The banality of occupation
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Edna Canetti - August 18, 2010 - 12:00am

Those who want to know what’s happening know it. The truth screams from all directions. The Breaking the Silence movement publishes detailed reports about the conduct of IDF soldiers in the territories. The same is true for B’Tselem, Machsom Watch, and journalists such as Gideon Levy and Amira Hass.

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Witnesses: Settlers beat 10-year-old Palestinian girl
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
August 18, 2010 - 12:00am

Israeli settlers assaulted a 10-year-old Palestinian girl on Sunday evening and an Israeli military jeep struck an 8-year-old boy in Hebron, witnesses said. Inas Mazen Qaaqour was beaten by residents of the illegal Tel Rumeida settlement and treated at the Hebron Government Hospital where medics said she was bruised all over her body. Sameh Natshe Jacob was taken to the same hospital, and medics described his condition as stable. An Israeli military spokesman did not respond to several requests for comment.

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UN official: Israel should extend freeze
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Jordana Horn - August 18, 2010 - 12:00am

In a briefing to the Security Council at its meeting Tuesday morning on the Middle East, a senior United Nations official called on Israel to continue the partial moratorium on settlement construction beyond September 26 and to extend it to all settlement activity, as well as to construction in east Jerusalem. “We are nearing a turning point in the efforts to promote direct negotiations,” Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs Oscar Fernandez- Taranco told the Security Council, in his briefing on the situation in the Middle East.

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Paying for the ‘price-tag’ policy
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Mohamed Alasmar - August 18, 2010 - 12:00am

It is no secret that over the course of the past several months, Israeli settlers in the West Bank have randomly attacked Palestinian villagers and their property after their government makes decisions they oppose. Settlers who resist the government’s limited attempts to implement the partial freeze of settlement expansion have adopted what they call the “price tag” policy, an irrational and indiscriminate policy applied against Palestinians who have no role in Israeli decision-making processes.

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Palestinian minors held 3 weeks on suspicion of arson
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Amira Hass - August 18, 2010 - 12:00am

Palestinian minors suspected of perpetrating even minor crimes against settlers are subject to extreme pressure during detention and interrogation in an effort to extract a confession, the Palestinian branch of Defense for Children International claims.

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Last-minute hitch before Palestinians, Israelis launch direct talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
by David Harris - August 17, 2010 - 12:00am

A statement is anticipated any day now to announce the commencement of direct Israeli-Palestinian talks. However, the news initially expected as early as Sunday has been put on ice as the parties continue to argue about the terms of reference. DOMESTIC CONSIDERATION The Jewish settlement issue is still on the way leading to the direct talks, as the Palestinians are reportedly insisting the statement stressing there be an Israeli settlement freeze in the West Bank and that a final deal be signed in two years.

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Settlers and Palestinians remember 2005 Gaza pullout
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
by Paul Wood - August 17, 2010 - 12:00am

Neve Dekalim was once the largest Israeli settlement in the Gaza Strip. Now it is mostly sand and rubble. Palestinian trucks are taking away the last of what remains of the Jewish homes, to use as building material. The evictions from Neve Dekalim took place five years ago today under then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's unilateral disengagement plan. In all, some 9,000 Israelis were evacuated from 21 Jewish settlements. Celia Goldstein, a British-born settler, was one of the last to leave Neve Dekalim.

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Jordan Valley is a microcosm of Israel's colonisation
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Ben White - August 17, 2010 - 12:00am

The Jordan Valley, stretching all the way down the West Bank's eastern side, is a microcosm of Israel's discriminatory policies of colonisation and displacement. For 40 years, settlements have been established, military no-go areas declared, and Palestinians' freedom of movement restricted. There are now 27 colonies in the Jordan Valley – most of them had been established by the late 1970s under Labour governments. There are also nine "unauthorised" outposts. In the 1990s, the size of territory afforded to the settlements increased by 45%.

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Palestinians reiterate demand for settlement freeze before direct talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
August 16, 2010 - 12:00am

The Palestinian leadership Sunday stressed anew that Israel must stop all forms of settlement activities before launching direct negotiations with the Palestinians. The demand, long held by the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), was a focal point when President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad held separate meetings with Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store in Ramallah late last night.

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Israel should not keep its history behind lock and key
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Jonathan Cook - August 16, 2010 - 12:00am

History may be written by the victors, as Winston Churchill is said to have observed, but the opening up of archives can threaten a nation every bit as much as the unearthing of mass graves. That danger explains a decision quietly taken last month by Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, to extend by an additional 20 years the country’s 50-year rule for the release of sensitive documents.

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