March 30th

UN chief: Israel's occupation is 'morally, politically unsustainable' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz March 30, 2011 - 12:00am United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called on Israel Wednesday to halt settlement building in the West Bank and put a stop to all forms of violence and incitement, the UN News Center reported. Speaking in Uruguay at the UN Latin American and Caribbean Meeting in support of Middle East peace Ban said it was a "crucial time" for the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. » Read more

Palestinians to ask UN recognition in September ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua March 30, 2011 - 12:00am The Palestinian leadership will ask the United Nations to recognize the Palestinian state in September despite Israeli objection, Foreign Affairs Minister Riad al-Maliki said Wednesday. The Palestinians will ask the U.N. Security Council to recognize an independent Palestinian state on the lands that Israel occupied in the 1967 war, al-Maliki was quoted by local Al- Ayyam newspaper as saying. » Read more

Boy found to have lied about rape ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Yoav Zitun - March 30, 2011 - 12:00am Police released four Palestinians residing illegally in Israel, who were arrested Tuesday on suspicion that they had raped an 11-year old Israeli boy, when it turned out the latter had been lying. The four men denied the allegations from the first, prompting police investigators to question the boy again before a scheduled lineup. During the second round of questioning, the boy admitted that some of the claims he had made were false, and also supplied a different description of the men. » Read more

Israel not eager to see Syria's Assad go ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press by Amy Teibel - March 29, 2011 - 12:00am Syria has fought three wars with Israel and maintains close ties to its fiercest enemies in the region, including Iran and the Hamas and Hezbollah militant groups. So it may come as a surprise that many in Israel view the current unrest convulsing Syria with a wary eye, fearful that a collapse of Bashar Assad's regime might imperil decades of quiet along the shared border. Israeli leaders, who voiced fears — unfounded so far — that the earlier uprising in Egypt might spell the end of the two countries' peace agreement, are keeping quiet about the tumult that has spread to Syria. » Read more

Israel's Netanyahu sues media for libel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press March 30, 2011 - 12:00am The Israeli prime minister has filed $300,000 libel suits against an Israeli TV station and a newspaper over reports he allegedly took expensive flights, hotels and restaurant meals from wealthy associates. The suits were filed on Tuesday. » Read more

'Burning Lieberman photos on Land Day is legitimate' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Yaakov Lappin - March 30, 2011 - 12:00am Ahead of Land Day, in which Israeli Arabs carry out marches and rallies, police began to make security arrangements on Wednesday, described by a police spokesman as being standard deployments that are made every year. The majority of the arrangements were made in the northern district and the Jerusalem district, the spokesman added. MK Mohammad Barakeh (Hadash) said on Wednesday that burning pictures of Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, as Arab protesters did at a Land Day protest in Lod, is legitimate. » Read more

Seized Gazan's lawyer says Israeli charges "farce" ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters by Dan Williams - March 30, 2011 - 12:00am The lawyer for a Gazan engineer held under secrecy in Israel accused authorities on Wednesday of concocting charges against him after seizing the Palestinian overseas. Relatives of Dirar Abu Sisi, a manager of the Gaza Strip's main power plant, say he was abducted from a train in Ukraine last month. Israeli officials have confirmed he is in custody but declined further comment, citing court-issued gag orders. » Read more

Amos Oz: Israel will surely speak with Barghouti ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post March 30, 2011 - 12:00am Internationally famed Israeli author Amos Oz said he is sure that Israel will negotiate with former Tanzim (Fatah youth movement) leader Marwan Barghouti, in an interview with Italian daily La Stampa. "I'm sure that someday we will speak with him," Oz said. "Some day Israel will talk to Barghouti, even if he was the instigator of the second Intifada and a large number of suicide bombings and many other terrorist attacks." » Read more

Israeli minister proposes Gaza artificial island ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters by Jeffrey Heller - March 30, 2011 - 12:00am Israel is considering building an artificial island with sea and air ports off blockaded Gaza, as a long-term solution to shipping goods into the Hamas-run Palestinian enclave, the transport minister said. Yisrael Katz told Army Radio on Wednesday he wants an international force to control the island for "at least 100 years" and for unloaded cargo to be brought into Gaza along a 4.5-km (3-mile)-long bridge with a security checkpoint to prevent arms smuggling. "The Israeli military would continue the naval blockade, but in a more localised way," he said. » Read more

Early morning air strike kills 1 ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency March 30, 2011 - 12:00am Israeli forces launched an air strike on the southern Gaza Strip shortly after the dawn prayer on Wednesday, killing one militant and injuring a second. In a statement from the Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Islamic Jihad, officials identified the slain man as Mohammad Abu Mu'ammer, killed by an Israeli air strike near a mosque in the An-Nasser neighborhood in northeastern Rafah, near the refugee camp. » Read more