Experts Outline Challenges, Propose Solutions for Gaza at ATFP-UNRWA Briefing
Media Mention of Ghaith al-Omari In - May 19, 2014 - 12:00am

A group of prominent experts identified a number of key challenges facing the Gaza Strip and its Palestinian residents, and ways to address them, at a briefing jointly hosted by the American Task Force on Palestine (


The Success That Failed
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Roger Cohen - (Opinion) February 14, 2013 - 1:00am


The most progressive and innovative Palestinian thinker on a Middle East peace settlement has been steadily isolated over the past several years. Undercut by Israel, undermined by his own people’s factionalism, unable to meet even once with President Obama, this dynamic Palestinian leader is now close to the end of his rope.


Drying out the Palestinians
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
(Editorial) December 10, 2012 - 1:00am


Since the beginning of the year, Israel has destroyed 35 rainwater cisterns used by Palestinian communities, 20 of them in the area of Hebron and the southern Hebron Hills. In 2011, Israel destroyed 15 cisterns, and in the preceding 18 months, 29. In many of these cases ancient cisterns were destroyed that had served the forefathers of the inhabitants of these communities. Recently, they have been restored with European assistance.


Israel’s Addiction to the Status Quo
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Monitor
by Noam Sheizaf - (Opinion) December 2, 2012 - 1:00am


A well-known cliché in Israeli political discourse refers to a high rate of support among the Jewish public for a two-state solution. As the claim goes, despite the Second Intifada and the rounds of fighting against Hamas in Gaza, most Jews still prefer this solution to the annexation of the Palestinian territories.


Local official: Israel destroys 5 water wells in Jenin
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
October 24, 2012 - 12:00am


JENIN (Ma'an) -- Israeli forces destroyed five water wells in a Jenin village on Wednesday, claiming the structures were unlicensed, a local official said. Muhammad Fahmi Maree, head of a local agricultural association, told Ma'an that an Israeli bulldozer, accompanied by military vehicles, destroyed the wells in Kafr Dan village.


Uprooting of olive trees brings bitter harvest for Palestinians
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Irish Times
by Mark Weiss - October 17, 2012 - 12:00am


PALESTINIANS PROTESTING against the uprooting of olive trees by West Bank Jewish settlers yesterday blocked the main 443 motorway to Jerusalem before being dispersed by Israeli border police using stun grenades.


Electricity company: Govt bodies have not paid bills
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
October 1, 2012 - 12:00am


BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) -- Some Palestinian Authority government institutions have not paid their electricity bills for more than two years, the head of the indebted Jerusalem electricity company has revealed. The company, which supplies power to Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Ramallah and Jericho, still owes its Israeli supplier around 300 million shekels ($76 million), Director-General Hisham al-Umari told Ma'an on Sunday. The Israeli company has repeatedly postponed threats to cut power supplies.


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.


Two pipes for two peoples: The politics of water in the West Bank
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Amira Hass - (Opinion) September 24, 2012 - 12:00am


The IDF's Civil Administration is preventing the Palestinian Authority from laying a water pipe that would alleviate the acute water shortage for more than 600,000 Palestinians in the West Bank. The reason given for preventing the pipe's construction is that a section of less than two kilometers of it, laid on the margins of Route 50, would disrupt Jewish passenger traffic on the road.


‘Price tag’ tactics of West Bank Jewish settlers
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
by Jane Corbin - September 16, 2012 - 12:00am


With their hoodies, covered faces and cans of spray paint, they may in some ways look like average teenage vandals out for a night of trouble.



American Task Force on Palestine - 1634 Eye St. NW, Suite 725, Washington DC 20006 - Telephone: 202-262-0017