Official: Fatah, Hamas reach agreement on key issues
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
(Analysis) November 15, 2011 - 1:00am

Fatah and Hamas have agreed on several controversial issues as part of a reconciliation deal signed on May 4, a Fatah official said Monday. Senior Fatah official Azzam al-Ahmad told a local radio station that details of the agreements would be released after a meeting set to take place in late November between President Abbas and Hamas leader in exile Khaled Mashaal. On Friday, the official PA news agency reported that Abbas and Mashaal would meet in Cairo in the last 10 days of November.

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Fatah considers dropping nomination of Fayyad as premier of unity government
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from
by Emad Drimly - (Analysis) November 15, 2011 - 1:00am

A senior member of the Fatah Party said Tuesday the party could drop the nomination of Salam Fayyad as premier for the unity government during the upcoming reconciliation dialogue with Islamic Hamas movement. Hamas welcomed its rival's decision and said it would ease implementing an Egypt-brokered reconciliation pact in Cairo on May 4. The movement has been ruling Gaza after it seized the enclave by force in June 2007 and routed Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' forces.

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Abbas says to discuss PA fate with Hamas
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Alternet
by Tom Perry - (Analysis) October 28, 2011 - 12:00am

President Mahmoud Abbas plans to discuss the fate of the Palestinian Authority with his rivals Hamas next month, raising questions over its future with the peace process at a dead end. The remarks make clear Abbas is seriously mulling the future of the Palestinian Authority (PA), which was set up as a state-in-waiting 17 years ago but is now seen by critics as compromised body that eases the burden of occupation for Israel.

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Egypt envoy: Palestinian reconciliation a top priority
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
(Analysis) October 24, 2011 - 12:00am

Egyptian ambassador to the Palestinian Authority Yasser Othman said Sunday that reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah is a top priority for the Egyptian leadership. President Mahmoud Abbas arrived in Egypt on Friday to discuss implementation of the deal reached on May 4 and brokered by Egypt, but which has yet to be carried out. The Egyptian leadership is willing to focus its efforts on carrying out the reconciliation deal, Othman said, noting that the leadership places great importance on its implementation.

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Palestinian leader Abbas to propose early presidential, parliamentary elections: official
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
October 2, 2011 - 12:00am

RAMALLAH, Oct. 2 (Xinhua) -- President Mahmoud Abbas will soon propose to the Islamic Hamas Movement to hold early presidential and parliamentary elections in the Palestinian territories, a senior Palestinian official said Sunday. Jamal Mheisen, member of Abbas' Fatah Party's Central Committee, told the "Voice of Palestine" radio that the idea of holding early elections "aims to get the Palestinian people out of the crisis of internal division."

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Palestinian reconciliation goes forward slowly: Haneya
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
August 30, 2011 - 12:00am

Implementing the Palestinian reconciliation deal takes a long time, Prime Minister of the deposed Hamas administration in Gaza Ismail Haneya said Tuesday. "The implementation is going on very slowly," Haneya said during a mass prayer in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip to mark the end of Muslims' fasting month of Ramadan. "The reconciliation should be based on clear principles and concentrated choices that do not give up any of those principles," Haneya added, stressing on the option of armed resistance against Israel.

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Divided We Execute
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Inter Press Service (IPS)
by Mel Frykberg - (Opinion) August 16, 2011 - 12:00am

The execution of a Palestinian father and son by Hamas security forces in Gaza throws up a sharp difference over the death penalty between Gaza and the West Bank. In the West Bank a temporary moratorium is in place. The executions were carried out despite pressure from Palestinian and international human rights organisations for the death penalty in the occupied Palestinian territories to be rescinded.

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Hamas criticises Fatah over election plan
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Alertnet
by Nidal al-Mughrabi - August 14, 2011 - 12:00am

Hamas on Sunday accused Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement of violating a reconciliation agreement by opening voter registration for local elections due to be held in October in the occupied West Bank. Islamist Hamas, which seized the Gaza Strip in a 2007 civil war with Fatah, has described the planned ballot as illegitimate. Fatah is the dominant party in the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank.

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Hamas and Fatah agree to release political prisoners
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
August 8, 2011 - 12:00am

CAIRO (Ma'an) -- Hamas and Fatah have agreed to release all political prisoners after meeting in Cairo on Sunday to discuss the reconciliation deal signed in April, official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported. The two factions also agreed to the formation of a committee to issue passports to Gaza residents before the end of Ramadan, as well as forming a task force to reopen institutions which were shut down in the West Bank and Gaza Strip as a result of political animosities.

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Palestinian October elections 'only in the West Bank'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
July 28, 2011 - 12:00am

RAMALLAH (AFP) -- Palestinian local elections in October will only be held in the West Bank as Hamas is hampering preparations in Gaza, a senior electoral official said on Wednesday. Speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, the official said the government had informed the Central Elections Commission (CEC) of a decision taken earlier on Wednesday. "The elections committee was informed today by the government that it had decided to hold municipal elections only in the West Bank on October 22," he said.

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