August 25th

Palestinian PM: We'll form de facto state by 2011
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
August 25, 2009 - 12:00am

The Palestinian Authority intends to establish a de-facto state within the next two years, despite failing peace talks, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said on Tuesday. "We have decided to be proactive, to expedite the end of the occupation by working very hard to build positive facts on the ground, consistent with having our state emerge as a fact that cannot be ignored," Fayyad told the Times of London. "This is our agenda, and we want to pursue it doggedly." According to Fayyad, the idea would be to "end the occupation, despite the occupation."

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Evicted Palestinians camp by home taken by settlers
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Jihan Abdalla - August 25, 2009 - 12:00am

Fresh dates and chicken soup were served up at dusk on the sidewalk in the well-heeled suburb of Sheik Jarrah this week, as the evicted Palestinian al-Ghawi family spent another night camped outside their former home. Their stone house in Arab east Jerusalem, in a district of consulates and trendy restaurants, is now home to Jewish settlers, who moved in as they were being kicked out on Aug 2. The furniture and belongings of the seven-member family were tossed on the street. Their neighbor offered shelter.

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Fayyad unveils plan for de facto state by 2011
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
August 25, 2009 - 12:00am

Palestinian caretaker Prime Minister Salam Fayyad unveiled his plan to establish a de facto state within two years on Tuesday. Fayyad’s plan is to build up the apparatus of a state in the West Bank and Gaza even before Israel has withdrawn its forces from Palestinian land. He said the Palestinian Authority wants to take “positive steps … despite the occupation.” “This is on the path to freedom,” he said at a Ramallah news conference on Tuesday.

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Israeli airstrike kills three in Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
August 25, 2009 - 12:00am

sraeli airstrikes overnight on a smuggling tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah killed two Palestinians and injured nine others. According to medical sources Nael Ali Batiniji, 22, and Mansour Ali Batiniji, 32, and Ibrahim Batiniji 24, arrived dead at Abu Yousef An-Najjar Hospital in Rafah. The three were brothers. Rescue workers were still searching for more bodies in the rubble of the tunnel. The medics also said nine injured people were taken to hospitals in ambulances after the strike.

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Settlement issue looms over Netanyahu's Europe trip
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Ilene Prusher - August 24, 2009 - 12:00am

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu embarked on a four-day trip to Europe on Monday, during which he will meet in London with US Middle East peace envoy George Mitchell to try to firm up an agreement for fast-tracking peace talks with the Palestinians.

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Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad says time is running out for peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Times
by James Hider - August 25, 2009 - 12:00am

The Palestinian Authority intends to bypass failing peace talks and establish its own de facto state within two years, Salam Fayyad, the Palestinian Prime Minister, said. Speaking on the eve of talks in London today between Binyamin Netanyahu and Gordon Brown, his Israeli and British counterparts, Mr Fayyad said that the idea was to “end the occupation, despite the occupation”. He told The Times in an interview: “After 16 years [of failed peace talks] why not change the discourse?

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August 24th

Israeli plans to construct 104 new housing units in the Palestinian East Jerusalem area Ras al-Amud draw swift reactions. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu heads to London for talks with U.S. Special Mideast Envoy George Mitchell and European heads of government. Reports from Gaza say that Hamas is enforcing a conservative religious dress code on all school girls. Controversy continues over the publication of an article in Swedish paper Aftonbladet accusing the Israeli army of "harvesting" organs from Palestinians during the Gaza war. An op-ed in The Wall Street Journal by Sam Bahour urges Israel to allow more Palestinian economic development in the West Bank.

Dr Erakat on plans to construct a new Israeli settlement in occupied East Jerusalem
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Palestine Liberation Organization
by Negotiations Affairs Department - August 24, 2009 - 12:00am

Chief Palestinian Negotiator, Dr Saeb Erakat, today said that plans to construct a new Israeli settlement in the Palestinian neighborhood of Ras al-Amud in occupied East Jerusalem provided yet another example of the obstacles Israel continues to place in the way of international efforts to restart negotiations. Submitted for approval to Israeli authorities, and reportedly to be called ‘Ma’aleh David’, plans for the new settlement include the construction of 104 new settlement units.

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Israel Still Strangles the Palestinian Economy
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Wall Street Journal
by Sam Bahour - (Opinion) August 21, 2009 - 12:00am

Palestinians are as eager as anyone to see positive economic development for their tormented country. But they know full well that real economic progress awaits their release from Israeli military occupation (West Bank, East Jerusalem) and siege (Gaza Strip).

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Religious fundamentalism in Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Ahram
by Stephen Lendman - August 24, 2009 - 12:00am

In the book Jewish History, Jewish Religion, by Israel Shahak (1933-2001), it is argued that while Islamic fundamentalism is vilified in the West, comparable Jewish extremism is largely ignored. In the book's foreword, Edward Said wrote: "... Shahak's mode of telling the truth has always been rigorous and uncompromising. There is nothing seductive about it, no attempt made to put it 'nicely,' no effort expended on making the truth palatable... For Shahak killing is murder is killing is murder: his manner is to repeat.

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