May 21st

Israel blocks mail between Gaza, West Bank ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency May 21, 2010 - 12:00am Israel has halted the flow of government sector mail between Gaza and the West Bank, causing a delay in the receipt of official documents, officials said on Thursday. Maher Abu Ouf, Palestinian director for the Erez crossing between Gaza and Israel, said Israel shut-down all mail services last Wednesday after forces detained Gaza-based postal service official Sufian Abu Zubda. "We do not know the reasons for Abu Zubda's detention," Abu Ouf told Ma'an. » Read more

Palestinians Offer Wider Concessions on Land ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Wall Street Journal by Charles Levinson - May 21, 2010 - 12:00am Palestinian negotiators have surprised Washington with a bold opening offer to White House peace envoy George Mitchell that includes concessions on territory beyond those offered in past Palestinian-Israeli peace talks, according to officials briefed on the current negotiations. » Read more

May 20th

Palestinian Agro-Resistance ATFP World Press Roundup Article from This Week in Palestine by Vivien Sansour - May 20, 2010 - 12:00am Abu Adnan does not talk about a global movement to save the earth. He doesn’t know much about Greenpeace or the Kyoto Protocol; but he does know everything about keeping his soil healthy and fertile, and the terraces he builds to protect his soil make his mountainous piece of land a visual paradise. A farmer since childhood in his home village of Faqua in the Jenin district, Abu Adnan Abed El Salam, who is now 78 years old, has built over 60 terraces in his lifetime, one stone at a time. When people come to talk to him about the “new” trend of organic agriculture he smiles. » Read more

Residency and naturalisation ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times by Daoud Kuttab - May 20, 2010 - 12:00am My eldest daughter, Tamara, who studied and worked in the US, finally got her own Israeli-issued residency ID for Jerusalem. It took her seven years to accomplish this feat despite the fact that she was born and raised in Jerusalem to parents holding Jerusalem residency. What would normally be a routine act is a major hurdle for Palestinians, especially those who reside in Jerusalem. » Read more

Arab funding could be a game changer ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News by George S. Hishmeh - May 20, 2010 - 12:00am The Israeli narrative — thanks to Israel's wealthy and well-connected supporters and the many politicians who, in turn, are desperately in need of their financial backing and votes — is prevalent in the West, especially in the United States. This is evident in the halls of Congress, in the American media, in mushrooming think-tanks in key cities, particularly Washington, and, needless to say, among some senior US officials. » Read more

A Roadside Rally For Soldiers Who Refused Orders ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by Nathan Jeffay - May 19, 2010 - 12:00am Some 400 protesters gathered recently outside a prison dating back to the British Mandate to offer solidarity with inmates who are being hailed by some as modern-era Sharanskys. “Refuseniks claimed the right for Jews to live in a certain place in the world, and these youngsters are defending that right,” Likud party activist Shlomo Amshalem said of two men being held inside the prison. » Read more

Democracy according to Reichman ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Gideon Levy - May 20, 2010 - 12:00am In the end, we will only be left with Prof. Uriel Reichman. After we sent Prof. Noam Chomsky away, and there was no sharp rebuke by Israeli academics (who in their silence support a boycott of Bir Zeit University ), we will be left with a narrow and frightening intellectual world. It will be the kind of intellectual world shaped by the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya - an institution of army officers and the rich, headed by its president, Reichman. » Read more

Classified report: PA to step up anti-Israel diplomacy despite proximity talks ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Barak Ravid - May 20, 2010 - 12:00am Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman says in a classified document that despite the indirect talks with the Palestinian Authority, the PA is expected to conduct a diplomatic struggle against Israel abroad. Lieberman makes his case in the document handed out to the forum of seven senior ministers. The report also states that the Palestinians will seek to use the so-called proximity talks to increase American pressure on Israel so the freeze on settlement construction will continue well beyond its September deadline. » Read more

Family Sexual Assault Surfacing in Gaza ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line by Omer Ghraieb - May 19, 2010 - 12:00am Eighteen-year-old “E.S.” hides in the corner of her dark room, fearing the approach of a family member coming to prey on her flesh again. The wary girl with deep green eyes and golden locks makes several grueling attempts at speech, eventually letting out in screams that she was being raped by her relatives, finally leading her to isolation. » Read more

Palestinian official: Israeli settlers' attempts to stop boycott campaign doomed to failure ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua May 19, 2010 - 12:00am Statements by Jewish settlers that describe a new Palestinian campaign to boycott the Israeli settlements' products as economic terror are meaningless and are doomed, a Palestinian official said on Wednesday. Omar Abu Subaih, organizer of a home-to-home campaign to warn people against purchasing products of the Jewish settlement built in the occupied Palestinian territories, told Xinhua that the " settlers' attempts to stop the campaign will fail," affirming that the "settlements and their products are the real terror." » Read more