Israeli Arabs plan to start rival artists association to collect royalties
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Jack Khoury - March 15, 2011 - 12:00am

Several Palestinian and Israeli Arab artists and businesspeople are preparing to start a copyright protection association, with one of the businessmen behind the venture saying that the equivalent Israeli organization, ACUM, doesn't put enough money into encouraging Arab creative enterprise. "There's no doubt that the success of this project will constitute an important step toward the independence of Arab culture and creativity within Israel," the businessman said.

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Israel Holds Gaza Engineer, Relatives Say
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Fares Akram - March 10, 2011 - 1:00am

Relatives of an engineer from Gaza who disappeared last month in Ukraine said Thursday that he had been kidnapped by Mossad agents and transferred to an Israeli prison. The engineer, Derar Abu Sisi, is the operating manager of the only power plant in Gaza, the Palestinian enclave that is controlled by Hamas, the Islamic militant group. He is married to a Ukrainian woman and was in the country applying for citizenship, relatives said.

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Protecting Israel from its citizens
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Avirama Golan - February 14, 2011 - 1:00am

On Tuesday, a Knesset committee is due to approve on second and third readings the bill combating boycotts against Israel - another hysterical proposal by the right wing and Kadima MK Dalia Itzik designed to protect our weak and tiny country, which is being attacked from within and without.

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Israel's parliament promotes bill to strip former Arab lawmaker of pension
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
by Gur Salomon - February 8, 2011 - 1:00am

The Israeli Knesset parliament on Tuesday voted to promote a bill that would deny pension benefits from Azmi Bishara, a former legislator suspected of assisting Hezbollah during the 2006 Lebanon war. The Knesset House Committee approved the bill, dubbed "Bishara Law," for second and third readings. The bill is expected to be brought for a second round of voting in the Knesset plenum within weeks.

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Israeli or Palestinian? Umm Al-Fahm Residents Are Divided
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line
by David Miller, Arieh O'Sullivan - February 2, 2011 - 1:00am

The narrow streets of Umm Al-Fahm, one of the largest Arab towns in Israel, are steep as they wind up the hillside of the town that sits in a topographical bowl overlooking the biblical Plain of Jezreel. The 50,000 residents of this town of cinderblock houses and large golden-domed mosques are on the literal edge of the Western democratic state of Israel an hour’s drive from Tel Aviv, rubbing shoulders with what may be the future Palestinian state in the West Bank on the other side of the nearby fence.

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Israeli Arabs: We won't be guinea pigs
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Hassan Shaalan - January 31, 2011 - 1:00am

Hundreds of sector's representatives reject Olmert government's initiative for land exchange in divided Arab towns, say 'we were born here and will die here' Hundreds of representatives of the Arab sector gathered in the northern city of Baqa al-Gharbiyye on Saturday afternoon and clarified that they would not agree to be transferred to the Palestinian territories.

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Israeli court jails Hezbollah spy for nine years
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
January 30, 2011 - 1:00am

An Israeli court sentenced an Israeli-Arab human rights activist to nine years in prison on Sunday after convicting him last year of spying for the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah. Amir Makhoul had confessed to the spying charge as part of a plea bargain at Haifa District Court, which added a further year's suspended sentence to the nine years behind bars. The court dropped a separate charge carrying a much longer sentence.

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Palestinian faults Arabs over Jerusalem support
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
January 19, 2011 - 1:00am

Arab states are failing to help the Palestinians in Jerusalem, a Palestinian official said on Wednesday, criticising them for paying only a fraction of funds pledged to sustain Palestinian life there. Foreign Minister Riad Malki's comments reflected the Palestinians' frustration over the Arab failure to support them in the face of what they see as an Israeli campaign to "Judaize" Jerusalem, the city at the heart of the Middle East conflict.

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Student's answer on civics test: Death to Arabs
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Tomer Velmer - January 19, 2011 - 1:00am

Three weeks after the publication of a petition calling on Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar to take action against racism spreading within schools and the general public, teachers told Ynet about the harsh reality they are forced to face daily.

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Israel's 'disobedient women' questioned over illegal trips for Palestinians
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Harriet Sherwood - January 18, 2011 - 1:00am

In a small village between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, I joined a remarkable group of women and children for lunch last weekend, a noisy and cheerful crowd enjoying plates of chicken, fish, rice and salad. All of them were breaking the law. The party consisted of around 20 mostly middle-aged Israeli women, slightly fewer and younger Palestinian women and a handful of the latter's children.

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