Palestinians mark displacement in 1948 Mideast war
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
by Rizek Abdel Jawad - May 15, 2010 - 12:00am

Bitter Palestinian rivals marched together Saturday in a rare show of unity as they marked 62 years of displacement in the war surrounding Israel's creation. Loyalists of rival groups Hamas and Fatah held Palestinian flags and a giant key symbolic of their hoped-for return as part of annual commemorations of what they call the "catastrophe," or "nakba" in Arabic. The names of the villages and towns emptied during the war were written across the key, alongside the slogan "We will return."

»

Report: IDF soldiers kill elderly Palestinian near Gaza border
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
May 15, 2010 - 12:00am

Palestinian emergency services and witnesses said Israel Defense Forces soldiers killed one Palestinian and wounded another near the border with Gaza, Israel Radio reported on Saturday. Medical officials in Gaza said the man, who was 75 and whose body was only discovered on Saturday when it became light, had been shot several times. They added that his family had reported he had been missing for two days.

»

Pins in the Goldstone voodoo doll
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Hagai El-Ad - May 13, 2010 - 12:00am

What will they come up with next? The campaign to discredit Judge Richard Goldstone, his fact-finding commission and the report that now bears his name seems to reach new heights every week. The latest installment in this high-drama farce has been the revelations about Goldstone's record during apartheid-era South Africa, and the implication that his report can therefore be disregarded.

»

Human Rights Watch say destruction in Gaza 'unlawful'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
May 13, 2010 - 12:00am

The Israeli army unlawfully destroyed civilian property in its 22-day offensive in Gaza in 2008 and 2009, a report by Human Rights Watch says. Israeli forces destroyed buildings that had "no military significance", a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Conventions, the report said. The New-York based group have documented 12 cases that they say must be investigated. The IDF denies the charges and says it has investigated the incursion already.

»

Israel to demolish West Bank construction freeze violations
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Chaim Levinson - May 11, 2010 - 12:00am

The Civil Administration is planning to raze buildings in 46 locations in the northern West Bank where violations of the freeze on settlement construction were found to have occurred. According to a document obtained by Haaretz, the plan includes razing six foundations for buildings in the settlement of Yitzhar. A law enforcement source told Haaretz that efforts to raze structures erected in violation of the freeze will be expedited in the near future, due to Israel's desire to show that it is serious about the freeze now that proximity talks with the Palestinians are beginning.

»

Israel seeks to silence dissent
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Ben White - May 11, 2010 - 12:00am

Last Thursday, in the early hours of the morning, a Palestinian community leader's home was raided by Israeli security forces. In front of his family, the wanted man was hauled off to detention without access to a lawyer, while his home and offices were ransacked and property confiscated. While this sounds like an all-too typical occurrence in West Bank villages such as Bil'in and Beit Omar, in fact, the target in question this time was Ameer Makhoul, a Palestinian citizen of Israel and head of internationally renowned NGO network Ittijah.

»

'US support for nuke policy eroding'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Herb Keinon - May 10, 2010 - 12:00am

Jerusalem is increasingly jittery that cracks are appearing in the nearly half-century-old US policy of upholding Israel’s right to maintain its “nuclear ambiguity,” following reports that Israeli nuclear capabilities are, for the first time, scheduled to be on the agenda of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) board meeting next month.

»

A massacre of arabs masked by a state of national amnesia
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent
by Catrina Stewart - May 10, 2010 - 12:00am

More than one unwitting visitor to Jerusalem has fallen prey to the bizarre delusion that they are the Messiah. Usually, they are whisked off to the serene surroundings of Kfar Shaul psychiatric hospital on the outskirts of the city, where they are gently nursed back to health. It is an interesting irony that the patients at Kfar Shaul recuperate from such variations on amnesia on the very spot that Israel has sought to erase from its collective memory.

»

Special Place in Hell / If the secret police ran a Jewish state
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Bradley Burston - (Opinion) May 10, 2010 - 12:00am

If a Jewish state were run by the secret police, Israelis could disappear without a trace. No contact with lawyers. Court-ordered muzzles on broadcast and print news media. If a Jewish state were run by the secret police, there were be gag orders forbidding journalists to write even of the existence of the gag orders. Thank God such a thing couldn't happen here.

»

Israeli air force strikes Gaza tunnels
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
May 10, 2010 - 12:00am

Israeli warplanes struck what a military spokesman described as "two terror sites" in the southern Gaza Strip on Monday morning, destroying two smuggling tunnels with no injuries reported. The spokesman said the strikes were in response to projectile fire from Gaza on Saturday night. The Jerusalem Post reported a single home-made projectile landed in Israel at approximately 11pm on the night in question, but no Gaza factions have claimed the assault. The last time a projectile hit Israel, a Thai worker was killed just outside of Ashkelon, over one month ago.



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