ATFP News Roundup October 24, 2016

News:

Israeli authorities ordered settlers to stop construction on a new illegal outpost in the Jordan valley district of Tubas in the northern occupied West Bank, according Israeli authorities. (Ma'an/Ha'aretz)

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas arrived in Turkey on Sunday for a three-day diplomatic visit. (Ma'an)

Israeli military police opened an internal probe on Friday into the killing of 15-year-old Khalid Bahr Ahmad Bahr, who was shot and killed by Israeli forces on Thursday in Beit Ummar in the southern occupied West Bank, after soldiers claimed he was among a group of youths throwing rocks at Israeli soldiers. (Ma'an)

Spokesperson for the Jerusalem office of the Fatah movement Raafat Elayyan was removed from office on Saturday, soon after Fatah discharged one of its senior leaders and lawmakers, Jihad Tummaleh. (Ma'an/Times of Israel)

A right-wing member of the Knesset called for revoking the citizenship of Hagai El-Ad, the director of Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem, in response to El-Ad’s recent criticism of Israel's illegal occupation of the Palestinian territory before the United Nations Security Council. (Ma'an)

A nonpartisan Palestinian group known as Patriots to End Disagreement and Restore National Unity organized rallies in Gaza City and Ramallah on Saturday, to urge political rivals Fatah and Hamas to put an end to their disputes. (Ma'an)

Four Palestinians arrested late last week for attending a sukkot holiday event in a West Bank settlement were freed on Sunday evening, Channel 2 News reported. (Times of Israel)

Jubbet adh Dhib, in the Israeli-controlled West Bank, has been waiting for electricity for nearly three decades. (Washington Post)

The head of the United Nations cultural agency continued to distance herself from resolutions that deny Jewish ties to Jerusalem holy sites, as another agency committee prepares to vote on a similar measure. (JTA)

The Israeli minister of culture and sports wants nothing less than an overthrow of the nation’s elite. (New York Times)

The White House is proposing the federal government add an ethnic category for people of Middle Eastern and North African descent to the US census form. (Times of Israel)

The battle for control of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo intensified on Sunday with air strikes, ground offensives and shelling, the morning after a resurgence in fighting ended a Russian ceasefire, a monitor and rebel groups said. (Reuters)

Kurdish fighters said they had taken the town of Bashiqa near Mosul from Islamic State on Sunday as coalition forces pressed their offensive against the jihadists' last stronghold in Iraq.  (Reuters)

New details from a U.S. military investigation into Navy Chief Petty Officer Jason Finan's death in Iraq are illustrating the twin risks of a bomb-ridden battlefield and shifting front lines in the campaign to retake the city of Mosul from Islamic State. (Reuters)

Dozens of extra analysts have been dispatched to Iraq to pore over data that could offer insight into the group’s operations and future terror plots. (New York Times)

An inquiry barred the owners of a Russian airline from United Nations business, but they won a World Food Program contract to airdrop food aid in Syria. (New York Times)

The leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah movement, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, said on Sunday the door to electing a president was "wide open" and his members of parliament would vote for ally Michel Aoun at a parliamentary session at the end of October. (Reuters)

A cartoon which appeared on social media shows a drowning Egyptian, only his hand protruding from the depths, waving for help. The next strips show President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi diving in, taking the drowning man's watch and turning away. (Reuters)

Warplanes from a Saudi-led coalition attacked targets in Sanaa at dawn on Sunday, hours after a three-day truce in Yemen's war expired, residents in the capital said. (Reuters)

Commentary:

Lara Friedman says her UN Speech reflected her love for Israel but the truth about settlements. (Ha'aretz)

Uri Savir says Palestinians are following up on the possibility of former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak returning to politics, while Israelis are following up on moves by exiled former Palestinian Security Chief Gen. Mohammed Dahlan. (Al-Monitor)

Asmaa al-Ghoul says civil society institutions in Palestine, which are in charge of documenting violations and providing aid for development projects, have recently come under criticism for failing to rid the Palestinians from the oppressive Hamas and Fatah regimes. (Al-Monitor)

Mazal Mualem says many Israeli politicians chose to ignore the March of Hope for fear of being branded "leftist," although participants spanned the spectrum. (Al-Monitor)

Zeruya Shalev says it looked like a mirage in the heart of the boiling desert, but the Israeli and Palestinian women who came together to wage peace are reclaiming the right to hope. (Ynet)

Adnan Abu Amer says Palestinians feel that Arab official circles are neglecting their cause, as the Israeli narrative is increasingly promoted in schoolbooks. (Al-Monitor)

Mohammed Othman says the Palestinian Cultural Palace, a cultural center created by a youth group in the Gaza Strip and aimed to preserve the cultural heritage of the Palestinian people, may not be able to flourish in light of the lack of government financial support. (Al-Monitor)

John Allen and Charles Lister says the U.S. must bring Syria’s Assad and his backers to account now. (Washington Post)

Omar Shaaban explains life under siege in Syria. (Washington Post)

Hassan Hassan looks at the challenges faced by the forces and the US in Mosul. (The National)