Settlers say they bought outpost land, one year after Palestinian owner's death
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Chaim Levinson - July 3, 2012 - 12:00am

Residents of the condemned West Bank outpost of Migron have appealed the High Court to stay the demolition of the settlement's illegal structures on Tuesday, claiming that they had recently purchased the land on which the homes were built. However, a preliminary inspection of the purported sale reveals that the Palestinian whom the settlers claim sold them the land passed away in 2011, one year before the alleged transaction.

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Israel to begin recording settler land claims, deny Palestinians' right of appeal
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Chaim Levinson - July 3, 2012 - 12:00am

After 45 years of running the West Bank, the State of Israel plans to start compiling land registry records of assets controlled by settlers. The registry would bypass regular tabu land-listing processes, and appears designed to prevent Palestinians from appealing the validity of the ownership listings.

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It was Zionism itself that Israel buried this week. Let it go.
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Bradley Burston - (Opinion) July 3, 2012 - 12:00am

It's time to take a lesson from the successful. It's time to begin thinking like Yitzhak Shamir. When he died this week, the first several people I spoke with, knowledgeable people who closely follow politics and the news, all had the same reaction. "I wasn't sure that he was still alive."

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Israeli leader vows more settlement building
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
by Daniel Estrin - July 2, 2012 - 12:00am

Israel's prime minister says his government will continue settlement construction in the West Bank. A participant in a closed meeting of parliament's powerful Defense and Foreign Affairs committee said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Monday to continue developing areas near Jerusalem, deep inside the West Bank and in the Jordan Valley. The Israeli leader struck a defiant note on settlements days after Israel evacuated a West Bank outpost ruled illegal by Israel's Supreme Court.

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Deadline extended for Israel settler homes removal
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Ori Lewis - July 1, 2012 - 12:00am

Israel's Supreme Court on Sunday granted the state a four-month extension to remove five apartment blocks built illegally on Palestinian-owned land in a Jewish settlement on the occupied West Bank. The court had ruled the homes, in the Ulpana neighbourhood of the Beit El settlement, must be torn down by July 1. The 30 families who lived in the buildings moved out last week to nearby temporary accommodation under a deal with the government to go quietly after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to construct 851 new settler homes in the West Bank.

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Illegal West Bank settlement outpost cleared
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
June 29, 2012 - 12:00am

JERUSALEM — Israel has finished evacuating some 30 settler families from an illegal West Bank outpost, encountering little resistance, police and the military said Friday. The Ulpana outpost was evacuated in two phases, with the second set of families leaving Thursday night. Police say residents left peacefully, but 15 settlers from outside Ulpana barricaded themselves inside one apartment to protest the eviction. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said officers broke down two doors to remove the resisters and arrested six people.

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Right evades main issue: Settlements are major obstacle to peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Eric Yoffie - (Opinion) June 28, 2012 - 12:00am

Seth Mandel, responding in the Commentary blog to my article in Haaretz on settlements, does what settlement defenders almost always do: He changes the subject. My article discussed the impact of settlement on American Jewry; talked about why settlement is in fact a major obstacle to peace; and endorsed changes in settlement policy – such as those proposed by Dan Meridor and Alan Dershowitz – that would be good for peace, for Israel, and for strengthening ties with American Jews.

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Bibi's Shell Game in the West Bank
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Foreign Policy
by Jessica Montell - (Opinion) June 28, 2012 - 12:00am

JERUSALEM — The United States isn't the only country where the highest court in the land is making its voice heard on the thorniest political issues. In Israel, the whole country has been gripped by the fate of five apartment buildings in the West Bank settlement of Beit El. The Israeli Supreme Court ruled last year that these buildings, which were built on privately owned Palestinian land without the owner's permission, must be removed by July 1.

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Israel fears UN about to announce settlement panel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Tovah Lazaroff - June 27, 2012 - 12:00am

Israel fears the United Nations is on the cusp of announcing the membership of its fact-finding mission on West Bank settlements, a move it claims could harm efforts to rekindle the frozen peace process. Already on June 14, UN Human Rights Council president Laura Dupuy Lasserre responded to a query on the matter at a meeting with NGO representatives in Geneva. She said there should be recommendations for members of the fact-finding mission by the end of the 20th session on July 6.

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Settlers Begin Evacuation of a West Bank Outpost
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Jodi Rudoren - June 26, 2012 - 12:00am

BEIT EL, West Bank — The moving trucks arrived here on Tuesday morning while the men were in the middle of morning prayers, their heads covered by prayer shawls, and so began the first peaceful evacuation of a Jewish settlement from the occupied territories in memory.

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