The world tires of the Palestinian cause
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
by Rami Khouri - November 18, 2009 - 1:00am

The atmosphere in Cairo this week tells us much about the contemporary Arab world’s view of the Pa­lestine cause in relation to domestic issues in every Arab country. Ordinary Arabs and their governments alike seem fed up with the incompetence of the Palestinian leadership, while remaining strongly committed emotionally to the justice and rights of the Palestinian cause. This is emotionally satisfying for Palestinians, but not very promising politically.

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Report: US diplomats held up at checkpoint
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
November 16, 2009 - 1:00am

Israeli soldiers manning new USAID-funded military checkpoint held up a convoy of US Consulate vehicles for several hours on Sunday, the Hebrew-language daily newspaper Maariv reported. The incident was apparently sparked when the diplomats refused to submit to a search, which Israeli soldiers were demanding at the new Jalamah crossing, which opened this week.

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Israel challenged on Gazan's ejection from West Bank
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Howard Schneider - November 13, 2009 - 1:00am

Gaza-born Berlanty Azzam, 21, was two months from receiving her bachelor's degree from Bethlehem University when the past caught up with her. During a routine stop at a West Bank checkpoint on Oct. 28, an Israeli guard noticed Gaza City as the town of residence on her ID, placed her under arrest for being in the West Bank without permission and, within hours, had her deported back to the Gaza Strip, blindfolded briefly and in handcuffs.

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Fragmenting Palestinian land
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Ben White - (Opinion) November 12, 2009 - 1:00am

A young student deported from the West Bank to Gaza is just the latest victim of Israeli efforts to sever ties between the territories Ben White guardian.co.uk, Thursday 12 November 2009 11.00 GMT Twenty-one-year-old Palestinian student Berlanty Azzam was seized by Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint in the West Bank last month. Bound and blindfolded, she was forcibly deported to the Gaza Strip. Berlanty was in her final semester at Bethlehem University in the West Bank, and was returning from a job interview in Ramallah.

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Blair Hails Economic Steps in West Bank
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner - November 10, 2009 - 1:00am

Palestinians marked two significant economic breakthroughs on Tuesday, counterpoints to the growing crisis in peace negotiations with Israel: a second cellphone company opened, with a planned investment of hundreds of millions of dollars; and a long-closed crossing point from Israel opened to limited motor traffic.

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Palestinian workers: We're being treated like cattle
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Daniel Edelson - November 3, 2009 - 1:00am

The 4,500 Palestinian workers who travel through the Eyal checkpoint, near West Bank city of Qalqilya, on their way to work in Israel, are finding it hard to enjoy the long-awaited winter. The checkpoint provides cover for those waiting to cross it, but its little shed can shelter about 100 people at the most, leaving the rest exposed to rain and cold winds. "I usually like the winter, but why do we have to stand here like this?" wondered Majid Nazal, a construction worker who crosses the checkpoint daily.

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Jordan Valley may be hurdle in peace talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Howard Schneider - November 2, 2009 - 1:00am

The backhoes are busy on housing plots for this new Israeli settlement in the Jordan Valley, and young families, under army guard and toting M-16s, have begun cultivating dozens of acres of land with dates, olives and other crops. To the south, a water pipeline from Jerusalem has let veteran farmers double the land irrigated for date trees to 9,000 acres, with a second pipeline and more farmland expansion planned.

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Student expelled to Gaza Strip by force
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent
by Ben Lynfield - October 30, 2009 - 12:00am

A Palestinian student has been handcuffed, blindfolded and forcibly expelled to the Gaza Strip by Israeli troops just two months before she was due to graduate from university. Berlanty Azzam, 21, who was studying for a business degree at Bethlehem University, said she was coming home in a shared taxi from a job interview in Ramallah on Wednesday when soldiers at the "Container" checkpoint took her identity card and that of another passenger with a Gaza address.

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Gridlock in the Mideast
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Alastair MacDonald - (Blog) October 26, 2009 - 12:00am

Want to know how it feels to be George Mitchell, President Obama’s special envoy to the Middle East? Try getting from Jerusalem to Ramallah on a typical weekday at the rush hour. And experience stalemate, frustration, competitive selfishness, blind fury and an absence of movement that even the most stubborn and blinkered of West Bank bus drivers might see as a metaphor for the peace process that is going nowhere fast right now.

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Gaza students stuck in Strip
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Israel News
by Yaheli Moran Zelikovich - October 21, 2009 - 12:00am

With the 2009-2010 academic year under way, 838 Palestinian university students are still waiting for the authorization that will enable them to leave the Gaza Strip in favor of overseas universities. According to Gisha the Legal Center for Freedom of Movement, the students cannot leave the Strip due to the Israeli blockade on Gaza.

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