Palestine's Peaceful Struggle
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Nation
by Mohammed Khatib - (Opinion) September 11, 2009 - 12:00am

A few weeks ago, in the dead of night, dozens of Israeli soldiers with painted faces burst violently into my home. If only they had knocked, I would have opened the door. They arrested me. My wife, Lamia, was left alone with our four children. My youngest, 3-year-old Khaled, woke up to the image of Israeli soldiers with painted faces who were taking his father away. He has not stopped crying since. A few nights ago he woke up in terror, sobbing: "Daddy, why did you let the soldiers take me?" That's the way our children sleep--in a constant state of fear.

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Why stop with Elbit?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Amira Hass - (Opinion) September 9, 2009 - 12:00am

The question is not why Norway divested from the defense electronics giant Elbit Systems, but why only now, and why only from that company? The country that gave the name of its capital city to what the world thought of as a peace process is still invested in companies involved in construction and development in the West Bank settlements - the principal factor in destroying any chance for peace (at least any peace other than the belligerent demand that the Palestinians say "thank you" for what Israel is willing to give them).

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Gaza and Bilin
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Dar Al-Hayat
by Husam Itani - (Blog) September 1, 2009 - 12:00am

In Bilin a weekly march takes place in protest of the racist Israeli separation wall, in which activists from all over the world participate and which witness clashes with occupation forces and settlers, usually resulting in a number of wounded and victims of Israeli gases. The protest marches are organized by a broad coalition of political forces, Palestinian civil society institutions and international organizations that combat racial discrimination, in addition to local inhabitants from the village and neighboring area.

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In Village, Palestinians See Model for Their Cause
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner - August 27, 2009 - 12:00am

Every Friday for the past four and a half years, several hundred demonstrators — Palestinian villagers, foreign volunteers and Israeli activists — have walked in unison to the Israeli barrier separating this tiny village from the burgeoning settlement of Modiin Illit, part of which is built on the village’s land. One hundred feet away, Israeli soldiers watch and wait. The protesters chant and shout and, inevitably, a few throw stones. Then just as inevitably, the soldiers open fire with tear gas and water jets, lately including a putrid oil-based liquid that makes the entire area stink.

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Dilemma of Palestinian settlement builders
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
by Heather Sharp - August 26, 2009 - 12:00am

"I feel like a slave," says 21-year-old Palestinian Musanna Khalil Mohammed Rabbaye. "But I have no alternative," he says, as he waits among a group of sun-beaten men in dusty work boots outside the Jewish settlement of Maale Adumim. The phrase comes up again and again as the labourers try to explain why they spend their days hammering and shovelling to help build the Jewish settlements eating into the land they want for a future state of Palestine. Mr Rabbaye wants to be a journalist and is trying to fund his studies.

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Momentum Slows for Israel's Barrier
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Linda Gradstein, Howard Schneider - August 20, 2009 - 12:00am

Cost overruns, court rulings and a decline in violence have led Israel to slow construction of a barrier through and around the occupied West Bank, and many analysts predict the project, which is a deep source of contention between Israelis and Palestinians, will not be completed.

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PM: Separation fence won't be dismantled
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Amnon Meranda - July 22, 2009 - 12:00am

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday rejected the Opposition's accusations during a Kadima-initiated Knesset plenum discussion on the subject "A failing and flip-flopping prime minister on the political and economic fronts." At the end of the discussion, 51 Knesset members voted in favor of the prime minister's announcement and 39 voted against it. Labor ministers abstained. Addressing the Palestinian demand to remove the separation fence, the prime minister clarified that it would "remain where it is. It won't be dismantled."

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Israel's barrier to progress
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Seth Freedman - (Opinion) July 22, 2009 - 12:00am

In many parts of the West Bank, Israel's much-vaunted separation wall is conspicuous by its absence; Ha'aretz reports that only around 60% of the barrier has been completed will come as no surprise to those who spend time in the area around the project's proposed route.

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West Bank fence not done and never will be, it seems
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Amos Harel - July 14, 2009 - 12:00am

Seven years after construction work began on the West Bank separation fence, the project seems to have run aground. Work has slowed significantly since September 2007, and today, after the state has spent about NIS 9.5 billion, only about 60 percent of the more limited, revised route has been completed.

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Security wall barely built in past 15 months
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Tovah Lazaroff - July 9, 2009 - 12:00am

Almost no progress has been made toward completing the West Bank security barrier in the past 15 months, according to numbers provided to The Jerusalem Post by the Defense Ministry on Wednesday. To date, around 490 km. of the planned 805-km. barrier have been finished, according to Defense Ministry spokesman Shlomo Dror. This is the same figure he gave the Post in February 2008, just after a suicide bomber came through a gap in the structure and killed a woman in Dimona while wounding 40 other people.

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