UN chief urges Israel to end 'provocative actions' in east Jerusalem
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
November 4, 2009 - 1:00am

UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday urged Israel to end its "provocative actions" in east Jerusalem and to abide by its commitments to freeze all settlement activity in the occupied West Bank. "The Secretary General is dismayed at continued Israeli actions in occupied east Jerusalem, including the demolition of Palestinian homes, the eviction of Palestinian families and the insertion of settlers into Palestinian neighborhoods," a UN statement said. "The eviction today of a Palestinian family in east Jerusalem is just the most recent incident," it added.

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Settlement by stealth belies promises of restraint
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent
by Donald MacIntyre - November 4, 2009 - 1:00am

Maysaa Al-Kurd has lived all her life in the home her family moved into in 1956. The pomegranate tree standing in the garden was planted by her father when she was still an infant nearly half a century ago. But that hardly reassured her yesterday when she heard the Jewish settlers break into the next-door extension building her brother Nabil built to house his family in 2001.

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Jerusalem artists go underground
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC World News
November 3, 2009 - 1:00am

Jerusalem has played host to a two-day arts festival with a difference as part of Palestinian attempts to celebrate the city's year of being Capital of Arab Culture. The BBC Arabic Service correspondent in the city, Ahmad Budeiri, joined the audience. A group of about 100 specially invited guests gathered at Jerusalem's Damascus Gate for the evening's programme to begin.

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Palestinian workers: We're being treated like cattle
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Daniel Edelson - November 3, 2009 - 1:00am

The 4,500 Palestinian workers who travel through the Eyal checkpoint, near West Bank city of Qalqilya, on their way to work in Israel, are finding it hard to enjoy the long-awaited winter. The checkpoint provides cover for those waiting to cross it, but its little shed can shelter about 100 people at the most, leaving the rest exposed to rain and cold winds. "I usually like the winter, but why do we have to stand here like this?" wondered Majid Nazal, a construction worker who crosses the checkpoint daily.

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'Waqf quietly pleased at Salah's arrest'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Khaled Abu Toameh - October 29, 2009 - 12:00am

Heads of the Waqf Department have quietly expressed their satisfaction with the Israeli authorities' recent measures against Sheikh Raed Salah, leader of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel, and top Fatah operative Hatem Abdel Qader, a senior official with the Ministry for Internal Security said on Thursday. Salah and Abdel Qader have each been arrested by the Jerusalem Police for their role in instigating the latest wave of violent protests at the Temple Mount.

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To solve the problem
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
(Editorial) October 28, 2009 - 12:00am

Tension flared up again recently in Al Aqsa Mosque compound, in the Holy City of Jerusalem, when Israeli security forces clashed with Palestinian worshippers, injuring some and forcing scores of others to take refuge in the mosque. News that some ultra-orthodox Jewish groups plan to worship in the Noble Sanctuary that houses one of Islam’s holiest places, in a bid to lay claim to the Islamic holy sites, no doubt angers the Palestinians.

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US: Israel discriminates against non-Jews
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
October 26, 2009 - 12:00am

Israel continues to discriminate against its religious minorities legally, financially and culturally, according to a US State Department review on worldwide religious freedom released on Monday. In its 2009 International Religious Freedom Report, the foreign service said that despite past documentation of prejudice against minorities, the status of respect for religious freedoms by Israel "was unchanged during the reporting period."

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Students refuse to enlist due to 'occupation'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Daniel Edelson - October 12, 2009 - 12:00am

Dozens of students signed this year's high school seniors' letter, which has traditionally attempted to challenge Israel's mandatory army service policy. Similar letters have circulated every few years since 1979, all calling on teens to object to IDF service.

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Netanyahu: Our leaders won't be prosecuted in Hague
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Amnon Meranda - October 12, 2009 - 12:00am

The Knesset opened its winter session Monday, amid its members' promise for a stormy winter. The Knesset's factions are set to spend the next several months debating settlement freeze, the forming of a biometric database, a reform in the Israel Land Administration, a controversial budget cut and a referendum bill, to name a few. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dedicated most of his speech to a harsh attack on a United Nations report on the Israeli operation in Gaza, which accused Israel and Hamas of committing war crimes in Gaza.

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Israeli forces demolish Palestinian home in Jerusalem
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
October 12, 2009 - 12:00am

Israeli forces demolished a Palestinian house in occupied East Jerusalem on Monday morning, witnesses said, before dismantling the foundation of another home in the same area. Both structures were in the Al-Marwaha and Ash-Ashqariyya neighborhood of the town of Beit Hanina, they added. Israeli forces arrived with bulldozers and besieged the At-Taleiqi family home on before forcibly evicting the five family members who were inside, onlookers told Ma'an.

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