April 24th

Clampdown on Palestinian media spreads to the Web ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency by George Hale - April 24, 2012 - 12:00am BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- The Palestinian Authority has quietly instructed Internet providers to block access to news websites whose reporting is critical of President Mahmoud Abbas, according to senior government officials and data analyzed by network security experts. » Read more

Erekat: PLO to ask Security Council for settlement censure ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency April 24, 2012 - 12:00am JERICHO (Ma'an) -- PLO official Saeb Erekat said Tuesday that Palestinian leaders are examining ways to secure a resolution from the UN Security Council condemning Israeli settlement building, after Israel gave legal sanction to three settler outposts. In an interview with official PA radio Voice of Palestine, Erekat called on the Israeli government to choose between peace and settlement expansion, warning that sanctioning more settlements on Palestinian land will kill the two-state solution. » Read more

Israel bans a textbook promoting Arab rights as 'unbalanced' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor by Ben Lynfield - April 23, 2012 - 12:00am The right-wing government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has banned a high school civics textbook as "unbalanced," a move critics say is part of a broader bid to shift Israel's values in a direction that is more nationalistic and less democratic. Officials cited factual errors in the book as the main factor in the decision. But liberal educators say the errors could easily be corrected and that the larger issue is a national struggle to define Israel's identity. » Read more

UNRWA inaugurates Dutch-funded housing project for 1,300 Gazans ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua April 24, 2012 - 12:00am GAZA, April 24 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations Relief and Work Agency (UNRWA) on Tuesday inaugurated a housing project, funded by the Netherlands, to reside 1,300 Palestinian homeless in southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis. The UNRWA said in a press statement that the houses, funded by a 7.2-million-U.S. dollar donation from the Dutch government, will provide shelter to 1,300 Palestinians in western Khan Younis refugee camp. » Read more

Israel punishes Palestinian hunger-strikers ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters by Jihan Abdalla - April 23, 2012 - 12:00am RAMALLAH, West Bank, April 23 (Reuters) - Israel has taken measures against some 1,200 Palestinian prisoners on a hunger strike, denying them family visits and separating them from inmates not taking part in the protest, prison authorities said on Monday. The open-ended strike, dubbed the "battle of empty stomachs" by organisers, began last Tuesday. The prisoners are demanding better jail conditions and for Israel to end detention without trial for Palestinians suspected of security offences. » Read more

Israel has options to overcome loss of Egyptian gas ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters by Ari Rabinovitch - April 23, 2012 - 12:00am JERUSALEM, April 23 (Reuters) - Israel's energy sector will be hurt in the short term by Egypt's decision to stop selling it natural gas, but the country has been weaning itself off the once-crucial supplies and has a number of contingency plans that will lessen the impact. Sunday's announcement that Egyptian state-owned oil and gas companies would stop the gas sales, which were part of a 20-year deal, was the dramatic conclusion to a year of sabotage and pipeline attacks that had already disrupted supplies. » Read more

Gaza's Hamas rulers to introduce Hebrew ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press April 23, 2012 - 12:00am GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — A senior Hamas official in Gaza says the territory's militant rulers intend to begin teaching Hebrew for high school students beginning next year. Ziad Thabet, the education ministry undersecretary, said Monday the government is trying to find and train teachers. He says students should be introduced to as many languages as possible. Hebrew, the chief language of Israelis, is now only offered as a university course. Thabet says the Gaza government still needs to approve the decision, but it is likely to go ahead. » Read more

Israel to seek deferral of settler evictions ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press April 23, 2012 - 12:00am JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday he would ask Israel's Supreme Court to defer next week's deadline for demolishing five apartment buildings erected illegally for settlers in the West Bank. The court has ruled that the buildings, which house 30 families in the unauthorized Ulpana outpost on the fringes of the Beit El settlement, must be razed by May 1 because they were built on privately owned Palestinian land. Netanyahu said his government is looking for "legal" ways to prevent the buildings from being demolished. » Read more

Israel legalizes West Bank settler outposts ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press by Amy Teibel - April 24, 2012 - 12:00am JERUSALEM — Israel legalized three unsanctioned West Bank settler outposts and was trying to save another on Tuesday, infuriating the Palestinians as the chief American Mideast envoy was in the region laboring to revive peace efforts. The decision fueled suspicions that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's hardline coalition would try to legalize as many rogue settlement sites as possible to cement Israel's hold on occupied land the Palestinians claim for a state. » Read more

Hamas holds secret elections, picks Haniyeh as head of Gaza politburo ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Avi Issacharoff - April 24, 2012 - 12:00am Hamas recently held secret elections for the leadership of the organization's Gaza political bureau, officials in the militant group told Haaretz. According to the officials, Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh won the race by a significant margin. The win in effect makes Haniyeh the Strip's first recognized Hamas political leader since Israel's assassination of Hamas' former Gaza political chief Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi in 2004. » Read more