Palestinians say Jewish settlers over half million in West Bank
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
August 2, 2012 - 12:00am

The number of Jewish settlers in the West Bank has exceeded half a million, an official Palestinian report said Thursday. According to the report issued by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, more than 536,000 Israeli settlers live in 144 settlements and outposts in the West Bank. The annual report showed that the number of settlers has seen a 1.3-percent increase compared to the year-end of 2010. The peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians have been stalled since 2010 because Israel insisted to continue settlement construction in the West Bank.


Israeli cabinet set to approve grants for building hotels in West Bank settlements
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Chaim Levinson - August 1, 2012 - 12:00am

A special panel will propose that the government give grants for building hotels in West Bank settlements near Jerusalem to absorb some of the the high demand for hotel rooms in the capital. A new interministerial committee of experts convened this year to designate priority areas for the coming years; it is expected to hand its proposals to the cabinet soon. According to a separate study, Jerusalem could suffer a shortage of accommodations in the future.

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Decoding Bibi's West Bank agenda
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Ron Pundak - (Opinion) August 1, 2012 - 12:00am

The prime minister’s policy of de facto annexation of the West Bank will end badly for everyone, and there will be no way out. It took a while, but the prime minister’s political ideology seems to have been decoded. The designation of a university in the West Bank city of Ariel, Judge Edmond Levy's report that Israel is not an occupier, the construction of more than a thousand new buildings in the settlements and intensive Israeli activity in Area C in the West Bank, all indicate the fundamental political principles that guide Benjamin Netanyahu.

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The PA's West Bank abuses weaken resistance to Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Shawan Jabarin - (Opinion) July 31, 2012 - 12:00am

In the Occupied Palestinian Territories, there is little faith in the principles of human rights. Notions of justice, accountability and international law mean too little to too many.

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Israeli spending on West Bank settlements up 38%
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Harriet Sherwood - July 31, 2012 - 12:00am

Israeli government spending on West Bank settlements has increased by 38% under prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu, according to official figures disclosed as the cabinet voted to implement an austerity package of tax increases and budget cuts. According to data from the Central Bureau of Statistics, obtained by the business newspaper Calcalist, spending on Jewish settlements in the West Bank was 1.1bn shekels (£160m) in 2011, up from 0.8bn the previous two years. The overall state budget increased by 2.7% in 2011, Calcalist reported.

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Israel's Wild West
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Ayyam
by Moshe Ronen - July 30, 2012 - 12:00am

The year: 1935. Three Zionist Jews, born in Persia and its environs, decide to buy plots in the Holy Land. They find a Bedouin Sheikh named Hussein Salaam Abu Kuaf, pay him and receive a 654 dunam tract [158 acres] in the Negev. Almost 80 years later, their descendants discover that a Bedouin village was constructed on the land that had been purchased for them, and the new tenants have no intention of leaving. “This is exactly like the Ulpana Hill crisis,” claim the Jewish land-owners. “Only this time, it’s about Bedouins who took over Jewish land.”

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Israel's top court delays evacuation of settlement
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
July 27, 2012 - 12:00am

Israel's Supreme Court on Friday delayed by at least three weeks the scheduled evacuation of an unauthorized West Bank settlement outpost that has become a symbol of settler defiance. The court said it has scheduled another hearing for the state to argue its case against the evacuation on Aug. 21, after previously ordering the Migron outpost be dismantled by Aug. 1.

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Settlers celebrate passing 350,000 mark; Peace Now says figures are inflated
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Times of Israel
by Raphael Ahren - July 26, 2012 - 12:00am

Jewish settlers in the West Bank have crossed the 350,000 mark this year, according to new Interior Ministry figures.

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Israel’s Settlers Are Here to Stay
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Dani Dayan - (Opinion) July 25, 2012 - 12:00am

Whatever word you use to describe Israel’s 1967 acquisition of Judea and Samaria — commonly referred to as the West Bank in these pages — will not change the historical facts. Arabs called for Israel’s annihilation in 1967, and Israel legitimately seized the disputed territories of Judea and Samaria in self-defense. Israel’s moral claim to these territories, and the right of Israelis to call them home today, is therefore unassailable.

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Settlers seize over 50 dunams of land across West Bank
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
July 23, 2012 - 12:00am

Settlers on Monday appropriated over 50 dunams of land in the northern and southern West Bank, official news agency Wafa reported. In the Tubas area of the Jordan Valley, settlers seized nearly 50 dunams of land and began farming it, village council head Aref Daraghmeh said. The land, which belongs to villagers, had previously been used by the Israeli army as a tank yard, he added. In Hebron, settlers from Susiya settlement seized five dunams of private Palestinian land near the town of Yatta, popular committee coordinator Rateb al-Jabour said.

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