From Sheikh Jarrah to Sheikh Munis
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Gideon Levy - (Opinion) August 6, 2009 - 12:00am

At the top of the hill, a few dozen meters from where a house now stands, there used to be an irrigation pool for the village citrus groves. I swim every morning at the municipal swimming pool built on the ruins of the village irrigation pool. Palestinian Jaffa oranges grew in the now-vanished groves. My house stands there now. The land was "redeemed," as land acquisition was called in Zionist propaganda.

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Sheikh Jarrah really says it all
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Larry Derfner - (Opinion) August 5, 2009 - 12:00am

If the Obama administration goes all the way in its demand for a total settlement freeze, if it stands firm against Israeli emotional blackmail, we may have this week's debacle in Sheikh Jarrah to thank. The eviction of two Palestinian families from their homes in Arab east Jerusalem where they'd lived for over 50 years, and the takeover of the houses by Israeli zealots intent on "re-Judaizing" the neighborhood, revealed our settlement policy in all its glory. It reminded everyone that the issue isn't houses and zoning, it's justice and decency - or, rather, injustice and indecency.

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Settlers: Construction has been frozen
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Tovah Lazaroff - August 5, 2009 - 12:00am

The Americans might be waiting for Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to declare a freeze on new Jewish construction in Judea and Samaria, but according to the settlers, such a moratorium has been in place since Netanyahu took office at the end of March. "Everything is frozen already," Gush Etzion Regional Council head Shaul Goldstein told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday.

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Settlers: State colluding with left-wing groups against us
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
August 4, 2009 - 12:00am

Tension between the Defense Ministry and the official body representing West Bank settlers reached a boiling point after the latter accused the state of colluding with leftist groups in filing anti-settler petitions to the High Court of Justice, according to Army Radio.

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Israel's evictions upset even its friends
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Ian Black - August 4, 2009 - 12:00am

It isn't necessary to be unduly cynical to wonder exactly what it takes for British diplomats to be "appalled" by anything. But that was the reaction to Israel's eviction of Palestinian families from the east Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah – the ugly face of ethnic cleansing and the creation of new "facts on the ground" that make nonsense of hopes for any movement in the moribund peace process.

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The continuing Nakba
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The San Francisco Chronicle
by Timothy Crawley - August 4, 2009 - 12:00am

Walk down what was formerly Al-Borj Street in Haifa, Israel, and you might catch sight of an old Jerusalem-stone building with arched doorways and windows cemented-over and a large Re/Max (an international real estate franchise) banner draped across the front. The house belongs to the Kanafani family, most of whom are living in exile in Lebanon but some of whom are now living as far away from home as San Francisco.

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Israel Evicts Palestinians From Homes
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - August 2, 2009 - 12:00am

Israeli security forces evicted two Palestinian families from their homes in East Jerusalem early Sunday after the families lost a long legal battle to remain in the contested properties, furthering a plan for Jewish settlement in the predominantly Arab area. The move, days after senior American officials visited Jerusalem to press for a settlement freeze, prompted sharp international criticism.

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Free Marriage Counseling
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Thomas L. Friedman - (Opinion) August 1, 2009 - 12:00am

Israel and America are having one of those periodic marital spats they have had over the years, replete with “I-am-not-taking-any-more-of-your-guff” outbursts by Obama officials at American Jewish leaders, and, yes — it wouldn’t be a real Israel-U.S. dust-up without it — Israeli accusations that Jewish Obama aides are “self-hating Jews,” working out their identity crises by working over Israel. Having been to this play before, and knowing both families, I’d like to offer some free marriage counseling.

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Settlement Foes Take Fight to Israel's High Court
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Howard Schneider - July 31, 2009 - 12:00am

It has been nearly a decade since the Jewish settlement of Migron appeared on the hilltop opposite this Palestinian village, beginning with a communications tower and followed by a cluster of homes and a fence around approximately 90 acres of land. Data tucked onto the hard drive of anti-settlement activist Dror Etkes's computer indicates that the land belongs to the residents of Burqa and nearby Deir Dibwan, and Etkes said he expects that information will one day force the settlers to leave.

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West Bank Settlers Send Obama Defiant Message
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner - July 30, 2009 - 12:00am

In this land of endless history and ethereal beauty, several thousand Jewish settlers gathered on a dozen West Bank hills with makeshift huts and Israeli flags over several days this week to mark an invented anniversary and defy the American president, conveying to his aides visiting Jerusalem what they thought of his demand for a settlement freeze.

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