Palestinians to push heritage agenda at UNESCO ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters October 10, 2011 - 12:00am The Palestinians will seek World Heritage status for the birthplace of Jesus once the UN cultural agency admits them as a full member, and will then nominate other sites in the West Bank for the same standing, an official said. Hamdan Taha, a Palestinian Authority minister who deals with antiquities and culture, said UNESCO membership was the Palestinians' natural right. He described the objections of some governments to the move, including the United States, as "regrettable." » Read more

Isolation? What isolation? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Danny Ayalon - (Opinion) October 9, 2011 - 12:00am During the past few months, Israel’s purported growing isolation has been the subject of much discussion. It is far from the truth, and it is ironic that this debate has taken place during an effective Israeli challenge to the long-standing paradigm of the Palestinians using the United Nations as a “rubber stamp” for its capricious policies. » Read more

Hamas calls for seizing Israeli soldiers to swap for Palestinian prisoners ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua by Yamei Wang - October 7, 2011 - 12:00am GAZA, Oct. 7 (Xinhua) -- A senior official of the Islamic Hamas movement in Gaza on Friday called on Palestinian militants to seize Israeli soldiers and exchange them with Palestinians held in Israeli jails. The popular, political, media and diplomatic efforts inside and outside "can never be an alternative to the military efforts to rescue our prisoners from the oppressive occupation's prisons," said Ahmad Bahar, a Gaza-based Hamas leader and deputy speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council, in a press statement. » Read more

Palestinian killed in Gaza blast ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Statesman by Josef Federman - October 9, 2011 - 12:00am JERUSALEM — Palestinian officials in the Gaza Strip say at least one person has been killed in an explosion along the northern border with Israel. The cause of the blast is unclear, and medical teams are removing the remains of the dead. The Israeli army says it was not involved in Monday's incident. Army officials say they believe the blast was set off by two militants who were trying to plant a bomb. Israeli troops frequently clash with Palestinian militants in the border area.

The Israeli government is fooling you ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Akiva Eldar - (Opinion) October 10, 2011 - 12:00am Did you know that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has just welcomed a diplomatic plan that posits the borders of June 4, 1967, as a basis for negotiations with the Palestinians, along with mutual and consensual territorial exchanges? Did you hear that Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman (Yisrael Beiteinu) welcomed the demand to freeze construction beyond the Green Line entirely, including in East Jerusalem? Were you told that Deputy Prime Minister Moshe Ya'alon (Likud) welcomes the demand for the immediate dismantling of all the outposts built in the past decade? » Read more

PA: Quartet must act on Israeli settlement 'provocations' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency October 9, 2011 - 12:00am RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- The Palestinian Authority said on Sunday Israel's decision to approve new housing units in an East Jerusalem settlement undermined the Middle East Quartet's proposal for talks. "Israel's approval of more settlement housing, this time in Pisgat Zeev, is a clear violation of the Quartet's initiative, which calls for negotiations without pre-conditions and without provocations," the statement said. "The Quartet must tell Israel that it cannot pretend to accept its initiative while flagrantly breaching its terms," it added. » Read more

Open letter to Mahmoud Abbas for Yom Kippur ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Carlo Strenger - (Blog) October 7, 2011 - 12:00am Dear Mr. Abbas, Generally I write to my fellow Jews and Israelis for our high holidays. For you Yom Kippur is, of course, not a day of reckoning, but I hope you will accept these words from an Israeli who has sponsored your cause for years with all his heart. I have done so no less for the sake for my country than for your country that has yet to come into being. » Read more

Quartet to ask Israelis, Palestinians to meet within days ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency October 10, 2011 - 12:00am BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- The Middle East Quartet will invite Israelis and Palestinians to meet in "coming days," envoys said on Sunday after convening in Brussels to discuss their plan to revive negotiations. Quartet representative Tony Blair said Sunday's meeting "showed the Quartet's commitment to the timetable for talks set out in our September statement," according to a press statement from the group. » Read more

In Jaffa, Israeli racism towards Arabs is routine ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Roy Arad - October 10, 2011 - 12:00am A meeting between the head of the Israel Police and a group of Arab notables is never something that sounds good. I come to the well-kept community center in the Arab Ajami neighborhood in Jaffa where the meeting is to take place. A Christian notable with a huge gold cross comes through the door while a correspondent for the British newspaper The Guardian checks with the tall reporter from the Ynet website as to what exactly is going on. » Read more

A Palestinian AIPAC? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Politico by Ben Smith - October 7, 2011 - 12:00am The Palestinian Authority Prime Minister, Salam Fayyad, is coming to Washington later this month, a tricky international moment for the PA and amid always-tricky domestic politics, to speak to the gala of the American Task Force on Palestine, a nine-year old group which is roughly aligned with his technocratic, moderate approach to getting statehood. » Read more