Are W. Bank riots the start of ‘Palestinian Spring’?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Ilene Prusher - September 12, 2012 - 12:00am

Thousands of young Palestinians out on the streets – chanting slogans, throwing rocks, burning tires. Working class drivers striking to protest against the price of gas, middle- class merchants shuttering their shops to avoid damages and the moneyed classes chattering nervously about whether this is really as momentous as it looks.

»

Seven Lean Years of Peacemaking
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Daniel Levy - (Opinion) September 11, 2012 - 12:00am

SEVEN years ago today, the Israeli flag was lowered over the Gaza Strip after approximately 7,500 Israeli settlers left or were forcibly removed.

»

Palestinian taxi drivers snarl West Bank traffic to protest rising gas prices
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
September 6, 2012 - 12:00am

Dozens of taxi drivers have snarled traffic in several West Bank cities to protest rising fuel prices and the government's refusal to allow them to raise fares. The protests early Thursday caused traffic jams stretching to up to four kilometers in Ramallah, Nablus, Hebron and Bethlehem. Small demonstrations have been staged across the West Bank in recent days to protest the rising cost of living. Teachers and Ramallah shop owners joined Thursday's strikes.

»

FM: Abbas to seek support for UN bid at Tehran summit
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
August 28, 2012 - 12:00am

President Mahmoud Abbas will canvas for support for the UN bid at a summit of 120 developing nations in Tehran, PA Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki said Tuesday. The PLO plans to ask the UN General Assembly to upgrade its status to a non-member observer state. A previous bid for full UN membership stalled at the Security Council last year. Al-Malki told Ma'an he was confident Palestine had the support of the non-aligned states at the summit.

»

Diplomat: FM's letter aimed to block Abbas’s UN bid
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Herb Keinon - August 28, 2012 - 12:00am

Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman’s letter to the Quartet last week calling for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s ouster is part of a campaign to get leading democracies to oppose the PA’s UN bid, a senior diplomatic official said Monday. The idea behind the letter, the official said, was primarily to preempt Abbas’s move at the UN by putting on the public agenda his record of rejecting Israeli gestures and refusing to negotiate, while trying to diplomatically isolate Israel.

»

Palestinian Statehood Returns (Ho-Hum)
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Ben Lynfield - (Opinion) August 19, 2012 - 12:00am

A second bid by the Palestinian Authority to have the United Nations recognize Palestinian statehood appears to be a case of “once more, but with less feeling.”

»

Despite ban, PLO leaders host Ramadan event in Jerusalem
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
August 15, 2012 - 12:00am

PLO leaders hosted a Ramadan event in east Jerusalem late Monday, in the first official Palestinian gathering in the 18 years since Israel imposed a ban on such activities in the holy city. Hanan Ashrawi, a senior PLO leader, and Adnan Husseini, the Palestinian Authority governor of Jerusalem, hosted the Iftar meal and briefed diplomats on a bid to join the United Nations in the coming months.

»

What Edward Really Said
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from NOW Lebanon
by Hussein Ibish - (Opinion) August 15, 2012 - 12:00am

Few contemporary thinkers have been more revered and reviled than the late Palestinian-American professor Edward Said. But even his most ardent critics can hardly deny that Said was one of the most significant public intellectuals of our time. And while he is probably best remembered for his political activism, it was as a major literary theorist that he produced his most important work. 

»

Chance of success slim for Palestinians' 2nd UN bid
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
by Adam Gonn - (Analysis) August 15, 2012 - 12:00am

Palestinian National Authority (PNA) President Mahmoud Abbas is considering launching a second attempt at upgrading the status of the Palestinians in the United Nations from an observer entity to a non-member observer. With an upgraded status, the Palestinians would be able to vote in the UN General Assembly and seek full membership in UN organizations and at the International Criminal Court. The upgrade would also likely to help define the borders of a Palestinian state as containing the entire West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem.

»

The Night that The Lights Went Out?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line
by Linda Gradstein - August 14, 2012 - 12:00am

The Palestinian Authority (PA) owes more than $170 million to the Israel Electric Company, and Israel is threatening to cut off the flow unless the debt is paid. Palestinian officials say that could cause widespread blackouts throughout the West Bank.

»


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