Arabs must end the ambiguity and hypocrisy when facing terrorism
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
by Ziad Asali - (Opinion) January 14, 2011 - 1:00am

The recent bomb attacks against Christian communities in Egypt and Iraq have been roundly condemned by most political and religious leaders, commentators and public opinion in the Arab world. They have also been met with an outpouring of passionate condemnation by ordinary people who have taken to the streets to express anger and demand justice. People have sensed the danger to their whole society inherent in such atrocities.

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Palestinian-American fights to buy Jerusalem housing project
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Maher Abukhater - January 10, 2011 - 1:00am

A wealthy Palestinian-American businessman is fighting to take over a troubled real estate firm that builds Jewish-only housing units in Arab-dominated East Jerusalem, but right-wing Jewish groups have vowed to kill the deal. Bashar Masri, a West Bank native who holds American citizenship, has offered to buy debt-burdened Digal Investment and Holdings Ltd., which has been building the 400-unit Nof Zion housing project overlooking the Old City.

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Jordan soccer brawl highlights Palestinians' feelings of deprivation
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Zvi Barel - December 15, 2010 - 1:00am

A soccer match played Friday between the Jordanian league's Al-Faisaly and Al-Wihdat ended in a 1:0 victory for Al-Wihdat. The real news, though, wasn't the score, but the skirmish that broke out, in which 250 fans and policemen were injured, after the wire fence that separates the spectators from the field collapsed. This wasn't just a clash between fans accompanied by stone-throwing, broken bones and arrests. It was a political battle pitting the Al-Wihdat fans, mostly of Palestinian descent, against the Al-Faisaly fans, mostly of Jordanian origin.

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Palestinians battle bid to bulldoze road to statehood
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Hugh Naylor - December 6, 2010 - 1:00am

As Husam Assi describes it, it was an important battle on the road to Palestinian statehood. It began in late November when Israeli soldiers took positions protecting bulldozers sent to this otherwise sleepy West Bank village to destroy a recently laid strip of asphalt. Then, Mr Assi said, Palestinian youth swarmed the Israelis from the surrounding hills. "From the village mosque we called on the community to defend the road against the Israelis," the 49-year-old manager at Qarawat Bani Hassan's municipality said as he surveyed the area a few days later.

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Evening clashes in East Jerusalem
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
December 3, 2010 - 1:00am

Clashes erupted in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Al-Isawiya on Thursday evening, between residents and Israeli forces conducting patrols on the area northeast of the Old City. Eight residents were treated for tear-gas inhalation, head of the Union of Arab Medics Mohammad Al-Gharabli told Ma’n. An Israeli police spokeswoman, Luba As-Semmari said clashes erupted when two Molotov cocktails were thrown on a police checkpoint at the entrance of the neighborhood, and said no injuries were reported.

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PLO official barred from leaving West Bank
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
December 3, 2010 - 1:00am

Israeli authorities barred PLO official Ziyad Salous from leaving the West Bank Thursday, Palestinian sources said. Salous, the director of Public Relations for the organization, was detained at the Allenby Bridge border crossing for three hours before being denied entry to Jordan. Salous was en route to a conference on Palestinian prisoners in Algeria


A bold stroke
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
(Editorial) December 2, 2010 - 1:00am

The announcement by Hamas’ leader in Gaza Ismael Haniyah that the movement would accept a peace treaty with Israel and a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders if Palestinians approve it in a referendum is a development of immense importance. It is a political icebreaker. Until now, Hamas has stuck rigidly to the one-state solution, insisting that there could never be any recognition of Israel and that the only acceptable settlement would be for the Palestinians to be given all that land that between 1923 and 1948 comprised British mandated-Palestine.

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Hamas Leader in Gaza Softens on Vote
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Fares Akram - December 2, 2010 - 1:00am

The leader of the Hamas government in Gaza, Ismail Haniya, said Wednesday for the first time that any resolution of the Palestinian dispute with Israel should be put to a referendum of all Palestinians around the world, and that if one were held, Hamas would accept the results no matter what they were. In the past, when President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority discussed holding such a referendum, Hamas had been critical, saying that principles like the return of refugees and the borders of the state could not be subject to a vote.

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Fatah blames Hamas for stalled unity talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
December 1, 2010 - 1:00am

Rival Palestinian political factions have not agreed where or when they will hold the next round of reconciliation talks, and Fatah is blaming Hamas for obstructing the deal. The head of Fatah's reconciliation team, Azzam Al-Ahmad, told Ma’an radio that the next round of talks had not been agreed on yet, while Executive Committee member Nabil Sha’ath said Friday the teams were considering the Gaza Strip. “If we want dialogue, why shouldn’t we meet in the Gaza Strip,” said Nimir Hammad, an aide to President Mahmoud Abbas, in a phone interview Tuesday evening.

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Hamas PM denies al-Qaida presence in Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Statesman
by Karin Laub - December 1, 2010 - 1:00am

BANI HASSAN, West Bank (AP) — Palestinians will be ready for statehood by August, as promised in a two-year action plan, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said in an interview Tuesday, dismissing a host of steep obstacles to independence. The former World Bank economist visited rural West Bank road destroyed by Israel to demonstrate his belief that independence is inevitable as long as Palestinians don't lose faith.

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