UN to teach children about Holocaust in Gaza schools
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent
by Donald MacIntyre - October 5, 2009 - 12:00am

The United Nations' refugee agency is planning to include the Holocaust in a new human-rights curriculum for pupils in its Gaza secondary schools despite strident opposition to the idea from within Hamas. John Ging, the UN Relief and Works Agency's (UNRWA) director of operations in Gaza, told The Independent that he was "confident and determined" that the Holocaust would feature for the first time in a wide-ranging curriculum that is being drafted.

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Palestinians simmer, but no Intifada for now
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Mohammed Assadi - (Analysis) October 4, 2009 - 12:00am

Peace talks with Israel are in deadlock and tear gas and rocks are flying at Jerusalem's holy sites, but for all the mounting frustration in the West Bank talk of a Third Intifada seems premature to most Palestinians. A week after Israeli forces clashed with hundreds of Arabs who believed expansionist Jewish settlers were trying to enter the al-Aqsa mosque compound, there were scuffles again on Sunday and tension will remain high this week during holidays that draw Jewish worshippers to the Western Wall, close to the mosque.

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Can the Muppets Make Friends in Ramallah?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Samantha Shapiro - October 2, 2009 - 12:00am

This season’s episodes of “Shara’a Simsim,” the Palestinian version of the global “Sesame Street” franchise, were filmed in a satellite campus of Al-Quds University, a ramshackle four-story concrete structure that houses the school’s media department and a small local television station. The building sits in an upscale neighborhood on the outskirts of the West Bank city of Ramallah, not far from the edge of the Israeli settlement Psagot. Like many structures on the West Bank, the Al-Quds building seems to be simultaneously under construction and decaying into a ruin.

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Hamas vows to maintain ceasefire - if Israel reciprocates
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
October 2, 2009 - 12:00am

Hamas prefers peace to war but will nonetheless resume armed resistance if Israel opts to continue regular attacks on Gaza, senior Hamas leader Ahmad Yousef explained. The official, who serves as an advisor to Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh on foreign affairs, said that the current ceasefire between the Islamic movement and Israel was for the benefit of Palestinians in the Strip, but that Hamas reserved the right to defend them.

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Erekat denies PA to withdraw support of Goldstone report
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Ali Waked - October 2, 2009 - 12:00am

Top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat denied on Friday reports that the Palestinian Authority has decided to withdraw its bid to adopt the Goldstone report on alleged war crimes in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead. Thursday night Israeli Ambassador o the UN in Geneva Aharon Leshno Yaar said his Palestinian counterparty told the UN body in Geneva that the Palestinian Authority plans to announced it's withdrawal at the Human Rights Council's vote on Friday.

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PA envoy to Geneva: We'll withdraw support for Goldstone report
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Roni Sofer - October 2, 2009 - 12:00am

The Palestinian envoy in Geneva, Ibrahim Khraisha, told his Israeli counterpart Aharon Leshno Yaar that the Palestinian Authority (PA) plans to announce that it will be withdrawing its support for the adoption of the Goldstone Report during the UN Human Rights Council's vote on Friday. The report accuses Israel and Hamas of war crimes during their conflict in Gaza in January, an allegation Israel condemns and claims is the result of bias against the Jewish state.

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Palestinians cry 'blackmail' over Israel phone service threat
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent
by Ben Lynfield - October 2, 2009 - 12:00am

Israel is threatening to kill off a crucial West Bank economic project unless the Palestinian Authority withdraws a request to the International Criminal Court to investigate alleged Israeli crimes during last winter’s Gaza war. Shalom Kital, an aide to defence minister Ehud Barak, said today that Israel will not release a share of the radio spectrum that has long been sought by the Palestinian Authority to enable the launch of a second mobile telecommunications company unless the PA drops its efforts to put Israeli soldiers and officers in the dock over the Israeli operation.

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False symmetry
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
by Daoud Kuttab - October 1, 2009 - 12:00am

One of the most frustrating things about the American policy towards the Middle East is how Israel seems to always be able to get away with it or at least treated symmetrically with the Palestinians, whether there is cause for such symmetry or not.

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Settlers: a Jewish minority in Palestine?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Common Ground News Service
by Bill Glucroft - September 29, 2009 - 12:00am

If we are to believe the pundits and partisans, relations between Israel and the United States have never been worse. US President Barack Obama’s administration appears to be taking the toughest tone of any in recent memory. Obama’s Cairo speech didn’t help, leaving an already vulnerable-feeling Israel with the sense that it was getting thrown under the bus.

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Hamas leader to give unity reply
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
by Christian Fraser - September 28, 2009 - 12:00am

Fatah, headed by the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and Hamas have been bitterly divided since Hamas took control of Gaza in May 2007. So far there have seven rounds of dialogue, with no breakthrough. The Egyptians have twice postponed the scheduled date for a signature as the row between the factions has festered. But Khaled Mashaal's latest visit to Cairo is thought to be significant. The Syrian-based Hamas leader is coming to give his side's response to a written Egyptian proposal on how they might finally come to an agreement. Prisoner issue

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