August 13th

Palestinian: Settlers Tied My Son To Atv, Dragged Him Through Olive Grove
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Ali Waked - August 13, 2008 - 4:41pm

A Palestinian resident of Ras KarKar, a West Bank village located near Modiin, claimed Wednesday that a Jewish settler tied his 17-year-old son to an All-Terrain Vehicle (ATV) and dragged him through an olive grove. According to Hafez Nupal, on Monday at around 6 pm he and his son were working in their fields when two settlers riding an ATV approached. "One of them yelled 'what are you doing on this land? God gave us this land and no Arab dog will set foot on it'," he recounted.

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Palestinian Teen Caught With Pipe Bombs, Knife At Hawara Checkpoint
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Erfat Weiss - August 13, 2008 - 4:39pm

IDF soldiers detained Wednesday a 16-year-old Palestinian at the Hawara checkpoint, located south of Nablus in the West Bank, after he was found to be carrying two pipe bombs and a pocketknife. The teen was turned over to security forces for further questioning. The pipe bombs were detonated by military sappers. Over the past few years the IDF has thwarted numerous attempts to smuggle explosives and weapons through the Hawara checkpoint.

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Palestinian Saga Personified
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
by Osama Al-sharif - August 13, 2008 - 4:36pm

MAHMUD Darwish, the renowned Palestinian poet ho died in Houston on Saturday after an unsuccessful heart operation, aged 67, often joked about his close brush with death. In 1998 he underwent a major heart surgery in Paris, more than 14 years after his first coronary, which nearly cost him his life. But he recovered and went on to write poetry and prose that reiterated his status as one of the most talented and popular poets in the Arab world in the last 50 years.

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Hamas, Israel Cooperate To Ease Gaza Blockade
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Middle East Times
by Sana Abdallah - August 13, 2008 - 4:35pm

AMMAN -- The Palestinian Hamas movement seems to have realized that the punishment inflicted by Israel on Gaza's 1.5 million Palestinians has been much too severe since it seized control of the Gaza Strip in June 2007, and is now publicly blasting militants who fire rockets at Israel in violation of a truce as traitors. Israel on Tuesday closed the Nahal Oz crossing, the transit point for fuel into Gaza, and the Sufa passage for food deliveries, a day after a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip slammed into an empty field outside the southern Israeli town of Sderot, causing no casualties o

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Israel Clears Troops Who Killed Reuters Cameraman
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Star
August 13, 2008 - 4:33pm

 LONDON (Reuters) - An Israeli tank crew who killed a Reuters cameraman and eight young bystanders in the Gaza Strip four months ago acted properly and will not face legal action, Israel's senior military lawyer has concluded. The military advocate-general told the international news agency in a letter sent on Tuesday that troops could not see whether Fadel Shana was operating a camera or a weapon but were nonetheless justified in firing a shell packed with darts that killed him and eight other Palestinians aged between 12 and 20.

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Roaming Freely In A Land Of Restraints
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Abby Aguirre - August 13, 2008 - 4:28pm

RAMALLAH, West Bank — There is an Arabic word for Raja Shehadeh’s pastime. “Sarha is to roam freely, at will, without restraint,” he writes in “Palestinian Walks: Forays Into a Vanishing Landscape,” an account of six walks in the West Bank, which won this year’s Orwell Prize, Britain’s pre-eminent award for political writing, and was published by Scribner in the United States in June. “A man going on a sarha wanders aimlessly, not restricted by time and place.”

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August 12th

An article in the New York Times discusses Raja Shehadah’s recent book “Palestinian Walks: Forays Into a Vanishing Landscape” (1). Palestinian national poet Mahmoud Darwish is buried in Ramallah today (2) while Arab News profiles his remarkable life (5). Israel chooses not to pursue legal action against the tank crew that killed a Reuters cameraman and eight bystanders in Gaza four months ago (3). The Middle East Times notes the marked shift in Hamas’ public stance towards militants who violate the truce with rocket fire into Israel (4).

Just Fire A Rubber Bullet At Him?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
(Editorial) August 12, 2008 - 4:45pm

Last Thursday an indictment was served at the Military Court in Tel Aviv against Lt. Col. Omri Borberg and against the soldier under his command who at a range of less than half a meter, fired a rubber bullet at the legs of a shackled and blindfolded Palestinian. Borberg, the battalion commander, did report the shooting to the brigade commander, who reported it to the division commander, but until the video that was taped by a Palestinian girl from the window of her home came to light, it was not exposed publicly - no one thought it was a grave incident.

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Hamas Says Searching For Qassam Violators
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Ali Waked - August 12, 2008 - 4:43pm

Hamas officials vowed on Monday it would track down the parties responsible for the firing of a Qassam rocket from northern Gaza towards Israel on Monday. The rocket landed in an open area near a kindergarten in the town of Sderot, causing no injuries or damage. Though the region has been relatively quiet since Israel signed the ceasefire agreement with Hamas and other Palestinian groups in June, intermittent rocket and mortar fire has been recorded every several days. The last rocket landed in the Sha'ar Hanegev Regional Council on Saturday.

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Israel Mulls New Settler Enclave In West Bank
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
August 12, 2008 - 4:40pm

Jerusalem: Israel has proposed building a new Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank near Jerusalem, a spokesman for the main settlers organization said on Monday. The Defence Ministry, which oversees the issue, made no comment on a move that would be seen by Palestinians and by Israel's US and European allies as a breach of commitments to halt settlement activity on land Palestinians want for a state.

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