Does Israel walk a thin line with West Bank oil drill?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
by Alex Rowell - July 9, 2012 - 12:00am


While the search for oil beneath Israel has been going on for years, the most recently drilled well in the Meged oil field, on the edge of the West Bank, is raising concern that it might draw from untapped Palestinian reserves. After a 10-minute uphill hike through the rocky fields of the West Bank village of Rantis, we reach a summit where we rest, panting in the 40-degree heat. A hundred metres (330ft) in front of us lie the wired fence and gravel track of the Green Line - the perimeter of the West Bank and Israel.


Palestine: A hostage state
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
(Editorial) July 6, 2012 - 12:00am


he tragedy of the Palestinians has hung like a black cloud over the Arab world for almost 65 years. It is inconceivable that a people should be corralled like animals in their own country by a dominant, nuclear-armed neighbor, backed, through thick and thin, by a superpower. Yet that is what Israelis have done to the Palestinians. Moreover, there has been systematic theft of Arab land in the Occupied Territories, as a way of imprisoning the luckless Palestinians still further.


Palestinians Turn to Solar Power To Reduce Reliance on Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Monitor
by Amnon Rubinstein - July 5, 2012 - 12:00am


Palestinians are almost entirely dependent on electricity provided by Israel. In Gaza, a local power station provides some 40% percent of the Strip’s electricity. The Palestinians buy electricity in small levels from Egypt and Jordan, but this doesn’t change their dependence on Israel. As a result, the Palestine Electric Company, in cooperation with the Palestinian investment firm Padico, began roughly two years ago to make preparations to build a power station near Jenin.


West Bank faces cash crisis after $100m IMF request is rejected
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Hugh Naylor - July 3, 2012 - 12:00am


Palestinians in the West Bank are facing more financial hardship after a plan to borrow US$100 million (Dh367m) was rejected because they have no state of their own. The plan called for Israel to borrow the money from the International Monetary Fund and then turn it over to the Palestinian Authority to prevent its financial collapse. The PA would repay the loan to Israel, which in turn would repay the IMF.


Labor minister: PA unable to pay July salaries
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
July 1, 2012 - 12:00am


The Palestinian Authority labor minister said Saturday that due to the government's worsening financial crisis, public sector salaries will not be paid on time for July. Ahmad Majdalani urged Arab nations to fulfill their financial pledges to the PA in order to allow salary payments. He said cabinet ministers had tasked the finance minister with preparing a report on the PA's financial crisis and potential solutions, which will be presented at the government's weekly meeting on Tuesday.


Labor minister: PA unable to pay July salaries
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
July 1, 2012 - 12:00am


The Palestinian Authority labor minister said Saturday that due to the government's worsening financial crisis, public sector salaries will not be paid on time for July. Ahmad Majdalani urged Arab nations to fulfill their financial pledges to the PA in order to allow salary payments. He said cabinet ministers had tasked the finance minister with preparing a report on the PA's financial crisis and potential solutions, which will be presented at the government's weekly meeting on Tuesday.


Lally Weymouth interviews Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Lally Weymouth - (Interview) June 22, 2012 - 12:00am


“If only we could clone him,” a senior U.S. official said to me recently, speaking about Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. Held in great respect by foreigners, Fayyad may soon find himself out of a job if Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (also called Abu Mazen) forges a national unity government with Hamas. This past week, Fayyad sat down in the West Bank city of Ramallah with The Washington Post’s Lally Weymouth. Excerpts:


PA will borrow from banks if necessary
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
June 12, 2012 - 12:00am


The Palestinian Authority will start talks with the private sector, and still has bank funds available to cover its financial crisis, the newly-appointed PA minister of economy Jawad Naji said Monday. The Palestinian Monetary Authority chief Jihad al-Wazir said Sunday the PA had reached its maximum limit for bank borrowing. But the minister told Ma'an: "If we need, we will borrow from banks to pay salaries." "In fact there are deposits and cash which we haven’t used so far," Naji continued.


Quarter of Palestinians suffer from Poverty, says Statistics Bureau
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from WAFA
June 12, 2012 - 12:00am


Around 25.8% of Palestinians suffered from poverty in the Palestinian Territory in 2011, said a report by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) on Monday. It showed that slightly more than one out of four individuals was living below poverty line in 2011, 17.8% in the West Bank and 38.8% in Gaza Strip. Similarly about 12.9% of individuals were living below the deep poverty line in 2011, 7.8% in the West Bank and 21.1% in Gaza Strip.


Imagining a Palestinian Economy
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast
by Amal Daraghmeh Masri - (Opinion) June 8, 2012 - 12:00am


At the last meeting of the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee for Aid to Palestine, the Israeli delegation argued that the Palestinian economy was not ready to sustain an independent state. But this argument is frustrating. It is Israel’s very denial of independence that most impedes Palestinian economic prosperity.  As a board member of the Palestinian Business Women’s Forum, I was appalled by this conclusion.



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