March 4th

Jewish residents of East Jerusalem home offer trade-off
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Nir Hasson - March 4, 2010 - 1:00am

The Israeli activists who settled recently in a disputed building in East Jerusalem on Thursday offered a compromise to the State Prosecution, according to which they would seal off the top levels of the building they claim is theirs in exchange for the right to live there. In a letter to State Prosecutor Moshe Lador, the residents of Beit Yonatan said that would forfeit the top three floors of their building, thus keeping their own residence to four stories.

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PLO defends AL's nod for indirect Palestinian-Israeli negotiations
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
March 4, 2010 - 1:00am

Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Thursday defended an Arab League (AL)'s decision authorizing Washington to lead indirect talks between Israel and the Palestinians for four months. "This decision moves the ball in Israel's court," said Yasser Abed Rabbo, a member of the PLO's executive committee, in response to Islamic Hamas movement and other Palestinian factions that rejected any resumption of peace negotiations.

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Israel allows less than quarter of needs into Gaza: official
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
March 4, 2010 - 1:00am

Israel allows in only less than quarter of goods the Gaza Strip needs, a Palestinian official said Thursday following a call by a senior UN official to relax sanctions on the Hamas-controlled coastal enclave. "Only 15 percent of Gaza's basic needs are allowed in through one crossing that operates on partial capacity," said Jamal El- Khodary, chief of a public anti-siege committee in Gaza.

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Hamas bans men from women's hair salons
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
by Rizek Abdel Jawad - March 4, 2010 - 1:00am

Gaza's Islamic Hamas government on Thursday banned men from working in women's hair salons, the latest step in its campaign to impose strict Islamic customs on Gaza's 1.5 million people. Since seizing Gaza in 2007, Hamas has taken steps in that direction while avoiding a frontal assault on secularism. The majority of Gaza residents are conservative Muslims, but Hamas is under growing pressure from more radical groups to prove its fundamentalist credentials by imposing ever harsher edicts. The latest measure irked one of the victims of the ban.

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Dubai assassination: Dubai wants Israel Prime Minister Netanyahu behind bars
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Carol Huang - March 3, 2010 - 1:00am

The Dubai police chief plans to seek the arrest of Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the murder of Hamas leader here Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, Al Jazeera reported on Wednesday. The warning adds to the series of threats that Lt. Gen. Dahi Khalfan Tamim has lodged in recent days against Israel, whom he said “insulted” the United Arab Emirates (UAE) by allegedly carrying out the Jan. 19 assassination here. Dubai, a trade, tourism and banking center is the second largest of the Emirates.

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Palestinians are expected to join Israel in indirect peace talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Edmund Sanders - March 4, 2010 - 1:00am

A year after peace talks collapsed, Israelis and Palestinians appear headed back to the negotiating table -- just not the same table. A U.S.-backed proposal to launch so-called proximity talks moved forward Wednesday when the Arab League gave its blessing for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to join the effort.

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ATFP President Emphasizes Convergence Between Diplomacy, State-Building at Senate Hearing
Press Release - Contact Information: Hussein Ibish - March 4, 2010 - 1:00am

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A Skeptical Arab League Backs Indirect Peace Talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner, Michael Slackman - March 3, 2010 - 1:00am

Arab League foreign ministers on Wednesday approved an American proposal that Palestinians hold indirect talks with Israelis, a move that could help restart direct discussions between the two sides that broke down more than a year ago.

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March 3rd

A UN official condemns the Gaza blockade. PM Netanyahu prevails on Israel's Jerusalem mayor to postpone plans that involve the demolition of Palestinian homes, US praises the move. PA ministries will be linked through electronic networking. A Palestinian accuses Israel of planning 30,000 new settlement units. Pres. Abbas urges Arab states to help protect Jerusalem and the PA denies any strained ties. Israeli forces kill an Islamic Jihad militant in the West Bank. PM Netanyahu says Israel will keep control of the Jordan Valley. Salman Masalha and Jesse Rosenfeld say Israel practices apartheid through both the occupation and within its own borders. Two Israeli commentaries speculate about a new intifada while another accuses PM Fayyad of incitement. Arab states support proximity talks. Israel upgrades the West Bank separation barrier. The Israeli government defends a law prohibiting Palestinians spouses of Israelis from entering Israel. VP Biden meets with Jewish-American leaders.

From South Africa to Israel: personal stories of apartheid
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Jesse Rosenfeld - (Opinion) March 2, 2010 - 1:00am

I grew up in an anti-apartheid household in Toronto. My parents met while my father was touring southern Africa as part of a Canadian anti-apartheid organisation, building links with postcolonial African socialist states and the South African liberation movement. On long car journeys, our family would mix Nelson Mandela’s autobiography with Just William children’s story tapes, and my parents would occasionally hire a babysitter so they could attend organising meetings for the international boycott campaign against South Africa.

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