Vote set on Israeli settlement boycott bill
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
by Aron Heller - July 10, 2011 - 12:00am

Israeli backers of a bill that would punish people for boycotting West Bank settlements said Sunday they will push forward with the proposal, despite accusations that it's an undemocractic slap at freedom of speech. In recent years, settlement opponents in Israel have joined boycotts of products made in the settlements. The Palestinians and most of the international community say settlements are illegal because they are built on war-won land. The Palestinians want the West Bank for their future state. The local initiatives have angered settlers and their powerful political patrons.

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Israel expropriates Palestinian land in order to legalize West Bank settlement
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Chaim Levinson - July 8, 2011 - 12:00am

For the first time in three years, the state has confiscated uncultivated land in the West Bank. The land will be used to legalize a nearby settlement outpost. Last week, acting on orders from the government, the Civil Administration declared 189 dunams of land belonging to the Palestinian village of Karyut to be state land, so as to retroactively legalize houses and a road in the Hayovel neighborhood of the settlement of Eli. This would seem to violate Israel's long-standing commitment to the United States not to expropriate Palestinian lands for settlement expansion.

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PA report: Israeli settler attacks on the rise
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
July 7, 2011 - 12:00am

Israeli settler violence towards Palestinians increased "dramatically" in June, according to a Palestinian Authority report released Wednesday. The report documented 139 attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank by the Israeli army and settlers as reported to the government during the month, including demolition of 95 buildings and over 3600 olive trees and vines. The release highlighted a fire in the village of Madama on Tuesday, and in Aqraba village on Monday, both in the northern Nablus district, which it attributed to Israeli settlers.

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Alarming rise in clashes between settlers and Palestinians in West Bank
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Chaim Levinson - July 5, 2011 - 12:00am

The IDF is alarmed by the increase in clashes in the West Bank between Palestinian villagers and settlers in nearby outposts and by the growing harassment of senior army officers and civil servants by right-wing extremists. The commanders are concerned that the situation may deteriorate even further with the diplomatic crisis looming in September when Palestinians make their bid for UN recognition.

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If... then...
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Gershon Baskin - (Opinion) July 5, 2011 - 12:00am

The Palestinian media are reporting that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has responded to President Barack Obama’s request for an answer on whether or not Israel agrees to the president’s parameters for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. According to the reports, Netanyahu demanded a letter of commitment from the US, patterned on the letter from former president George W.

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Israel pushes on with settlement plans on annexed land
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Maayan Lubell - July 4, 2011 - 12:00am

Israel's Jerusalem municipality approved a plan on Monday to build hundreds of new homes for Jews on annexed land in the occupied West Bank, a council member said. Elisha Peleg told Reuters that the city planning commission had approved building plans for 900 new units in Gilo, an urban settlement built on land Israel captured in a 1967 war and unilaterally annexed to Jerusalem.

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Six years on, lessons of Gaza withdrawal resonate for West Bank
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
by Linda Gradstein - (Opinion) July 4, 2011 - 12:00am

SHILOH, West Bank (JTA) -- Yisrael Medad remembers when just eight families lived in the red-roofed homes in this Jewish settlement deep in the hills of the West Bank. Now some 2,500 Israelis live here, and Shiloh has playgrounds, schools and a yeshiva. The red-roofed homes sprawl over several hills, and new homes continue to be built. At the bottom of the hill is the archaeological excavation of the biblical Shiloh, where the tabernacle is believed to have been built.

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PA continues crackdown on settlements goods ban
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
June 23, 2011 - 12:00am

SALFIT (Ma’an) -- The Magistrates Court of Salfit issued a decision Thursday, fining a driver $2,820 for transporting settlement goods, and suspending the man's license for six months. The 40-year-old truck driver, from the village of Deir Al-Hatab in the Salfit district, was charged according to the 2010 law on the prohibition and control of settlement products, article 14/2/A 2010 and under the Criminal Procedure Code article 274/2 of 2001. Police said the man had been transporting a load of gauze rolls, they said the goods were confiscated and would be sold at auction.


The danger of Netanyahu's new settlement policy
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
(Editorial) June 22, 2011 - 12:00am

A few days after he revealed his opinion that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict does not stem from a territorial dispute, and is therefore insoluble, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided to implement a horrific idea necessitated by his worldview. He decided to accelerate the race to occupy additional territories in the disputed areas by thinning out the means of supervision of the settlement project authorities.

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The settler hoax has defeated realistic Zionism
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Avirama Golan - (Opinion) June 22, 2011 - 12:00am

The results of a telephone survey on the Jordan Valley among 500 Hebrew-speaking Israelis were quietly released recently. The survey revealed that more than anything, Israelis prefer discussing their cottage cheese, or their cottage, if they have one, than to be bothered too much by reality. That's how they can easily be sold any pseudo-political fantasy and can be marketed a desire that is cut off from all context - practical or moral.

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