Poll: 57% back Abbas not running
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
December 15, 2009 - 1:00am

A majority of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip support President Mahmoud Abbas' decision not to run in the next elections, results of an independent poll conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR) showed Monday. From its findings, PSR concluded, "While the balance of power between Fatah and Hamas remains as it was before the eruption of the Goldstone report crisis, the majority do not blame Hamas for the continued split between the West Bank and Gaza Strip or for the failure to hold national elections.

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Fayyad: Literal PA institution building underway
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
December 15, 2009 - 1:00am

The Palestinian caretaker government intends to undertake the construction of its institutions rather than depending on renting buildings that were originally designed for residential purposes, said the Ramallah-based government's Prime Minister Salam Fayyad on Monday. Whilst pointing out that several PA institutions owned the buildings they worked in, such as the Ministry of Finance, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics and the Palestinian National Forces, the majority of headquarters of public sector institutions were rented, Fayyad said.

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Palestinian tunnel tycoons feeding demand for banned goods
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Harriet Sherwood - December 15, 2009 - 1:00am

Mahmoud is proud of the motorbike he bought two months ago for $700, now parked in the sand at the entrance of one of the tunnels used to smuggle the machines into Gaza. It is all the more precious these days. After an influx of bikes through the deep underground passages between Gaza and Egypt resulted in carnage on the roads by young, untrained riders, the Hamas government ordered the imports to stop.

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Gaza one year on: The aftermath of a tragedy
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent
(Opinion) December 14, 2009 - 1:00am

Hilmi Samouni still hopes at some point – "inshallah" – to go back to his old job as a kitchen assistant in the Palmyra, Gaza City's best known shwarma restaurant. But unlike his 22-year-old brother Khamiz, who is working once again in a car paint shop, and his 20-year-old cousin Mousa, on a two-year accountancy diploma course at Al Azhar University, Hilmi, who is 26, found that he couldn't cope when he returned to the Palmyra after the war.

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Gaza border: Why Egypt is building a steel underground wall
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Sarah A. Topol - December 14, 2009 - 1:00am

Reports that Egypt is building a steel underground wall along its border with the Hamas-run Gaza Strip have fueled speculation about what exactly Cairo intends to accomplish with the project, which British newspapers claim is being carried out with the help of the US Army Corps of Engineers.

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Real Settlements and Imagined State
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Dar Al-Hayat
by Husam Itani - (Opinion) December 14, 2009 - 1:00am

The sympathy in the words of Israeli Minister Benny Begin and the attack of settlers against the mosque of the village of Yasuf in the West Bank, in addition to the tepid response to Palestinian efforts aimed at obtaining international recognition of the state which the Palestinian Authority is threatening to declare unilaterally, reveals the depth of the Palestinian predicament and its urgent need for a approach different from that which has proved bankrupt, in and from the side of the two camps dominating the Palestinian scene.

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Israel seizes Bil'in anti-wall protest leader
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
December 10, 2009 - 1:00am

Israeli forces seized Abdullah Abu Rahmah, a member of the Popular Committee against the Wall ofthe village of Bil’in early on Thursday, according to Palestinian Authority police. PA police said Abu Rahmah was seized from a house in the At-Tira neighborhood in Ramallah. Iyad Burnat, the head of Bil'in's Popular Committee confirmed that the arrest took place at around 2:30am. He said Abu Rahmah was likely taken to the military prison in the settlement of Ofer, on the outskirts of Ramallah. Abu Rahmah is a high school teacher in the Latin Patriarchate school in Birzeit near Ramallah.

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Divided loyalties in Nablus
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
by Alan Johnston - December 10, 2009 - 1:00am

The deep division between the Hamas and Fatah parties is not only confined to the Palestinian political arena. It often comes much closer to home, dividing families. Ahmad and Hamid know how that feels. They are brothers, and both rising figures in their local political scene. But one is climbing the ranks of Fatah, and the other, Hamas. The great Palestinian party political fault line runs through the home they share.

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Jailed Fatah chief emerges as Palestinian presidential contender
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent
by Ben Lynfield - December 10, 2009 - 1:00am

Marwan Barghouti, the senior Fatah leader who could be set free in a prisoner swap with Israel, appears to be already testing the waters for a possible bid to succeed the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas. In an interview yesterday in al-Quds newspaper, the charismatic leader criticised his rival for relying on negotiations alone in dealing with the Jewish state and said he is considering standing as a candidate if an agreement is reached to hold presidential elections.

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The refugees, still essential to peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
by Rami Khouri - December 9, 2009 - 1:00am

I have attended hundreds of meetings, conferences and symposia on Arab-Israeli peacemaking all my adult life during the past 40 years, and I am able to report that there is good news and bad news. The good news is that Israelis and Arabs wish to achieve a negotiated, peaceful end to their conflict. The bad news is that this inclination to negotiate peace and coexistence is not being translated into a lasting agreement because of Israel’s refusal to come to grips with the core issue that matters for the Palestinians, which is their status as refugees.

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