March 5th, 2013

Israel takes heat for de facto segregation on new West Bank buses
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Joshua Mitnick - March 4, 2013 - 1:00am


Kfar Saba, Israel The Afikim Bus No. 210 pulled up to a stop outside the main shopping mall in this Tel Aviv suburb on its maiden run from Israel to the West Bank on Monday, but for unsuspecting Israelis who tried to board the driver had a swift interdict.


March 4th

We are fighting for all Palestinians
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Sameer Abu Eisheh - (Opinion) March 3, 2013 - 1:00am


My story is no different from that of many other Palestinian young people who were born and have lived their whole lives under Israeli occupation. At 17, I was arrested for the first time, and jailed for two years. I was arrested again in my early 20s, at the height of the second intifada in Ramallah, during an Israeli invasion of numerous cities in the West Bank – what Israel called Operation Defensive Shield. I was sentenced to 30 years in prison on charges relating to my resistance to the occupation.


Leader waits in shifting sands of Middle East
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Sydney Morning Herald
by Kate Geraghty - (Opinion) March 2, 2013 - 1:00am


First comes one projectile, then another. Both are in full flight, moving quickly. Launched by Khalid Mishal in the early hours of the morning, they could be rockets over Gaza. But he is in Doha, deftly quartering apples and guavas, then hurling pieces the length of the room, to a colleague at the other end of a long, leather-inlaid conference table.


On the bus to Israeli apartheid
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Aeyal Gross - (Opinion) March 4, 2013 - 1:00am


In 1896 the United States Supreme Court handed down one of its most shameful decisions in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson, rejecting the argument that the segregation between whites and blacks on trains in the state of Louisiana violated the principle of equality.


White House Announces New Coordinator for the Middle East, North Africa, and the Gulf Region
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from White House Office of the Press Secretary
(Press Release) March 4, 2013 - 1:00am


Today, National Security Advisor Tom Donilon announced that Philip Gordon will be joining the National Security Staff as Special Assistant to the President and White House Coordinator for the Middle East, North Africa, and the Gulf Region. He will take up his duties beginning on March 11.


Palestinians suspected of aiding Syria regime 'hanged'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
March 3, 2013 - 1:00am


Syrian rebels on Saturday hanged two Palestinians at a refugee camp in Damascus on suspicion of aiding the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, a rights watchdog said. "Rebels in the Yarmuk camp executed two men accused of cooperating with the regime by identifying targets that were bombed last week," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. "They were hanged from trees in the camp."


Anger At The Wall: 10 Years Later
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast
by Anna Miller - (Opinion) March 1, 2013 - 1:00am


the first slab of the separation barrier—or Apartheid Wall, as it is called in Palestine—was erected in Bethlehem. Ten years later, the 14-foot concrete slabs now weave through the outskirts of the city, surrounding homes and casting shadows over entire neighborhoods and economically choking the Palestinian residents of Bethlehem.


Palestinian Justice System Still a Work in Progress
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line
by Diana Atallah - March 4, 2013 - 1:00am


Ramallah -- When a Palestinian court ordered a government center in 2011 to remove garbage they disposed of on lands belonging to Majid Zaher (not his real name) near Ramallah, he thought his case was over.


Israel industrial park, meant to pull in Bedouins, draws skeptics
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Los Angeles Times
by Edmund Sanders - March 1, 2013 - 1:00am


On a patch of agricultural land outside Israel's only officially recognized Bedouin city, workers are laying concrete for what the government says will be a cornerstone of its policy to lure impoverished Arabs from barren Negev desert terrain to approved Israeli towns.


Palestinians Still Feel The Squeeze Of The Restrictions On Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from National Public Radio (NPR)
by Larry Abramson - March 4, 2013 - 1:00am


The streets of Gaza are busy, but they are also crumbling. Since Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, Israel has maintained tight limits on shipments of anything that could be used for military purposes. That includes basic building materials that could be used for bunkers and rocket launching sites. Ask businessman Ali Abdel Aal what's the toughest thing for him to find, and he'll tell you "cement and gravel."



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