West Bank settlers stealing tons of soil from Palestinian land
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Chaim Levinson - October 11, 2012 - 12:00am

Roughly a month ago, infrastructure work began in one of the house-trailer neighborhoods in the West Bank settlement of Ofra. Brown soil was needed to cover the foundations. In properly functioning places, such soil is bought and paid for, but not in Ofra. Tzvi, a local farmer, nicknamed “Kishu,” found an alternative: He sent a rented tractor and truck to the outskirts of the settlement, next to the Palestinian villages of Silwad and Deir Dibwan, where they simply stole dirt. Tzvi claims that the land belongs to him.

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Iran says drone incursion displays Israel's vulnerability
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
October 9, 2012 - 12:00am

TEHRAN, Oct. 9 (Xinhua) -- An Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) general said the fact that an unmanned aerial vehicle recently penetrated into Israeli airspace shows the vulnerability of Israel's air defenses, Tehran Times daily reported Tuesday. According to media reports on Saturday, the Israeli military announced in the day that a warplane of Israel had shot a drone down near the occupied West Bank in the southern country.

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Settlers' assaults in West Bank obstruct olives picking again
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
October 8, 2012 - 12:00am

RAMALLAH, Oct. 7 (Xinhua) -- Right after Jom'aa Abu Fkheida and his family members had hardly managed to escape from Israeli settlers' truculent dogs, which tried to attack them in Ras Karkar village near Ramallah, an Israeli army force blockaded them for several hours under their olive trees.

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Israelis Moving to Golan Heights As Development Booms
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Yedioth Ahronoth
by Ofer Petersburg - October 8, 2012 - 12:00am

A peace agreement with Syria seems to be far away, more so than ever before. Meanwhile, the Golan Heights is enjoying an unprecedented development boom and highly generous incentives are offered to potential settlers. Just come and settle here! Where else in Israel can you receive these days a plot of land for free?

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Lebanon Says Israeli Planes Circled Its Airspace for an Hour
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Jodi Rudoren - October 7, 2012 - 12:00am

JERUSALEM — The morning after the Israeli Air Force shot down an unidentified drone in the Negev Desert, the Lebanese government said that four Israeli warplanes spent an hour on Sunday illegally circling in its airspace. The Israeli Defense Forces refused to confirm or deny the report from the Lebanese Army, which said the planes entered above the village of Kfar Kila at 10:10 a.m. and left above Naqoura an hour later.

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Gazans call on Egypt not to destroy tunnels
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
September 30, 2012 - 12:00am

GAZA, Sept. 30 (Xinhua) -- Dozens of Palestinian notables and community leaders demonstrated on Sunday at the borderline area between southern Gaza Strip and Egypt, calling on Egypt not to destroy dozens of smuggling tunnels.

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Israel frees two Hamas lawmakers in West Bank
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
September 30, 2012 - 12:00am

RAMALLAH, Sept. 30 (Xinhua) -- Israeli authorities on Sunday released two lawmakers in the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) in the West Bank.

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Israeli troops wound 2 Palestinians in northern Gaza: medics
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
September 28, 2012 - 12:00am

GAZA, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Israeli troops stationed on the borderline between northern Gaza Strip and Israel on Friday opened fire and wounded two Palestinian civilians, medics said. Ashraf al-Qedra, spokesman of the Hamas-run ministry of health, said that the two Palestinians are aged 22 and 19 years old, respectively, adding that they are brothers and were shot by Israeli soldiers' gunfire in northern Gaza Strip.

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West Bank university puts Israeli policies to the test
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Maayan Lubell - September 26, 2012 - 12:00am

ARIEL, West Bank (Reuters) -- An Israeli government move to upgrade Ariel University Center in the occupied West Bank to a full-fledged university has put the 30-year-old school at the center of a debate at the core of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: how the settlements will figure in defining a future Palestinian state.

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Egypt: No need to amend treaty with Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
September 26, 2012 - 12:00am

CAIRO —A spokesman for Egypt's President Mohammed Morsi said Wednesday that there is currently no need to amend the peace treaty with Israel, despite calls in Cairo to revise the 1979 accord to allow the country to beef up its presence in the Sinai Peninsula to combat militants there, the state news agency reported.

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