With the resumption of settlement construction in the West Bank Monday, Israel's powerful settler movement hopes that it has scuttled peace talks with the Palestinians. It would be misleading, however, to assume that the only major obstacle to the success of the...
Palestinian Patients Suffer From Hamas-Fatah Rivalry
RAMALLAH - Cancer patient Ahmed Abu Fuad needs chemotherapy to survive. Muhammad Subeh needs an eye transplant, while paramedic Alaa Sarhan desperately needs surgery to remove shrapnel from his body. But these Gazans are unable to leave the area to seek the required...
Work Permits and Ramadan in the West Bank
HIRBET DEIR, Occupied West Bank - For Muhammad el-Baradiyeh, 38, the Muslim holy month of Ramadan is always a blessing. In fact, every day of the month-and-a-half prior to Ramadan has been good for Muhammad. Thanks to a permit granted by the Israeli authorities, he's...
US Funds Apartheid Roads on West Bank
RAMALLAH - The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is helping Israel to construct an apartheid road infrastructure in the occupied Palestinian West Bank by financing nearly a quarter of the segregated road system primarily for the benefit of...
West Bank Route May Open, but Not to Peace
ROUTE 443, Occupied West Bank - Just beyond the main Israeli checkpoint, 10 kilometers short of Jerusalem, a white Nissan station wagon is abruptly edging to the side of the road. It comes to a halt on the shoulder. Four Orthodox Jews clamber out and gather around the...
Business Seeks Ways Past Israeli-Palestinian Political Impasse
RAMALLAH - Business between the Palestinian Authority and Israel is growing despite the political impasse over Israel's refusal to cease illegal settlement-building in East Jerusalem and the Palestinian West Bank. Trade between Israel and the Palestinian Authority...
Humanitarian Crisis Deepens in West Bank
RAMALLAH - "I heard voices, I turned around to look, and saw a group of Israeli settlers assaulting my brother Hammad," says Abdallah Wahadin, 82, a Palestinian farmer from Beit Ummar near the southern West Bank city of Hebron. "Three of them surrounded...
Showdown Looming Over Israeli Settlements
JERUSALEM - A showdown over Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank is looming between Israel and the United States barely a week after the encounter at the White House between U.S. President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. What's...