Humanitarian | The American Task Force on Palestine

U.S. taxpayers are paying for Israel's West Bank occupation
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Akiva Eldar - November 17, 2010 - 1:00am

Travelers along the "original" West Bank roads, the ones enabling drivers to bypass Palestinian villages, can see signs declaring "USAID from the American People." The roads are one of the initiatives of the United States Agency for International Development for building infrastructure in underdeveloped countries. Israel has already proudly left the club of developing countries and is not among the clients of USAID. Nevertheless, it appears the Smith family of Illinois is making the occupation a little less expensive for the Cohen family of Petah Tikva.

Middle East peace starts with development
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Chris Gunness - (Opinion) November 16, 2010 - 1:00am

"Peace Starts Here" is more than a slogan. It raises challenging questions about peace itself at a time when the very notion of a just and durable peace is under threat and when the Middle East peace process needs all the support it can get from us, the humanitarian actors working on the ground.

Senior Republican against US aid to Palestinians
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
November 12, 2010 - 1:00am

WASHINGTON - The likely next head of the US House Foreign Affairs Committee said she is against handing out $150 million in direct aid to help the Palestinian Authority close its budget deficit. On Wednesday Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced the new assistance to the Palestinian Authority and called for other donor countries to step up aid. Prime Minister Netanyahu, Secretary of State Clinton meet for more than seven hours. PM says he's still serious about reaching peace deal with Palestinians; reports about planned east Jerusalem construction surface during meeting

For Family of Slain Activist, No End in Sight for Case
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner - November 7, 2010 - 12:00am

HAIFA, Israel — Seven years after an American student, Rachel Corrie, was killed in Gaza by an Israeli military bulldozer she tried to block, becoming a global symbol of the Palestinian struggle, her parents and her older sister sit in an Israeli court in this northern city with two hopes: to confront the men who ran over her and to prove that the army investigation into her death was flawed.

PA: Israel raided thousands of homes in October
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
November 6, 2010 - 12:00am

The Palestinian Authority Ministry of Detainees' Affairs said Israeli forces detained 403 Palestinians and raided 2148 homes across the West Bank during October. In a report released Saturday, the ministry said Israeli soldiers intimidated and assaulted residents, destroying the contents of homes during the raids. Of those detained, 95 percent had been assaulted in front of their families and were beaten en route to detention centers in Israeli military jeeps.

PA’s path to independence
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
by Daoud Kuttab - (Opinion) November 4, 2010 - 12:00am

I can see the path to the state of Palestine. And education is an integral part of it. Palestinians have always prided themselves on being among the highest educated among all Arabs, but if this was true in the past, it is not true anymore, and it is certainly not true for Palestinians in the occupied territories.

Israel sets to grant civil marriages
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from
November 4, 2010 - 12:00am

JERUSALEM, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- The Israeli government plans to begin granting marriage licences for non-Jews and others officially defined as not belonging to a particular religious denomination. Some 300,000 such couples, which have up to now had to travel overseas to marry in civil ceremonies, often to nearby Cyprus, will be able to officially wed without the Chief Rabbinate's approval, possibly by the weekend, Israel army radio reported Wednesday.

Israel navy halts Gaza-bound boat without violence
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Statesman
by Aisha Mohammed - September 28, 2010 - 12:00am

Israeli naval forces on Tuesday intercepted a catamaran carrying nine Jewish activists toward the Gaza Strip, encountering no resistance as they took control of the sailboat and escorted it to shore, the military said. The incident occurred four months after a deadly Israeli raid on an international flotilla, in which nine Turkish activists, one of them a dual Turkish-American citizen, were killed in clashes with naval commandos. The Irene, like the earlier flotilla, had been trying to breach Israel's naval blockade of Gaza.

Finding a Steadier Path in Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner - (Analysis) September 7, 2010 - 12:00am

KHAN YUNIS, Gaza — Tough-looking ambulance drivers in this central Gazan city are drawing images of their fears with crayons. In the northwestern village of El Atatra, in an overheated hall without electricity, 10-year-olds are closing their eyes and imagining a reassuring place. In Gaza City, women who have lost children to political violence are dancing away their tensions, their black abayas shaking and flowing.

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