July 1st

Death in the West Bank: the story of an 'honour' killing ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian by Harriet Sherwood - June 30, 2011 - 12:00am As Ibrahim Baradiya recounts the events surrounding the last moments of his daughter's life at the bottom of a dark well, the agony of grief is drawn across the face of his wife, Fatima. She says almost nothing. Her eyes are half-closed. She shakes her head with small, rapid movements. A deep frown furrows her forehead. When the story is finished, she fetches her daughter's trinkets – beads, bangles, a hair clasp, a key ring, a purple pom-pom – and spreads them over the table and she weeps. » Read more

Palestinian crisis solved in 814 words ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Chicago Sun Times by Neil Steinberg - (Opinion) July 1, 2011 - 12:00am Did you hear that the flotilla planning to run the Israeli blockade of Gaza didn’t get off as scheduled? Insurance problems, alas, sparked by an Israeli ploy, plus one of the 10 ships had its propeller mysteriously cut. I sure hope Alice Walker doesn’t run into a scheduling conflict — maybe a Marin County book-signing — that would call her away from yet another chance to remind the world that the Israelis are the Star Wars Evil Empire, the Nazis and the Klingons all rolled into one. » Read more

Israel's Gaza sea blockade is an act of self-defense ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times by Amos Guiora - (Opinion) July 1, 2011 - 12:00am Self-defense against threats to national security and individual citizens is a core right and duty of all nation-states. No one seriously disagrees. And yet this week, the Mediterranean Sea will once again be the site of a dangerous attack on this basic right. » Read more

In Balata, the future is scarier than September ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Avi Issacharoff - July 1, 2011 - 12:00am BALATA REFUGEE CAMP, NABLUS - Several days before the first intifada broke out, a few hundred people in the Balata refugee camp marched toward the drawn guns of raiding Israeli soldiers. The soldiers withdrew at the order of then-GOC Central Command Amram Mitzna, who wanted to avoid bloodshed, and Balata became a symbol of the struggle against the Israeli occupation that broke out on December 9, 1987. » Read more

Israel's contempt for the law of the sea ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Ahram by Stuart Littlewood - (Opinion) July 30, 2011 - 12:00am In 2008, two humanitarian vessels got through to Gaza, and in an article entitled "Keeping the Sea-Lane to Gaza Open", I wrote at the time that "the success of the âê˜Free Gaza' boats in breaking the siege, and their safe arrival and departure, was due to the intervention and good offices of the British Foreign Office." » Read more

Israeli security chiefs differ on Gaza flotilla's potential danger ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua June 30, 2011 - 12:00am JERUSALEM, June 30 (Xinhua) -- Israel's security establishment is at odds over the scope of threat posed by an aid flotilla that had planned to set sail to the Gaza Strip in coming days, and over predictions that violence will ensue if Israel tries to block it. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak has played down military assessments in recent days that pro-Palestinian activists are gearing up for violent clashes with Israeli navy troops to be dispatched to intercept the 10-vessel flotilla. » Read more

The Palestinian right to remain and return ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Ahram by Samah Sabawi - (Opinion) June 30, 2011 - 12:00am I was 12 years old when for the first time in my life I became a citizen of a country -- Australia. Before that, I was a stateless Palestinian refugee. There were two laments my parents always repeated whenever they spoke of their place of origin, Palestine: if only we could have stayed and if only we could return. » Read more

Reconciliation First ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times (Editorial) July 1, 2011 - 12:00am Much hope was pinned on the initial agreement between Fateh, the main Palestinian faction, and Hamas, the movement ruling Gaza, to forge a united Palestinian front at this critical time. The Palestinians need a unity government in order to push forward their plan to seek recognition by the UN General Assembly as an independent state. Unfortunately, so far, the two Palestinian factions failed to seal their initial accord by agreements on several fronts, including holding presidential and parliamentary elections, and forming a national unity government. » Read more

Gaza shelves stocked, but hope in short supply ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Alertnet by Nidal Al-Mughrabi - June 30, 2011 - 12:00am GAZA, June 30 (Reuters) - If pro-Palestinian activists unexpectedly manage to slip past Israel's naval blockade on the Gaza Strip in the coming days, they might be surprised by what they see in the Hamas-controlled enclave when they disembark. Roads are being paved, houses are being built, new cars have taken to the busy streets and shops are full of myriad products. Even the longtime scourge of unemployment is easing marginally, boosting living standards for a lucky few. » Read more

Our Tahrir Square ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Doron Rosenblum - (Opinion) July 1, 2011 - 12:00am The trend of looking to imitate the Arab uprisings by finding "our" Tahrir Square met only partial success in the cottage cheese boycott and the celebrities filmed sitting in solitary confinement in support of kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit. Neither gesture involved blood, tears or even sweat. From the start, it was clear that this was not the real thing. Where was the spirit of revolt in the street? Where were the stormy emotions and the self-sacrifice? Where were the assaults on institutions, as part of the plan to destroy the regime down to its foundations? » Read more