Banned from Al Aqsa
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Jonathan Cook - October 7, 2009 - 12:00am

Tensions over control of the Haram al Sharif compound of mosques in Jerusalem’s Old City has reached a pitch unseen since clashes at the site sparked the second intifada nine years ago. Ten days of intermittently bloody clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces in Jerusalem culminated yesterday in warnings by Palestinian officials that Israel was “sparking a fire” in the city. Israel’s Jerusalem Post newspaper similarly wondered whether a third intifada was imminent.

»

Palestinians warn Israel on Jerusalem tensions
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Douglas Hamilton - October 6, 2009 - 12:00am

A senior Palestinian official on Tuesday accused Israel of deliberately creating "an extremely dangerous situation" in East Jerusalem, to trigger violence, justify a crackdown and tighten its grip on the disputed city. "Israel is lighting matches in the hope of sparking a fire, deliberately escalating tensions in occupied East Jerusalem rather than taking steps to placate the situation," chief peace negotiator Saeb Erekat said in a statement before meetings later this week with U.S. President Barack Obama's envoy.

»

'Old City violence may lead to 3rd intifada'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Abe Selig - October 6, 2009 - 12:00am

Recent violence in the capital and the ongoing tensions surrounding the Temple Mount could trigger a third intifada, senior Fatah official Hatem Abdel Kader warned in a conversation with The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday. "It's a very sensitive situation," the former Palestinian Authority minister for Jerusalem affairs said as he stood outside a home in the city's Wadi Joz neighborhood.

»

New brochure touts hot Jerusalem real estate - in the capital's Arab neighborhoods
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Abe Selig - September 29, 2009 - 12:00am

A brochure recently released by the Ateret Cohanim organization and obtained this week by The Jerusalem Post features a number of high-value properties the group has apparently put up for sale inside the Christian and Muslim quarters of Jerusalem's Old City, along with the east Jerusalem neighborhoods of Silwan, Ras el-Amud and Sheikh Jarrah. East Jerusalem properties are being marketed to Jews for upward of $1 million in an Ateret Cohanim brochure.

»

Gaza peace protester is imprisoned in own home
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Jonathan Cook - September 28, 2009 - 12:00am

Nine months after he helped to organise protests against Israel’s attack on Gaza, Samih Jabareen is a prisoner in his home in Jaffa, near Tel Aviv, an electronic bracelet around his ankle to alert the police should he step outside his front door. The 40-year-old actor and theatre director is one of dozens of Arab political activists in Israel who have faced long-term detention during and since Israel’s winter assault on Gaza in what human rights groups are calling political intimidation and repression of free speech by the Israeli police and courts.

»

Yearning for the Golan Heights: why Syria wants it back
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Julien Barnes-Dacey - September 28, 2009 - 12:00am

The US demonstrated its commitment to reengage Syria as a partner for Middle East peace Monday, advancing a process that some Arab countries had declared dead in recent weeks. At Washington's invitation – the first one extended to a high-ranking Syrian official in five years – Deputy Foreign Minister Fayssal Mekdad came to town to meet US officials.

»

Palestinians and Israelis Clash at Jerusalem Holy Site
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - September 28, 2009 - 12:00am

Clashes broke out Sunday between Palestinians and the Israeli police at a holy site in Jerusalem revered by both Muslims and Jews, after Muslim worshipers threw stones at a group of foreign tourists, apparently mistaking them for Jewish activists.

»

Real reform in Israel is a distant prospect
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Ben White - September 27, 2009 - 12:00am

Once again, issues like the settlement "freeze" are dominating the official peace process, ignoring not only core questions like Israel's "matrix of control", but also the status of Palestinian citizens of Israel. While the increasingly overt racism of Knesset members has got its fair share of headlines, other important developments have escaped scrutiny outside the region.

»

Israeli drive to prevent Jewish girls dating Arabs
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Jonathan Cook - September 25, 2009 - 12:00am

A local authority in Israel has announced that it is establishing a special team of youth counsellors and psychologists whose job it will be to identify young Jewish women who are dating Arab men and “rescue” them. The move by the municipality of Petah Tikva, a city close to Tel Aviv, is the latest in a series of separate – and little discussed – initiatives from official bodies, rabbis, private organisations and groups of Israeli residents to try to prevent interracial dating and marriage.

»

'Protecting' Jewish girls from Arabs
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Abe Selig - September 18, 2009 - 12:00am

Every night, dozens of young men in Jerusalem's Pisgat Ze'ev neighborhood take to the streets and go out searching for girls. But theirs is not a promiscuous search. In fact, the group of some 35 volunteers is looking to prevent such interaction and to stop what neighborhood residents have overwhelmingly complained is a growing problem in Pisgat Ze'ev - Arab men going out with Jewish girls.

»


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