Camp committees: UNRWA reduced aid by 70%
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
May 9, 2010 - 12:00am

West Bank refugee camp committees have accused UNRWA of reducing food aid to Palestinian refugees by 70 percent. Following an emergency session of Nablus and northern West Bank refugee camp committees, Nablus-area refugee camp coordinator Ibrahim Saqr said UNRWA had not adhered to its duties laid out in previous agreements. "After two months, the emergency support program failed to cope with the demands of needy families in refugee camps and has several shortcomings which were reported to more than one UN official on several occasions," said Saqr.

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Little relief for Palestinian refugees in Lebanon
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent
by Mary Dejevsky - (Analysis) April 13, 2010 - 12:00am

The scene could have been almost anywhere where the rich and poor worlds collide. A reasonably maintained building surrounded by depressingly visible disintegration; and inside, a bright room where small children, dressed in their best, are waiting to sing, dance and recite for the benefit of cooing foreign visitors. The difference was that this was in Lebanon; in the Beddawi Palestinian refugee camp to be precise, outside the battered northern city of Tripoli. And afterwards each child received an envelope with the cash that would help maintain them and fund schooling for another month.

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To achieve Mideast peace, Obama must make a bold Mideast trip
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Zbigniew Brzezinski, Stephen Solarz - (Opinion) April 11, 2010 - 12:00am

More than three decades ago, Israeli statesman Moshe Dayan, speaking about an Egyptian town that controlled Israel's only outlet to the Red Sea, declared that he would rather have Sharm el-Sheikh without peace than peace without Sharm el-Sheikh. Had his views prevailed, Israel and Egypt would still be in a state of war. Today, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, with his pronouncements about the eternal and undivided capital of Israel, is conveying an updated version of Dayan's credo -- that he would rather have all of Jerusalem without peace than peace without all of Jerusalem.

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Palestinian refugees need more service from UNRWA: poll
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
April 8, 2010 - 12:00am

Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and Syria expected more services from U.N. Refugees Works Agency ( UNRWA), according to the results of a poll, released here on Thursday. The poll was conducted from October 17 to 25, 2009 by the Beirut-based Organization for the Right of Return (Thabit), Palestinian Return Center (PRC) in London and Damascus-based Palestinian Return Community (Wajeb). It showed that among the 1,460 Palestinian refugees participating the poll, 92 percent of those in Lebanon and Syria support UNRWA's work, though 85 percent said that its work is "not enough".

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Clash in Palestinian camp in Lebanon kills 2
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
by Zeina Karam - February 15, 2010 - 1:00am

Islamic militants clashed with Fatah gunmen in a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon on Monday, killing at least two people, Palestinian security officials said. It was not immediately clear what prompted the shootout in the Ein el-Hilweh camp, where gunfights are common between armed groups jockeying for power. Monday's confrontation involved gunmen from the militant Asbat al-Ansar group, which is on a U.S. terrorism list and which Washington has accused of being linked to al-Qaida.

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Jordan criticized for stripping Palestinian rights
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
by Dale Gavlak - February 1, 2010 - 1:00am

A U.S.-based human rights group criticized Jordan Monday for stripping the citizenship of nearly 3,000 Jordanians of Palestinian origin in recent years. Nearly half the kingdom's 6 million people are of Palestinian origin and Jordan fears that if Palestinians become the majority, it will disrupt the delicate demographic balance. Those concerns have been heightened by some Israeli hard-liners who argue that neighboring Jordan should become the Palestinian state and that more West Bank Palestinians should be pushed into Jordan.

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Gov't opposes 'borders first' approach
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Khaled Abu Toameh, Herb Keinon - January 5, 2010 - 1:00am

Israel's top decision-makers are against discussing the border issue first in future negotiations with the Palestinians, The Jerusalem Post has learned. PM prepared to start immediate talks with PA without preconditions Separating final borders from other core issues would allow negotiators to avoid the thorny settlement construction dispute.

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Why I back Israel sanctions
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Udi Aloni - (Opinion) January 5, 2010 - 1:00am

I find it appropriate that the Israeli public be notified of the emerging movement for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel (BDS), which has been growing at a breathtaking pace. Following bewildered reports published by Yedioth Ahronoth journalist Sever Plocker, who noticed that BDS has moved from the circles of the radical western Left to the circles of the bourgeois centre, I can add that this is now true for Israel-loving Jews as well.

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U.S. planning to restart Israel-PA talks based on '67 borders
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Akiva Eldar - December 16, 2009 - 1:00am

The United States and Egypt, along with France, are planning a joint move to restart Israeli-Palestinian talks on the basis of the June 4, 1967, borders, territorial exchanges and a complete freeze of construction beyond the Green Line, including East Jerusalem. The freeze would not be announced publicly. Egypt's foreign minister, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, said in an extensive interview with the Arabic daily Asharq Al-Awsat that "once they realized their earlier approach had failed, the Americans see themselves forced to change direction."

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The Palestinians' opposite poles
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Howard Schneider - December 15, 2009 - 1:00am

Sami and Tayseer Barakat grew up together in the concrete warrens of this refugee camp in Gaza, but the common thread ends there. As young adults, Tayseer moved to the West Bank while Sami remained in Gaza. The choices have shaped the brothers' lives, values, prosperity and opportunities, and they have placed the two at very different points in what is now a three-way feud among Israelis and Palestinians.

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