Bedouin oppose Israeli plans to relocate communities
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
by Yolande Knell - November 11, 2011 - 1:00am

Bedouin in the occupied West Bank and in Israel's Negev desert say they fear for their future as new reports circulate that the Israeli authorities plan to relocate them. International aid and Bedouin groups say tens of thousands of people could ultimately be affected. Bedouin to the east of Jerusalem expect attempts will soon be made to move them against their will. They live in an area that is controlled by Israel's Civil Administration, part of the Defence Ministry that governs the West Bank.

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The struggle to make Israel a normal country
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Oudeh Basharat - (Opinion) November 7, 2011 - 1:00am

Only in Israel is pork called "white meat." A white steak, as opposed to an impure pig steak, can be devoured with a clear conscience. What the British call the War Ministry is designated in Israel as the Defense Ministry, a sort of friendly neighborhood nickname. And don't ever run into the intellectually challenging expression "the absentee law," this is simply the law that allows the theft of Arab property.

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The Mystery of 1948
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Slate
by Gershom Gorenberg - (Opinion) November 7, 2011 - 1:00am

The most basic question about Israeli democracy has existed from before its birth: What would be the status of Arabs in a Jewish state? The answer is riddled with contradictions.

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Israel and the Apartheid Slander
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Richard Goldstone - (Opinion) October 31, 2011 - 12:00am

THE Palestinian Authority’s request for full United Nations membership has put hope for any two-state solution under increasing pressure. The need for reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians has never been greater. So it is important to separate legitimate criticism of Israel from assaults that aim to isolate, demonize and delegitimize it.

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Minister: Detainees suspend strike after deal on isolation
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
October 18, 2011 - 12:00am

Palestinians jailed in Israel suspended a three-week hunger strike on Monday, the minister of detainee affairs in Ramallah said. Issa Qaraqe told the official Wafa news agency that prisoners ended the strike after Israeli prison authorities agreed to end the practice of solitary confinement. Israel will stop holding detainees in isolation on Tuesday, immediately after releasing 477 prisoners in a swap deal to free captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, Qaraqe said.

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Inside Israeli desert, standoff over land
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Statesman
by Amy Teibel - October 13, 2011 - 12:00am

Decades of fraught relations between the Israeli government and Bedouin Arabs living in the hardscrabble Negev desert are coming to a head over a state plan that would expel 30,000 of the nomads from unauthorized tent encampments and shantytowns and move them into some of the country's most destitute towns. The Israeli Cabinet recently approved the plan, reflecting growing anxiety that Bedouin are taking over more of the Negev, an inverted triangle in the country's south crisscrossed with rocky mountains and dry riverbeds and covering more than half of Israel's land mass.

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Palestinians should vote in Jerusalem elections
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Avraham Burg - (Opinion) October 13, 2011 - 12:00am

It was depressing to see American President Barack Obama's weak appearance at the United Nations. It was depressing to see this talented man, who brought such great hope to the world, presenting the pitiable position of a feeble empire. It was embarrassing to see him defending positions and people whom only a few months earlier he had attacked with fury. His obsequiousness is shameful, and this weakness is a real danger to the world. Therefore anyone who wants peace cannot make do merely with accusing Obama. One cannot allow his desperation to have veto power over our hope.

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We are a people
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Shlomo Avineri - (Opinion) October 12, 2011 - 12:00am

Recently the English-language website of Al Jazeera featured a long and meticulously argued article by Prof. Sari Nusseibeh under the title "Why Israel Can't Be a 'Jewish State.'" Nusseibeh is not only president of Al-Quds University, a scion of one of the most respected Palestinian patrician families and the most prominent Palestinian intellectual: He is also known for his moderate views and his principled opposition to terrorism, and more than once put himself in danger because of these views.

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In Jaffa, Israeli racism towards Arabs is routine
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Roy Arad - October 10, 2011 - 12:00am

A meeting between the head of the Israel Police and a group of Arab notables is never something that sounds good. I come to the well-kept community center in the Arab Ajami neighborhood in Jaffa where the meeting is to take place. A Christian notable with a huge gold cross comes through the door while a correspondent for the British newspaper The Guardian checks with the tall reporter from the Ynet website as to what exactly is going on.

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Fayyad rallies support for prisoners' hunger strike
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
October 10, 2011 - 12:00am

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad on Monday called for the UN to support Palestinian prisoners' rights in Israel, as he visited sit-in tents in solidarity with a detainees' hunger strike. Fayyad, chief of the Ramallah-based government, expressed sympathy for strikers, saying their refusal of food since Sept. 27 was "means to express their rejection to the practices of the occupation that denies them basic human rights," a government press statement said.

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