Remaining impartial in the Middle East
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
by Tim Franks - (Opinion) June 11, 2010 - 12:00am

First an admission: I am a Jew, and a journalist. And now an apology: I hate the solipsistic writing I am about to be guilty of, where the journalist puts himself at the centre of the story. But let me try to explain. The reason for the admission is that my dual identity - Jew and journalist - has not just been a matter for me these past three-and-a- half years. From the start, it was of apparently burning import for a good number of friends, acquaintances and people whom I had never met.

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President Obama to Mahmoud Abbas: Engage in talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Politico
by Kendra Marr, Laura Rozen - June 10, 2010 - 12:00am

Ten days after an Israeli operation to intercept a Gaza aid flotilla left nine dead and sparked international outrage, President Barack Obama met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas at the White House Wednesday and encouraged him to engage in direct talks with Israel.

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Palestinian Takes a Road Less Traveled
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Dan Williams - June 9, 2010 - 12:00am

Palestinian inspectors were on the hunt for goods in West Bank stores made in Israeli settlements, and metal scouring pads with no labeled place of origin caught their attention. “You better find out where these came from,” said one man, who slapped a “No settlement products” sticker on the door of the Riviera Palace Mall Grocery Store in Ramallah. “They might be from them.” The inspectors were conducting a campaign organized by Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, known until a few months ago for trying to prepare Palestinians for statehood through gradual political and economic change.

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8 cops, 38 settlers hurt in Beit El clashes
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Yaakov Lappin, Tovah Lazaroff - June 9, 2010 - 12:00am

In one of the most violent incidents since the start of the moratorium on new Jewish construction in the West Bank, eight police officers and 38 settlers were lightly hurt at the Beit El settlement Tuesday morning in clashes between the two groups. Settlers claimed that police had attacked them with pepper spray, while police contended that they had been stoned and called “Nazis.”

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Abu Libdeh participates in Tel Aviv seminar on PA boycott
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
June 8, 2010 - 12:00am

Palestinian Authority Minister of National Economy Hasan Abu Libdeh arrived in Tel Aviv on Monday afternoon to participate in a seminar on the PA's boycott of settlement goods. Organized by the German Friedrich Ebert Fund, Tel Aviv University, and the Peres Center For Peace, Abu Libdeh said his attendance was meant to inform Israel that the settlement enterprise and its economy in the West Bank "are obstacles to the peace process and the establishment of a Palestinian state."

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Israeli security forces clash with settlers while enforcing construction freeze
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Chaim Levinson - June 8, 2010 - 12:00am

A Border Police officer was lightly wounded during clashes in the West Bank settlement of Beit El, as security forces attempted to demolish an illegal structure there. This was the first clash in nearly a month. Two settler youths were arrested following the incident, on suspicion of hurling rocks at the special police unit. The forces were on sire to enforce demolition of a cabin and the foundations of another structure laid following declaration of the settlement freeze last December, The Border Police officer was hurt when a settler hurled a rock his way.

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Boycott - for things to change
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
by Michael Jansen - June 3, 2010 - 12:00am

Hopelessness and lack of a political horizon seem to have made the Palestinian Authority (PA) more assertive, even proactive. After years of marking time while negotiations with Israel went nowhere and Israeli colonisation proceeded apace, Ramallah is beginning to stir. One of the engines driving movement is the plan of Prime Minister Salam Fayyad to build the infrastructure of a state and then unilaterally proclaim the state in August 2011.

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Zero housing starts in W. Bank
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Tovah Lazaroff - June 1, 2010 - 12:00am

For the first time in more than two decades, and possibly in the history of the settlement movement, a three-month period has passed without any new settler construction in Judea and Samaria, according to numbers released on Monday by the Central Bureau of Statistics. The report, which shows zero settler housing starts in the first quarter of 2010, is part of a larger report on construction in Israel that is released by the CBS four times a year, including at the end of May.

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Fayyad hands out settlement boycott leaflets
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Ali Waked - May 28, 2010 - 12:00am

The Palestinians will continue to adhere to the anti-settlement boycott until their homes "will be empty of settlement goods," Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said Thursday. The PM passed out leaflets on Thursday urging consumers to boycott products made by Jewish settlements in the West Bank. He handed out leaflets bearing the names and pictures of 500 items on the black list of his Palestinian Authority, from peanuts to door frames.

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Palestinian fund to help workers quitting jobs at Jewish settlements
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
May 28, 2010 - 12:00am

RAMALLAH, May 27 (Xinhua) -- The Palestinian government will soon launch a fund of 50 million U.S. dollars with the aim of supporting Palestinian workers who intend to leave their jobs at Israeli settlements, labor minister at the Ramallah-based government said Thursday. "The government has adopted this choice since it has made its decision to boycott the Israeli settlements," Ahmed Majdalani told Xinhua.

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