July 26th

Top settler rabbi arrested for allegedly inciting to kill non-Jews ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Chaim Levinson - July 26, 2010 - 12:00am The head rabbi of a prominent yeshiva in the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar was arrested Monday for writing a book that allegedly encourages the killing of non-Jews. Rabbi Yitzhak Shapira is the alleged author of the book "The King's Torah," which deems as legal, according to "Jewish law," the killing of non-Jews. Police began investigating Shapira after an advertisement for the book in a Hebrew newspaper created a public uproar. Deputy Attorney General Shai Nitzan encouraged the investigation as he believed the book contained an incitement to violence. » Read more

Palestinian official hints at accepting direct talks ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua July 25, 2010 - 12:00am A Palestinian official on Sunday hinted at accepting U.S. demands to start direct peace talks with Israel. "We don't rule out any possibility or form of negotiations," said Yasser Abed Rabbo, a member of the Executive Committee of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). However, Abed Rabbo stressed that Washington should present guarantees that the direct discussions would lead to an agreement. "These negotiations should not be taking place in vicious circle." Israel and the Palestinians started four-month indirect negotiations in May. » Read more

Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish, do you still have hope after the IDF killed your daughters and niece in Gaza? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Limor Shmuel Friedman - (Interview) July 26, 2010 - 12:00am TORONTO - Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish speaks frankly to Israelis and Palestinians, in synagogues, mosques and cultural centers, in this city, where he now resides. On January 16, 2009 three of his daughters, Bessan (20 ), Mayar (15 ) and Aya (13 ), and his niece, Noor (17 ) were killed by an Israel Defense Forces shell fired directly into their bedroom. When Operation Cast Lead in Gaza started, he stopped traveling to his job at Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer, where he worked in in vitro fertilization. » Read more

PNA to punish dealers importing Jewish settlement products ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua July 25, 2010 - 12:00am The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) on Sunday said merchants importing and selling products of Jewish settlements in the West Bank would be punished from the beginning of August. The dealers who bring the settlement products "would have to pay big amounts of fine or might be imprisoned," Hassan Abu Libda, Palestinian minister of economy, told reporters. Abu Libda added that his ministry would inspect the markets next month and search all stores "and would transfer anybody dealing with the settlements' products to justice." » Read more

PNA to punish dealers importing Jewish settlement products ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua July 25, 2010 - 12:00am The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) on Sunday said merchants importing and selling products of Jewish settlements in the West Bank would be punished from the beginning of August. The dealers who bring the settlement products "would have to pay big amounts of fine or might be imprisoned," Hassan Abu Libda, Palestinian minister of economy, told reporters. Abu Libda added that his ministry would inspect the markets next month and search all stores "and would transfer anybody dealing with the settlements' products to justice." » Read more

Six injured in clashes between Palestinians, settlers ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua July 26, 2010 - 12:00am Four Jewish settlers and two Palestinians were injured during clashes between the two sides near a settlement to the south of Nablus city in the West Bank on Monday, witnesses said. The settlers went to the street to express anger after Israeli police demolished a house and a barn that were built in an Israeli settlement near the Palestinian village of Burin, saying the demolishment violated an Israeli government freeze on settlement expansion in the West Bank, Israel Radio reported. » Read more

Rosemary's baby - Uri Avnery ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency July 24, 2010 - 12:00am Since I witnessed the rise of the Nazis during my childhood in Germany, my nose always tickles when it smells something fascist, even when the odor is still faint. When the debate about the “one-state solution” began, my nose tickled. Have you gone mad, I told my nose, this time you are dead wrong. This is a plan of the left. It is being put forward by leftists of undoubted credentials, the greatest idealists in Israel and abroad, even certified Marxists. But my nose insisted. It continued to tickle. Now it appears that the nose was right, after all. » Read more

Abbas: Israel renewing cycle of violence ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency July 26, 2010 - 12:00am President Mahmoud Abbas said Sunday that Israel’s continued settlement building on what would become a future Palestinian state was impeding a two-state solution and renewing the cycle of violence. In his speech delivered at the summit of the African Union in Kampala, Abbas said Palestinians were clinging to peace “to build a better future for our coming generations and all peoples of the region,” the PA news agency Wafa reported. » Read more

Settlers riot near Nablus checkpoint ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency July 26, 2010 - 12:00am Residents of an illegal Israeli settlement rioted Monday in the northern West Bank, protesting the demolition of structures built in an adjoining outpost, onlookers said. Ma’an’s Nablus correspondent reported from the scene that dozens of armed settlers stormed the nearby Burin village, opening fire at Palestinian homes. Israeli forces also ransacked houses, locals said, including the homes of Bashir Az-Zein and Ibrahim Abid. » Read more

Israeli Forces Kill Unarmed Palestinian ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Isabel Kershner - July 22, 2010 - 12:00am Israeli forces shot to death an unarmed Palestinian man early on Thursday at the edge of a Jewish settlement in the northern West Bank, Israeli military and Palestinian officials said. The Palestinian Authority government condemned the killing, calling it a "breach of the rule of law." The Israeli military said that soldiers saw three Palestinians approaching the settlement of Barkan before dawn. Suspecting that one was armed, the military said, the soldiers opened fire, killing one man. The two others fled. It initially reported that there had been only one other man. » Read more