Abbas signs anti-settlement legislation
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
April 27, 2010 - 12:00am

President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday signed into law a ban on Israeli settlement goods in Palestinian markets. The move officially makes trade in settlement goods a criminal offense, and follows weeks of deliberations and declarations. Abbas legal advisor Hasan Al-Ouri was quoted by the official Palestinian news agency WAFA as saying the regulations would target "the cancers found in the Palestinian body, which target the Palestinian people's humanity, soil, and fate."

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Fatah okays cabinet reshuffle in exchange for more key portfolios
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
April 27, 2010 - 12:00am

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party agreed that Prime Minister Salam Fayyad reshuffles his government but said that Fatah should enjoy more presentation in the cabinet, an official said on Tuesday. Fatah's Revolutionary Council, which convened for three days in Ramallah, "agreed that amendments should be applied on the structure of the government in a way giving the movement (Fatah) more sovereign roles," Ameen Maqboul, a council member, told Voice of Palestine radio.

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A new style of politics in the West Bank
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Statesman
by Mohammed Daraghmeh - April 27, 2010 - 12:00am

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad is quietly changing the rules of the Arab-Israeli conflict with a simple credo: Palestinians have to build their state now and cannot wait for an elusive peace deal with Israel. He is moving ahead with an ambitious plan to get the Palestinians ready for statehood by August 2011 by trying to build it from the ground up: paving roads, reforming the judiciary, planning new cities.

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PA: Palestinian work in settlements will stop this year
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
April 22, 2010 - 12:00am

By the end of the calendar year there will be no Palestinians working in Israeli settlements, Ramallah-based Minister of Labor Ahmad Majdalani announced Thursday. The move comes amid a government campaign to boycott settlement products, following the prohibition of such goods in Palestinian markets, and the implementation of a ban on the sale of phone cards and SIM chips for Israeli cellphone providers with mobile towers in settlements.

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Palestinian official denies report that President Mahmoud Abbas is ailing
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Joshua Mitnick - April 21, 2010 - 12:00am

President Mahmoud Abbas has undergone weeks of medical treatment after a fall in the bathroom left him with a "major bruise" on his back, says Palestinian peace negotiator and PLO member Saeb Erekat. He denied a report in Arabic daily Al Quds Al Arabi and also in Israeli media that Mr. Abbas is in declining health.

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Palestinians to step up "Popular Resistance" against Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
April 21, 2010 - 12:00am

Palestinian officials, Arab, Israeli and foreign members of international solidarity movements on Wednesday announced that they would step up "Popular resistance " to challenge the Israeli settlement's expansion and the construction of the West Bank Separation Wall. The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) Prime Minister Salam Fayyad told an international conference held in the village of Bel 'ein, west of Ramallah in the West Bank, that the Palestinians will keep their "popular resistance as part of a step towards establishing their future independent Palestinian state."

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Gazans imposed "unreasonable taxes" as Hamas passes fiscal crisis
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
by Saud Abu Ramadan - April 20, 2010 - 12:00am

A'ahed al-Shawa, a 31-year-old meat vendor, who owns a butcher shop in western Gaza City, was shocked when representatives of the Hamas-ruled municipality informed him that he has to pay annual taxes for placing his grill machine outside his shop. "They asked me to pay 1,500 Israeli new shekels (404 U.S. dollars) every year for putting my grill meat machine outside my store," al-Shawa said, adding "I have never paid such kind of new unreasonable taxes before, either to Israel or to the Palestinian (National) Authority."

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Abbas to fight Israeli orders on West Bank deportations
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
April 20, 2010 - 12:00am

Last week it was revealed the Israeli Defence Force changed their orders broadening the definition of people they could remove from the West Bank. Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said he was prepared to take the issue to the UN Security Council, reports say. He said the order that would affect West bank residents without Israel-approved IDs was "a provocation". "Israel has no right to deport any Palestinian," Mr Abbas said after a meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Denied

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Fayyad sets out to fulfill vision
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Ali Waked - April 19, 2010 - 12:00am

As Palestinian prime minister advances his plan for independent state next summer, even his greatest opponents find it difficult not to give him credit for recent calm and order in West Bank

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New Gaza Salafist faction numbers 11,000
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
by Ibrahim Qannan - April 19, 2010 - 12:00am

"We, the Salafists, count more than 11,000 members who carry with them jihadist teachings from both Ayman At-Thawahri and Osama Bin Laden," said Abu Al-Hareth, leader of the Jund Ansar Allah, during an interview in his poorly lit Gaza home. "Of this number, 70 percent are members of the Jaljalat, a group made up of former Al-Qassam Brigades and Hamas affiliates," he explained.

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