Fayyad says PNA's deficit nearly 1 bln USD
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
May 31, 2011 - 12:00am

The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) needs nearly one billion U.S. dollars to cover shortage in its budget, Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said Tuesday. His remarks came as Germany pledged to pay 42 million euros (60 million dollars) in support of the PNA over the next year. Also on Tuesday, the PNA and the European Union (EU) signed an agreement to support educational, health and development projects in East Jerusalem. According to the agreement, the EU will pay six million euros (8.6 million dollars) to implement these programs.

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Fragile stability of aid-dependent Palestinian economy
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
by Jon Donnison - May 27, 2011 - 12:00am

"I've done nothing wrong," pleads the young offender, in a suspiciously hammed up fashion, as he is handcuffed and patted down. As he is bundled into the back of a police car, the would-be criminal flashes me a wink and a toothy smile. This is a training exercise. "I used to be an actor," he laughs, "before I joined the police." These are Palestinian police receiving training by officers from the European Union. The project was originally set up five years ago by the British government and has since been taken over by the EU.

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Rasmala, Palestine Investment Start $15 Million Fund
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bloomberg
by Fadwa Hodali - May 12, 2011 - 12:00am

Rasmala Investment Bank Ltd. started an equity fund to increase investor interest in the Palestinian territories with a $15 million investment from the Palestine Investment Fund. The overall size of the fund may reach $100 million in the next three years, Dubai-based Rasmala said yesterday in an e- mailed statement. The fund is seeking more money from local and foreign investors, the statement said. The “Palestinian market is very attractive in terms of its growth and return potential,” Eric Swats, head of asset management at Rasmala, told reporters in Ramallah yesterday.

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Palestinian PM urges Arab donors aid
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
May 11, 2011 - 12:00am

The Palestinian Authority appealed to Arab countries on Wednesday to pay the salaries of 155,000 government workers after Israel decided to suspend the transfer of tax funds to the PA. "We say to our Arab brothers: save us. We need your help more than any time before. It is the moment of truth," Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad told a news briefing in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Public sector workers' April salaries were about a week overdue following Israel's decision, taken in protest at a Palestinian unity deal involving the Islamist group Hamas.

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Abbas Urges Continuation of U.S. Aid Despite Agreement With Hamas
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner - May 8, 2011 - 12:00am

President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority beseeched a group of visiting American Jews on Sunday to urge Congress not to cut off hundreds of millions of dollars in aid as a result of his recent unity agreement with Hamas, the Islamist group that controls Gaza.

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Ford Foundation, Big Funder of Israeli NGOs, Pulling Out
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Nathan Guttman - April 6, 2011 - 12:00am

After being a target for political attacks during the past year, progressive nongovernmental organizations in Israel are now bracing for another hit: the loss of one of their largest donors. The Ford Foundation, which has provided $40 million to civil society NGOs in Israel since 2003, will not resume its funding for programs in Israel once its current grant round ends in two years. The reason, the organization explains, has to do with changing priorities, not with politics.

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Danish company halts equipment supply to West Bank in wake of public protest
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Shuki Sadeh - March 15, 2011 - 12:00am

The Israeli security firm Hashmira, which is owned by the Danish concern G4S, announced last weekend it will stop providing equipment to security installations over the Green Line. The move comes in the wake of public pressure in Denmark following a report from the Coalition of Women for Peace, which runs the "Who Profits?" project monitoring Israeli companies operating in the territories. The report, released in November, says that Hashmira provides baggage scanning equipment and body scanners for the Qalandiya, Bethlehem, Sha'ar Efraim and Eyal checkpoints.

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UN met only 52% of target for Palestinian aid in 2010
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Tovah Lazaroff - January 20, 2011 - 1:00am

First time such large gap exists between initial aid request, amount of money donated since UN began humanitarian appeal to member states, international organizations in 2003. The UN was only able to fund 52 percent of the humanitarian aid it wanted to provide to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza in 2010, according to statistics it released on Wednesday at a press conference in Jerusalem.

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Reality Check
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Thomas L. Friedman - (Opinion) December 11, 2010 - 1:00am

The failed attempt by the U.S. to bribe Israel with a $3 billion security assistance package, diplomatic cover and advanced F-35 fighter aircraft — if Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu would simply agree to a 90-day settlements freeze to resume talks with the Palestinians — has been enormously clarifying. It demonstrates just how disconnected from reality both the Israeli and the Palestinian leaderships have become.

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Rights groups accuse Israel of ducking pledge to ease Gaza blockade
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
November 30, 2010 - 1:00am

Israel has only marginally eased its three-year-old blockade of the Gaza Strip, leaving business and construction largely frozen in the impoverished and war-damaged Palestinian territory, a report by several aid groups said Tuesday. The groups accused Israel of ducking promises to ease the blockade's effects on civilians, a pledge it made under pressure after a deadly Israeli commando raid in May on an international flotilla protesting the restrictions. A Palestinian girl stands by sacks of humanitarian aid in Shatie refugee camp, in Gaza City on June 6, 2010. Photo by: AP

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