October 22nd

Award-winning Film-maker's Death Divides Uk And Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent by Eric Silver - October 22, 2007 - 11:02am Britain and Israel face a diplomatic and legal showdown this week over the death of James Miller, an award-winning British film-maker who was shot by Israel soldiers while working on a documentary in the Gaza Strip more than four years ago. Israel has failed to respond to an ultimatum issued by Lord Goldsmith, the former attorney general, to his opposite number, Meni Mazuz, on 26 June to launch a criminal investigation within six weeks against the officer suspected of firing the fatal shot. The deadline expires tomorrow. » Read more

Gaza Voices ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bbc News October 22, 2007 - 11:01am MOHAMMED OMER, 23, JOURNALIST, RAFAH There have been some minor clashes between Islamic Jihad and Hamas in Rafah, but today all of Gaza is busy with the secondary school exam results, which have just come out. The Egyptian and Gaza border near the Rafah crossing The girl with the best results in all of the Gaza Strip is here in Rafah; she's one of my neighbours. But with the economic situation, I doubt she can do much. The Hamas government has said it will sponsor 10 students through university. » Read more

To Get On The Same Page ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Newsweek by Joanna Chen - October 22, 2007 - 10:59am Sami Adwan is the very model of a soft-spoken professor. He measures his words, and listens carefully to what others have to say. Yet while pursuing an education Ph.D. at the University of San Francisco in the 1980s, Adwan not only refused to listen to Jewish students, he says he dropped out of classes if he knew they included Jews. A Palestinian born in the village of Surif, near Hebron, Adwan had grown up under the shadow of the Israeli occupation, hearing tales from his father and grandfather of how Jews had seized the family's orange groves and wheat fields in 1948. » Read more

A Sort Of Peace In Gaza ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Time by Andrew Lee Butters - October 22, 2007 - 10:57am On Patrol in Shijaiyah, the toughest neighborhood in Gaza City, Lieut. Naim Ashraf Mushtaha, 31, an officer of the Hamas Executive Force, spots a man in civilian clothes carrying an M-16 assault rifle and walking through the street suqs in broad daylight. His officers quickly encircle the suspect and demand that he identify himself and turn over the weapon. The man turns out to be a member of one of the neighborhood's most powerful clans, and he refuses to give up his gun. "What's my name, boys?" he shouts to the gathering crowd of curious onlookers. » Read more

Israel's Intrepid Peacemakers ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Nation by Neve Gordon - October 22, 2007 - 10:54am Over the past five years the Israeli peace camp has dwindled. Last month marked the occupation's fortieth anniversary, but no more than 4,000 people reportedly gathered in Tel Aviv to protest Israel's longstanding military rule. Of the demonstrators who did show up, only a few hundred are what one could call ardent activists--people who have dedicated their life to peace and justice » Read more

Analysis-us Peace Effort Faces Middle East Credibility Gap ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters by Alistair Lyon - October 22, 2007 - 10:52am A U.S. plan to host a Middle East peace conference is intended to signal a new commitment to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But many in the region doubt President George W. Bush can muster the perseverance and evenhandedness in his last 17 months in office to deliver the two-state solution he evoked in 2002. Others fear an exercise in futility if the idea is to forge peace between Israel and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction without the consent of the elected government led by Hamas Islamists who have seized control of the Gaza Strip. » Read more

The Rush For A Legacy ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post by Jackson Diehl - October 22, 2007 - 10:48am In a speech to a meeting of democratic freedom fighters in Prague on June 5, President Bush announced a concrete mission for his State Department. "I have asked Secretary Rice," he said, "to send a directive to every U.S. ambassador in an unfree nation: Seek out and meet with activists for democracy. Seek out those who demand human rights." » Read more

Olive Branch / The War That Once Was ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Daniel Ben Simon - (Opinion) October 22, 2007 - 10:46am Maisun, the beautiful 19-year-old daughter of Amin Saliman Hassan, was killed on August 4 five years ago. Before she died, she had the feeling that something bad was about to happen. Early in the morning, as she was about to leave for the bus to Safed, she turned back, went into the room where her father was sleeping and kissed him on the cheek, parting with a loving wave of the hand. Back then, Hassan didn't understand the meaning of this good-bye. "In her heart she apparently knew that she wouldn't see me again," he said this week. » Read more

Deja Vu ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Meron Benvenisti - (Opinion) October 22, 2007 - 10:44am It is hard to get over the feeling of deja vu when facing the current political arena and public discourse. A person listens to the Palestinian prime minister's declaration - "Resistance [to the occupation] is legitimate, but this in fact means making every possible effort to hold onto Palestinian land. This is the [Palestinian] government's plan" - and cannot help but recall a slogan that was heard 14 years ago: a slogan that was quickly replaced by muqawama (armed resistance). » Read more

Excuse Me, What Nationality Did You Say You Were? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from by Joharah Baker - (Opinion) October 22, 2007 - 10:41am My older brother recently informed me that his three children were eligible for US passports, given that he, like myself and my other siblings, were all born in the United States. But my nephew and niece were hardly without citizenship even before this most recent discovery. Married to a Palestinian/German woman with both German [or EU] and Israeli citizenship, my brother’s children also have European Union passports while the baby, born in Palestine is also the bearer of an Israeli passport. » Read more