz Ford - March 23, 2012 - 12:00am

There has been a girls' school at Irbid refugee camp in northern Jordan since 1952. No one could tell me how many girls attended the school at that time, but now it operates a shift system to cope with demand. About 850 girls attend the imaginatively-titled Irbid camp girls' school number 1 five days a week, meeting for classes between 7am and 11.30am. The same number attend Irbid camp girls' school number 2, which runs on the same days from 11.30am to 4pm. Although in the same building, each school has its own teaching staff.

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Fayyad: Stop Using Palestinian Cause to Justify Terror
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP)
by Elior Levy - March 21, 2012 - 12:00am

Extremists must stop using the Palestinian cause to justify their acts of violence, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said on Wednesday after a deadly attack on a French Jewish school. "It is time for these criminals to stop marketing their terrorist acts in the name of Palestine and to stop pretending to stand up for the rights of Palestinian children who only ask for a decent life," the Palestinian premier said in a statement.

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‘Extremists Mustn’t Use Palestine to Market Terror’
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
March 21, 2012 - 12:00am

Extremists must stop marketing their terrorist acts in the name of Palestine, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said Wednesday, condemning the murder of four French Jews at a school in Toulouse. French Interior Minister Gueant earlier Wednesday said the gunman wanted revenge "for the Palestinian children and he also wanted to attack the French army because of its foreign intervention." "Extremists must stop pretending to stand up for the rights of Palestinian children who only ask for a decent life," AFP quoted Fayyad as saying.

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Hamas: Fatah Prefers US Dollars to National Agreements
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
March 21, 2012 - 12:00am

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Fatah has not implemented any of its reconciliation commitments because it prefers American money to national agreements, a spokesman for the Hamas-led government in Gaza said Monday. Taher al-Nunu said in a statement that Fatah is trying to destroy the reconciliation agreement it signed with Hamas last May. Al-Nunu's remarks were made in response to comments by senior Fatah official Azzam al-Ahmad, who said Hamas was responsible for the ongoing delay in forming a unity government.

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Physicians of female Palestinian prisoner on hunger strike say her life is in danger
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
March 20, 2012 - 12:00am

JERUSALEM — A Palestinian woman who has refused food for the past month to protest her imprisonment by Israel without formal charges is in grave danger of dying, a medical rights group said Tuesday. Hana Shalabi lost 14 kilograms (31 pounds), her muscles are wasting and she is in excruciating pain, said Ran Cohen of Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, which has provided her a doctor. She has taken only water since her arrest on Feb. 16.

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