For Israeli army, tests of accountability
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Joel Greenberg - October 7, 2010 - 12:00am

A YouTube video showing a dancing Israeli soldier shimmying near a bound and blindfolded Palestinian woman went viral on the Internet this week, embarrassing the Israeli military and fueling fresh debate about morals and accountability in the armed forces. The army's chief legal officer ordered a military police investigation of the clip, which was posted two years ago but publicized this week on an Israeli television program. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu issued an emphatic condemnation.

»

Israel Continues Deportation of Palestinians with Gaza ID
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line
by David Miller - October 7, 2010 - 12:00am

When 31-year-old Farid Sha’aban was driving with his friend near the Israeli city of Beer Sheva in late October 2008, he could not imagine how drastically his life was about to change. “The police stopped us. They came right at me, handcuffed me, and drove me directly to the Gaza Strip,” Sha’aban told The Media Line. Sha’aban, whose father was born in Gaza and who lived there for only one year at age 11, was deported to Gaza because his address was registered in the town of Jabalia in the Gaza Strip.

»

Israel bombs Hamas base in Gaza, no one hurt
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Nidal Al-Mughrabi - October 7, 2010 - 12:00am

GAZA, Oct 7 (Reuters) - Israeli war planes bombed a Hamas Islamist training camp in the Gaza Strip before dawn on Thursday following a rocket launching from the enclave a day earlier, Israeli military sources and Hamas officials said. There were no casualties in the two raids carried out near Gaza City shortly after midnight, Hamas said. The strike came hours after Israel said a rocket fired from the coastal territory struck in an open area in its south, also causing no casualties.

»

Examining an Activist’s Death
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Andy Webster - October 7, 2010 - 12:00am

“Rachel,” Simone Bitton’s fascinating if uneven documentary about Rachel Corrie, the activist killed in Gaza in 2003, shares a goal with “My Name Is Rachel Corrie,” the controversial Off Broadway play from 2006. Both lionize this 23-year-old protester from Olympia, Wash., who was crushed under a mound of dirt pushed by an Israeli bulldozer clearing a Palestinian area.

»

Gaza farmers harvest olives with peace activists
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
by Ahmed Aldabba, Osama Radi - October 6, 2010 - 12:00am

For the first time in two months, Palestinian farmer Abdul Qader al-Basyoni, joined by international and local peace activists, managed to enter his olive farm which is dozens of meters away from the security fence separating the Gaza Strip and Israel. The 50-year-old man with grey hair, from the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun, hurried to touch the ripe olive fruits that dangled on the branches in his deserted 20-donums (1,000 square meter) field located in the heart of a 300-meter wide no- man zone imposed by the Israeli army along its borders with the enclave in 2008.

»

Israeli Soldiers Convicted of Using Boy as Shield
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner - October 3, 2010 - 12:00am

JERUSALEM — An Israeli military court convicted two soldiers on Sunday of using a 9-year-old Palestinian boy as a human shield by forcing him to check bags for explosives in Israel’s 2008-9 Gaza war. The court said that the two soldiers, both infantry sergeants, had taken part in an operation to seize an apartment building in Tel al-Hawa, a southern suburb of Gaza City, while under attack from Hamas fighters.

»

Medics: Israeli tanks shell Gaza overnight
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
September 29, 2010 - 12:00am

Israeli artillery shelling was reported overnight Tuesday in two Gaza districts near the border area, medics told Ma'an. Gaza medical services spokesman Adham Abu Silmiyya said tanks stationed along the northern border close to the Karni crossing opened fire toward homes, reporting no injuries. Abu Silmiyya also said tanks opened fire at homes east of the Al-Bureij refugee camp in the Joher Ad-Dik neighborhood, again reporting no injuries. An Israeli military spokeswoman said the Israeli army was not familiar with either incident.


Israeli forces 'Tasered' activist on Gaza aid boat
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
September 29, 2010 - 12:00am

Yonatan Shapira, an Israeli air force pilot turned peace activist, said he was shocked with a Taser gun while passively resisting arrest. And a British journalist said he was "ambushed" and "almost strip-searched" by commandos on board the vessel. Israel's military had said the vessel was seized peacefully on Tuesday. It declined to comment on the activists' accounts. Earlier this year, Israeli commandos killed nine people in clashes on board a Turkish ship trying to reach Gaza.

»

Israel navy halts Gaza-bound boat without violence
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Statesman
by Aisha Mohammed - September 28, 2010 - 12:00am

Israeli naval forces on Tuesday intercepted a catamaran carrying nine Jewish activists toward the Gaza Strip, encountering no resistance as they took control of the sailboat and escorted it to shore, the military said. The incident occurred four months after a deadly Israeli raid on an international flotilla, in which nine Turkish activists, one of them a dual Turkish-American citizen, were killed in clashes with naval commandos. The Irene, like the earlier flotilla, had been trying to breach Israel's naval blockade of Gaza.

»

3 dead in Gaza airstrike
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
September 28, 2010 - 12:00am

Israel's air force bombed the Gaza Strip late Monday, killing three Palestinians, onlookers said. The dead, three young men in their 20s, were transferred to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir Al-Balah, officials said. They were identified as Ala Abu Zbeida, Awni Abdul Hadi, and Muhammad Eid. According to witnesses, the bombardment targeted the Al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, with one Israeli jet also firing a missile toward a house in the camp causing no injuries.

»


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