Palestinians: Quartet peace plan contains 'encouraging elements'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Associated Press - (Analysis) September 29, 2011 - 12:00am

A senior Palestinian official said Thursday that the Middle East Quartet's proposal for renewing negotiations with Israel contained some encouraging elements, after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas convened top officials to discuss the matter. "The Quartet statement contains encouraging elements and we call on Israel to announce its commitment to the principles and points of reference it identifies," Yasser Abed Rabbo, the secretary general of the PLO, told reporters after the meeting.

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Israeli agency urges funding to be cut from extremist settler college
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent
by Donald MacIntyre - (Analysis) September 28, 2011 - 12:00am

Israel's domestic intelligence agency is urging the government to stop funding a religious college in a Jewish West Bank settlement after warning that its senior rabbis are encouraging students to attack Palestinians. The intelligence agency, Shin Bet, pressed a month ago for an immediate block on the annual £226,000 grant for the religious college, or yeshiva, in the notoriously extreme settlement of Yitzhar, near Nablus. The Education Ministry has reportedly yet to take a decision despite two meetings with Shin Bet.

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Israel must annex West Bank settlements, right-wing MKs tell Netanyahu
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Jonathan Lis - (Analysis) September 27, 2011 - 12:00am

Israel should legally annex West Bank settlements in response to the Palestinians' recent bid for recognition in the United Nations, the leaders of several right-wing Knesset factions said in a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday. The letter was signed by Likud chairman Ze'ev Elkin, Shas chairman Avraham Michaeli, Habayit Hayehudi chairman Uri Orbach, and the leader of the National Union faction Yaakov Katz.

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Israel set to approve 1,100 new Jerusalem homes beyond the Green Line
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Nir Hasson - (Analysis) September 27, 2011 - 12:00am

The Jerusalem District Planning Committee is set to approve 1,100 new housing units in Jerusalem's contested Gilo neighborhood on Tuesday, despite past U.S. objections concerning any construction that expanded Gilo further across the Green Line. The plan was submitted by a subsidiary to the Jewish National Fund, and must pass 60 days in which the public may oppose it before being finally approved by Jerusalem's planning authorities.

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Israel approves new housing despite pleas for delay
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Edmund Sanders - (Analysis) September 27, 2011 - 12:00am

Reporting from Jerusalem— Israel gave preliminary approval Tuesday to the construction of about 1,100 new housing units in East Jerusalem, brushing aside pleas from U.S. and European diplomats to delay the controversial project as they attempt to restart peace talks. The Interior Ministry's green light will clear the way for a significant expansion of the Jewish development of Gilo, on land seized by Israel during the 1967 Middle East War.

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US, EU condemn Israeli plan to expand settlement
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Alertnet
by Allyn Fisher-Ilan - (Analysis) September 27, 2011 - 12:00am

JERUSALEM, Sept 27 (Reuters) - Israel approved on Tuesday the construction of 1,100 settlement homes on annexed land in the West Bank, complicating global efforts to renew peace talks and defuse a crisis over a Palestinian statehood bid at the United Nations. The plan was met with a chorus of Western criticism. Britain and the European Union called on Israel to reverse the decision, and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said new settlement building would be "counter-productive" to the efforts to revive peace talks.

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Clinton: Israeli settlement move counter-productive
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Alertnet
September 27, 2011 - 12:00am

Israel's decision to build 1,100 settlement homes on West Bank land is counter-productive to reviving peace talks with the Palestinians, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Tuesday. The decision appears to make it even less likely that the two sides will answer a call on Friday by the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States, collectively known as the Quartet, to resume peace talks within a month.

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PA slams Israeli settlement plans
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
(Analysis) September 26, 2011 - 12:00am

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- The Palestinian Authority on Tuesday slammed Israel's approval of construction plans to build 1,100 new housing units in a settlement in East Jerusalem. Israel's regional planning and construction committee on Tuesday approved the plans, described by one committee member as "a nice gift for Rosh Hashanah," the Israeli news site Ynet reported. Israel captured East Jerusalem in 1967 and illegally annexed it in a move not recognized by the international community. All settlements built on occupied territory are illegal under international law.

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Building Boomlet in Jewish West Bank Brings Joy to None
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line
by Felice Friedson, Arieh O'Sullivan - (Analysis) September 18, 2011 - 12:00am

Meir Rubinstein pulls out a directive from Israel’s Defense Ministry that brought to a halt of construction of 210 apartments last year. The mayor of Beitar Illit, the most populous Jewish community in land acquired by Israel in the 1967 Six Day War, Rubinstein says he needs to build at least 1,000 units a year just to keep up with demand. “There was a freeze for the past five or six years. Twice there was an approval for 300 units so instead of 6,000 apartments – every year we need 1,000 flats – we got just 600, just 10%,” Rubinstein told The Media Line.

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Settlers target W. Bank mosque - officials
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Alertnet
by Reuters - (Analysis) September 8, 2011 - 12:00am

YATMA, West Bank, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Israeli settlers sprayed graffiti on a mosque and torched Palestinian cars in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, angered by Israel's demolition of structures at an unauthorised outpost, Palestinian officials said. "We condemn these attacks and also the Israeli government for allowing this to happen," Palestinian Authority spokesman Ghassan Khatib said, urging the international community "to provide our people with protection".

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