Arabs in Israel | The American Task Force on Palestine

A shared story offers hope to Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Daphna Baram - October 29, 2010 - 12:00am

A piece of news from Israel this week hides a grain of hope in a rather bleak reality: a group of high school students demanded to meet a senior official at the education ministry after one of their textbooks was banned from use in schools. The book in question, Learning Each Other's Historical Narrative, was the fruit of a joint project in which Israeli and Palestinian teachers constructed a text presenting both narratives of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict alongside each other.

As stonethrowing escalates, Israeli police round up Arab children in E. Jerusalem
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Ben Lynfield - October 29, 2010 - 12:00am

Jerusalem — Amid rising Israeli-Arab tensions, Israeli police are waging a crackdown on Palestinian youths – many not yet teenagers – in East Jerusalem’s most volatile neighborhood, Silwan. In a recent incident, M., a slightly chubby 10-year-old with dark eyes, was harmed by a group of plainclothes forces who sprang out of an unmarked car and grabbed him off the street, according to his father's account, which was backed up by other residents. (M.'s full name could not be used because of an Israeli law protecting juveniles.)

IDF bars Palestinian children from Tel Aviv film festival
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Ruta Kupfer - October 29, 2010 - 12:00am

The army yesterday prevented children from the West Bank village of Umm al-Hir from entering Israel in time to watch a movie they appear in at a children's film festival in the Tel Aviv Cinematheque. The children, first- and second-graders, were supposed to enter via the Meitar checkpoint to watch the film they had appeared in as part of the Children Make Movies project, run jointly by the Education Ministry, the Children's Channel and the Lahav and Mifalot associations.

Arab leaders call for strike in Umm Al Fahm
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
October 28, 2010 - 12:00am

TEL AVIV (Ma'an) -- Arab leaders have called for a strike in the city of Umm Al-Fahm on Thursday in response to police brutality at a far-right march a day earlier, Israeli media reported. On Wednesday, extreme-right protesters marched into the city, which contains the largest Palestinian community inside Israel. The rally was called to demand the outlawing of the Islamic Movement in Israel, an Islamist movement among Palestinian citizens of Israel. Violent clashes ensued as Palestinians threw stones and set fire to tires, and Israeli forces fired stun grenades and tear gas.

A shift in epicenter of Palestinian struggle
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
by Jesse Rosenfeld - October 28, 2010 - 12:00am

In a country that continues to call itself “the only democracy in the Middle East,” it would appear that the days of Israel trying to present expanding segregation in the context of liberal values are over. While the legislation calling for non-Jews to declare loyalty to Israel as a Jewish and democratic state has been billed as Netanyahu’s capitulation to his coalition in order to extend a partial settlement freeze, the reality is that Israel has shifted its primary target of controlling Palestinians to its own Arab citizens.

Rightists furious over Palestinian plans for new East Jerusalem schools
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Nir Hasson - October 28, 2010 - 12:00am

The Legal Forum for the Land of Israel yesterday asked Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch to prevent a planned visit next week to East Jerusalem by Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, to rededicate two schools. The organization's website says it is "committed to protecting human rights in Israel, ensuring sound government, and preserving the national integrity of the State of Israel and the Jewish people."

Remembering Rabin, Some See His Legacy Fading
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner - October 28, 2010 - 12:00am

In the 15 years since Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated by a Jewish militant after a peace rally here, blood seeping onto a song sheet in his breast pocket as he lost consciousness, his legacy in Israel has seemed clear — warrior turned peacemaker, symbol of a tough nation with an outstretched hand.

Israel convicts Israeli-Arab of spying for Hezbollah
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
October 27, 2010 - 12:00am

JERUSALEM, Oct 27 (Reuters) - An Israeli-Arab human rights activist was convicted of spying for the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah by an Israeli court on Wednesday. Amir Makhoul confessed to the charge as part of a plea bargain under which the Haifa District Court dropped a separate charge of aiding the enemy in time of war, for which he could have been sentenced to a much longer term, court papers showed. The spying charge carries a maximum 10-year jail term.

The Other Citizens of Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ahmad Tibi - (Opinion) October 21, 2010 - 12:00am

Is there no limit to what the American government will accept from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his hard-line foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman? With Netanyahu’s backing, the Israeli cabinet voted in support of Lieberman’s loyalty oath for non-Jewish immigrants, which requires allegiance to a “Jewish and democratic state” of Israel. It was as if Mexican immigrants to the United States would have to swear allegiance to a United States that is white and Protestant, while immigrants from Europe would face no such oath.

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