Barghouti urges Palestinian march to back U.N. bid
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Tom Perry - July 20, 2011 - 12:00am

RAMALLAH, West Bank, July 20 (Reuters) - Jailed leader Marwan Barghouti has called on Palestinians to stage mass rallies in September in support of a diplomatic bid to gain U.N. membership for a state of Palestine. Barghouti, a figure widely respected among many Palestinians, said taking the statehood quest to the United Nations was part of a new strategy that would open the door to "peaceful, popular resistance".

»

PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES: Financial crisis causing public concern
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Maher Abukhater - July 19, 2011 - 12:00am

The Palestinian Authority has until July 26 to come up with a plan on how it intends to pay salaries, without interruption, to more than 150,000 of its civil and military personnel. Otherwise, the employees may go on an open-ended general strike. This was the warning the Union of Public Employees conveyed to the Palestinian Authority on Monday following a meeting of its board members to discuss the authority's financial crisis and its claim that it may not be able to pay salaries anymore.

»

In Nablus, Palestinians play down possibility of September Intifada
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Avi Issacharoff - July 15, 2011 - 12:00am

NABLUS - Abu-Imad's restaurant, facing the entrance to the Nasr mosque in the casbah of Nablus, has for years been one of the city's leading restaurants, but it is also a particularly well-known social institution in town. Abu-Imad, who is now 75, remembers how here, from the square between the restaurant and the mosque, demonstrations departed every Friday during the first intifada in the late 1980s. It was also here that members of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade met during the second intifada, which began in 2000.

»

Poll Finds Palestinians Disenchanted with Hamas, Iran and the Peace Process
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Time
by Karl Vick - July 14, 2011 - 12:00am

Palestinians are trudging down the same long road as Israelis. Yes, they want peace. No, they don't think the other side will play ball. So for now their priority is private life: Getting food on the table and keeping the kids safe. That, at least, is the picture painted by a new survey of 1,010 Palestinians interviewed face to face in both the West Bank and Gaza over the last two weeks. It was conducted by a Palestinian firm working for Stan Greenberg, famed as Bill Clinton's pollster but who did this work for The Israel Project, a well-funded private U.S.

»

Palestine Lost
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Foreign Policy
by Rachel Shabi - (Opinion) July 13, 2011 - 12:00am

Promises were made, and it looks like they'll be broken. U.S. President Barack Obama said he believed a Palestinian state could be created by September 2011. Speaking to the U.N. General Assembly in September 2010, he laid down a challenge to formulate an agreement that would make it a reality. That same deadline was set by Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad for his state-building plan, which was intended to create the institutions for a viable Palestinian state.

»

Palestinian Open University project back on track
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
by Annie Slemrod - July 12, 2011 - 12:00am

By 1980, hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees were living in Lebanon. And despite the difficult conditions in the country’s camps, some 15,000 Palestinians were studying at Lebanese universities. At the time, Palestinian university students were considered to be foreigners and had to pay correspondingly higher tuition than Lebanese nationals. There was no Palestinian university that offered courses to students outside of Israel or Palestine.

»

Abbas: PA may not pay salaries next month
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
July 11, 2011 - 12:00am

RAMALLAH (Ma’an) -- Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas revealed on Saturday that the PA is encountering a serious financial crisis and might not be able to pay civil servant salaries next month. Abbas had warned of the measures in a meeting with leaders of Palestinian popular organizations Friday night. “We might pay a half salary depending on the money our treasury receives.” Abbas warned against any negative reactions such as strikes or protests, especially by trade unions, stating that such protests would only harm what the PA has accomplished.

»

Virtual Bridge Allows Strangers in Mideast to Seem Less Strange
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner - July 9, 2011 - 12:00am

Moad Arqoub, a Palestinian graduate student, was bouncing around the Internet the other day and came across a site that surprised and attracted him. It was a Facebook page where Israelis and Palestinians and other Arabs were talking about everything at once: the prospects of peace, of course, but also soccer, photography and music. “I joined immediately because right now, without a peace process and with Israelis and Palestinians physically separated, it is really important for us to be interacting without barriers,” Mr. Arqoub said as he sat at an outdoor cafe in this Palestinian city.

»

PCBS: Graduate unemployment improving, but slowly
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
July 7, 2011 - 12:00am

RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- Close to half of Palestinian graduates were unemployed in 2010, the official Palestinian statistics agency said Wednesday, noting a slight decrease in unemployment from 2009. The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics said 44.8 percent of Palestinians who completed university degrees were not in employment, an improvement on the 2009 figure of 47 percent.

»

Haniyeh: Reconciliation is progressing despite delays
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
July 1, 2011 - 12:00am

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said Thursday that progress is being made to implement the Palestinian reconciliation agreement "even if it is slow." Hamas and Fatah signed a unity agreement on May 4, ending years of hostility. However, a meeting in Cairo to finalize the formation of a unity government was postponed. Officials from both parties have said talks stalled over a leadership row. Hamas rejected Fatah's nomination of Salam Fayyad for the post of Prime Minister in the new government.

»


American Task Force on Palestine - 1634 Eye St. NW, Suite 725, Washington DC 20006 - Telephone: 202-262-0017