Free Republic

More Arabs are leaving Judea and Samaria every year reported an Arab48 journalist, referring to Areas A and B, under Palestinian Authority control. "A guy named Ahmad told me there were 44 kids in his high school class, all of them from Kfar Ramon. Only four of them still live there, the rest moved to the United States," the journalist said. "There are no more celebrations, because there are no more young people. What will they celebrate, who will put people on their shoulders? In our village, there used to be 14,000 people, but 10,000 emigrated to the US, 2,000...

A majority of Palestinian Authority residents believe the US will fail to revive the Middle East peace process, according to a survey after Barack Obama's visit to the region, as reported by the AFP news agency. The Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research's report, conducted March 28-30, surveyed 1,270 people in Judea, Samaria (Shomron) and Gaza. "Fifty-five percent believe that the US administration will not succeed in reviving the peace process and bringing the two sides to the negotiating table," it concluded. "Moreover, 70 percent believe that the American administration will not succeed in pressuring Israel to freeze settlement...

The battle for control of Judea and Samaria – and specifically Area C, which, according to the Oslo Accords, is under Israeli military and political control – may come down to a “horse race,” if the European Union decides to act on a policy paper that was published by Hebrew daily Yediot Achronot Thursday. According to the document, "Area C and Palestinian state building," the EU plans to encourage, and fund, Arab building and development in Area C, without bothering to seek Israeli approval for projects, and in violation of laws regarding zoning, security, and the environment. Under the Oslo...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration on Wednesday announced it was giving $20 million in direct aid to the Palestinian Authority to help it through a financial crisis. A senior Bush administration official said it hoped the aid would encourage additional donations from other countries "at a time when the Palestinian Authority is in desperate need of budget support to pay its bills, maintain stability and allow it to focus on the larger question of governing." The Palestinian Authority is facing a severe financial crisis due to falling tax revenues during four years of violence which has paralyzed the Palestinian...

Gaza - Palestine won the top award in a Quran memorization competition held this year in Tunisia, the Palestinian Awkaf ministry announced yesterday. It noted that the Gazan student Abdullah Marwan Al-Sheikh had won the top award for memorizing the holy Quran. The ministry said that Palestine had won similar awards this year in contests organized in Egypt and Dubai. The ministry this year organized a ceremony to celebrate the graduation of 376 students after memorizing the Quran and had thus graduated more than 2,000 students memorizing the holy book over the past few years.

The following is IMRA's translation of the results of a poll of a representative sample of 618 adult Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and eastern Jerusalem carried by the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion (PCPO) under the direction of PCPO President Dr.Nabil Kukali on 15- 20 October 2003 as published in Arabic in Al Hayyat Al Jadeedah on 20 November 2003. The survey was commissioned by "The New Family Organization". Do you believe it is important to raise a child to be: Shahid 18.6% Farmer 8.9% Academic with a profession 59.2% Other 13.3% What type of legal marriage...

Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - Palestinians are mocking and laughing at American casualties in Iraq in their press and elsewhere, an independent Israeli media watchdog group said on Tuesday. Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) Director Itamar Marcus said that while the Palestinians have been criticizing America in their media for years, the hatred has recently been ratcheted up. Established in 1996, PMW monitors and analyzes Palestinian Arabic language media. "[The Palestinians] have been condemning America since 1997," said Marcus in a telephone interview. "Anti-American cartoons mocking American dead [have] reached a new level of hatred." In a cartoon printed in the Palestinian Authority's...