Palestinian Society | The American Task Force on Palestine

Israeli government offers concessions to settlers
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
by Amy Teibel - January 31, 2012 - 1:00am

JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government has made two overtures to West Bank settlers in the run-up to his party's leadership race on Tuesday: It's offering financial incentives to encourage people to move to settlements and opening the door to legalizing rogue settler outposts.

Images of Occupation at Sundance
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Abra Cohen - (Film Review) January 31, 2012 - 1:00am

Selling out a screening or getting a standing ovation at Sundance is hard enough for a seasoned filmmaker, let alone for a farmer from the West Bank. But director Emad Burnat, from the village of Bil’in, brought Park City, Utah, to its feet with his debut documentary about his family’s life beyond the security barrier and amid Israeli settlements.

Pro-Palestinian hackers apologise for cyber attack on Haaretz newspaper website
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Hugh Naylor - January 27, 2012 - 1:00am

JERUSALEM // Pro-Palestinian hackers apologised on Twitter yesterday for disrupting the website of Israel's Haaretz newspaper. Haaretz announced on Wednesday that its Hebrew-language website had been temporarily disabled by hackers, identifying themselves on Twitter as @AnonPS, or Anonymous Palestine.

Hard Times in Hebron
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Foreign Policy
by Jackie Spinner - (Opinion) January 27, 2012 - 1:00am

HEBRON, West Bank – This flashpoint city, nestled in the West Bank's Judean Mountains, is rarely noted for its bustling economy, neatly paved roads, or sparkling performance center. It is far better known for the nets shopkeepers have stretched above the market streets to keep Jewish settlers from throwing rocks on Palestinian pedestrians, its "apartheid sidewalks," the disputed Ibrahimi Mosque (both a Muslim and Jewish holy site), and the recurring street clashes between Jewish and Arab residents.

"Big step" for new Palestinian city
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Tani Goldstein - January 26, 2012 - 1:00am

After a four-year wait, the planners of Rawabi received Israel's permit to pave an access road to the new Palestinian town of and will embark on the work Sunday. The announcement was made Wednesday by Palestinian millionaire Bashar al-Masri, who owns the construction company tasked with building the new West Bank city.

Palestinian Tax Hike Riles Business, Unions
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
by Mohammed Daraghmeh, Karin Laub - January 25, 2012 - 1:00am

RAMALLAH, West Bank—Prime Minister Salam Fayyad has sparked a furor with a push to get Palestinians to pay more taxes and reduce reliance on the massive foreign aid that has kept their self-rule government afloat for a generation. Long accustomed to minimal taxes, the most powerful groups in the West Bank -- private business, the civil servants' union and the main political party, Fatah -- are fighting back, including with threats of labor strikes.

Hamas and the Contagion of Democracy
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Dar Al-Hayat
by Elias Harfoush - (Opinion) January 23, 2012 - 1:00am

It would be easy to place Khaled Mashal’s desire to step down from the leadership of the Hamas movement within the framework of the contagion of democracy that is currently infecting the Arab World, and particularly Islamists movements in it, of which the Hamas movement is considered the most cherished child.

Israeli Police Arrest 2 Palestinian Legislators in East Jerusalem Protest
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - January 23, 2012 - 1:00am

JERUSALEM — Israel arrested two Palestinian legislators affiliated with Hamas as they staged a protest in the offices of the International Committee of the Red Cross in East Jerusalem on Monday, an act criticized by the Palestinian leadership as a blow to the first direct meetings between the Israeli and Palestinian sides in more than a year now under way in Jordan.

The Palestinian children – alone and bewildered – in Israel's Al Jalame jail
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Harriet Sherwood - January 22, 2012 - 1:00am

The room is barely wider than the thin, dirty mattress that covers the floor. Behind a low concrete wall is a squat toilet, the stench from which has no escape in the windowless room. The rough concrete walls deter idle leaning; the constant overhead light inhibits sleep. The delivery of food through a low slit in the door is the only way of marking time, dividing day from night.

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