The Wall | The American Task Force on Palestine

Jewish settlers claim biblical birthright to land
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Allyn Fisher-Ilan, Maayan Lubell - September 27, 2010 - 12:00am

YITZHAR, West Bank, Sept 26 (Reuters) - Jewish settler Avraham Binyamin says any Israeli withdrawal from occupied land would be like severing a limb from his body. As one of some 300,000 Israelis living in enclaves built on West Bank land that Palestinians seek for a state, Binyamin expresses a view held by many that the area is a Jewish biblical birthright and must never be relinquished, not even for peace.

Israeli settlers rev bulldozers as settlement freeze nears end
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Joshua Mitnick - September 26, 2010 - 12:00am

Tel Aviv — With Israel and Palestinian negotiators deadlocked over settlement expansion just hours before the expiration of a 10-month Israeli settlement freeze, Jewish settlers vowed to renew building during symbolic celebrations in the West Bank.

Palestinian President Abbas has the most to lose
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
(Editorial) September 25, 2010 - 12:00am

PRESIDENT OBAMA'S Middle East peace diplomacy has made some progress, but an early error still haunts it. The president's ill-advised attempt to force a freeze of Israeli housing construction in Jerusalem and the West Bank could cause the breakdown this weekend of direct talks on a final settlement, only a month after they began.

Military court convicts anti-wall leader
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
August 25, 2010 - 12:00am

An Israeli military court on Tuesday found the leader of a West Bank protest movement guilty of incitement and organizing illegal demonstrations. Abdallah Abu Rahmah of Bil'in, near Ramallah, could face jail time for his leadership in the popular campaign against Israel's wall, which severs the West Bank village for to protect nearby settlements. The verdict was read in a military courtroom packed with friends, supporters, and family members, concluding an eight-month trial. Diplomats from Europe including a representative of the European Union attended.

Demonstrators challenge Israel's Gaza restricted area
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
August 25, 2010 - 12:00am

Palestinian and international activists on Tuesday removed parts of a security fence the Israeli army has installed along its borders with the Gaza Strip, witnesses said. The incident took place during a demonstration organized by humanitarian and social activists against the enforcement of a 300- meter wide buffer zone along Gaza's northern and eastern borders with Israel. Tens of people, including some international campaigners and farmers, participated in the rally which started from the border town of Beit Hanoun and headed towards the Israeli fence, waving Palestinian flags.

West Bank Security Barrier Draws Artists and Advertisers
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Daniel Estrin - August 25, 2010 - 12:00am

What many Israelis see as a security barrier, and many Palestinians see as a prison wall, Majd Abdel Hamid sees as a blank canvas. “It’s really tempting as an artist,” said Abdel Hamid, a 22-year-old Ramallah-based painter. Back in 2007, Abdel Hamid and two assistants spent two 10-hour days painting a 130-foot-long portion of the barrier that separates Israel from the West Bank. On the concrete slabs, they stenciled a jumble of Arabic letters. Unscrambled, the letters spell out the Palestinian Declaration of Independence, written in 1988 by Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish.

Rosemary's baby - Uri Avnery
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
July 24, 2010 - 12:00am

Since I witnessed the rise of the Nazis during my childhood in Germany, my nose always tickles when it smells something fascist, even when the odor is still faint. When the debate about the “one-state solution” began, my nose tickled. Have you gone mad, I told my nose, this time you are dead wrong. This is a plan of the left. It is being put forward by leftists of undoubted credentials, the greatest idealists in Israel and abroad, even certified Marxists. But my nose insisted. It continued to tickle. Now it appears that the nose was right, after all.

Palestinian village to be encircled by barrier
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
by Karin Laub - July 10, 2010 - 12:00am

Israel has started construction on a new section of its West Bank separation barrier that Palestinian residents say could sound a death knell for their hamlet. The barrier, running much of the length of the West Bank, has already disrupted lives in many Palestinian towns and villages in its path. But it threatens to outright smother Walajeh: The community of about 2,000 on the southwest edge of Jerusalem is to be completely encircled by a fence cutting it off from most of its open land, according to an Israeli Defense Ministry map.

ISRAEL: Six years later, UN says barrier is still a big problem
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Maher Abukhater - (Blog) July 9, 2010 - 12:00am

Six years ago, on July 9, 2004, the International Court of Justice in The Hague gave an advisory opinion on Israel's construction of a part-concrete, part-fence barrier running along its borders with the West Bank. The court stated that in addition to being "contrary to international law," the construction of the barrier does not justify Israel's security objectives.

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