Jerusalem council set to approve Jewish housing in Arab neighborhood
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Nir Hasson - February 7, 2011 - 1:00am


Several Palestinian families in East Jerusalem's Sheikh Jarrah will be evicted to pave way for two new buildings meant to comprise 13 apartments. The Jerusalem Municipal Committee for Planning and Building is expected to approve Monday the construction of two buildings that will include 13 apartments for Jewish residents in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem.


Hebron pushes for UNESCO World Heritage status
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
February 6, 2011 - 1:00am


As one of several sites identified by Palestinian officials for protection and preservation, Hebron's Old City residents - via the municipality - have put together a proposal to UNESCO to have the city recognized as a World Heritage site. The move was announced a week after an initiative from PA officials and Bethlehem groups petitioning for the same status for the Old City there. Municipal officials said the recognition of the Old City as a heritage site would strengthen residents, "against the Judiazation" of the city by settler groups and "the Israeli expansion policy."


The Lifta that never will be
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Esther Zandberg - February 3, 2011 - 1:00am


The first Arab residents have begun to enter their new homes in the village of Lifta at the western approach to Jerusalem. Many of them are descendants of Palestinian families who lived there until the eve of the Israeli War of Independence in 1948. When they left the village, it remained abandoned for decades and its ruins became a symbol of the destruction of the Palestinian community in Israel.


Louis Theroux: My time among the 'ultra-Zionists'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
by Louis Charbonneau - February 3, 2011 - 1:00am


On a hilltop in the Northern West Bank, not far from the large Palestinian city of Nablus, I met 17-year-old Yair Lieberman. A part-time labourer and student, Yair's home was a makeshift canvas-covered structure, only slightly more solid than a tent, which he shared with three other young men. The bed was a tangled mess of sheets, in the style of a conventional teenager's, and hung around the dwelling were posters - though not of pop groups, but of favourite rabbis. Outside, in the neighbouring lots, was a scattering of fifteen or so caravans and trailers - the outpost of Havat Gilad.


Could This Be the Map to Mideast Peace?
Media Mention of Ziad Asali In American Online - January 21, 2011 - 1:00am

It's a cliche among foreign policy circles that everyone knows what an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement will look like. Now a Washington think tank with close connections to officials in both Israel and the United States has sketched out realistic borders for a new Palestinian state.


Settlement issue isn’t Israel's problem, it's Obama's
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Natasha Mozgovaya - (Opinion) January 21, 2011 - 1:00am


Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Thursday the U.S. administration doesn’t see the proposed resolution which demands an immediate freeze of all construction at the settlements, discussed at the UN Security Council on Wednesday, as helpful to the peace process. In fact, it’s mostly unhelpful to the Obama Administration.


Obama must call Israeli settlements illegal
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
(Opinion) January 20, 2011 - 1:00am


"To veto or not to veto?" That is the agonising question that has President Barack Obama pacing the battlements of the White House waiting to dodge the slings and arrows of outraged Aipac. Provoked by the latest demolition in East Jerusalem, no fewer than 120 countries have sponsored a UN resolution condemning Israeli settlement activity. Hillary Clinton has also condemned it as "illegitimate", but the resolution introduces precision by terming the settlements as "illegal".


Palestinian, Russian leaders urge settlement freeze to resume negotiations
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
by Fares Akram - January 19, 2011 - 1:00am


Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and visiting Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday called on Israel to stop building settlements in order to resume stalled peace talks. "There are two options: negotiations and peace, or violence and terrorism," Abbas told a news conference after his talks with Medvedev in the West Bank city of Jericho, "The Palestinian side will never choose the second option."


Israel approves more East Jerusalem settler homes
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
January 18, 2011 - 1:00am


The city council on Monday approved the building of another 122 Israeli settler homes in occupied East Jerusalem, a councilor said, a move likely to bring fresh censure from the international community. Elisha Peleg, head of the conservative Likud group on the city council, told AFP its planning and construction committee had given the green light for construction of 90 housing units in Talpiot East and another 32 in Pisgat Zeev.


IDF collecting settlers' weapons
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Akiva Novick - January 14, 2011 - 1:00am


The Judea and Samaria Division has decided to collect hundreds of weapons handed to West Bank settlers by the army in light of the relative calm in the territories in recent years, infuriating settlement leaders. At the start of the al-Aqsa Intifada, more than a decade ago, the settlers received weapons from the army to help defend their communities. The recent improvement in the security-related situation in the West Bank, alongside a significant increase in weapon thefts in the settlements, has led to a decision to reduce the amount of military weapons available to settlers.



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