April 20th

Abbas Seeks Support for Non-Member Palestinian State ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua April 19, 2012 - 12:00am RAMALLAH, April 19 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' recent tour in Asia aimed to lobby for support for giving the Palestinians the status of non-member state in the United Nations, a Palestinian official said Thursday. "Abbas sought international support for the Palestinian position as peace talks with Israel are crippled," said Palestinian foreign minister Riad Al-Maliki, he also sought support "for going to the UN General Assembly" to ask for upgrading the Palestinian statue to a non-member state. » Read more

Israel's diminishing power ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News by Patrick Seale - (Opinion) April 20, 2012 - 12:00am Although it is too early to make a judgement, it looks as if Israel's Iran policy has back-fired and may result in a very different outcome from the one Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long sought. Israel's thinking these past three years has been that punitive sanctions, cyber warfare and the assassination of Iran's nuclear scientists must eventually force a crippled Islamic Republic to agree to ‘zero enrichment' of uranium — that is to say to dismantle its entire nuclear programme. » Read more

An occasional Palestinian Christian encounter of Israeli intolerance ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency by Baha Hilo - (Opinion) April 17, 2012 - 12:00am The Israeli ambassador to the US appears to really believe that Palestinian Christians suffer significantly from Palestinian Muslims, and just occasionally from Israeli intolerance. Palestinian Christians' reality is the complete opposite. The ambassador's latest missives in the American press have provoked Palestinian Christian leaders to remind him and his readers that Israel really isn't all that friendly to its Christians. » Read more

The Return of East Jerusalem's Most Luxurious Hotel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'ariv by Yossi Eli - (Opinion) April 15, 2012 - 12:00am From the 1960s until the eruption of the Second Intifada in 2000, the Saint George Hotel was the most luxurious and famous hotel in East Jerusalem. Last week, a decade after its closure, the hotel on Salah a-Din Street was re-opened, due to surprising economic cooperation between a Palestinian contractor and Jordanian investors. » Read more

Grilling of Top Palestinian Militant Exposes Arafat’s Link to Terror Attacks on Israelis, papers Show ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Amos Harel, Avi Issacharoff - April 20, 2012 - 12:00am On April 15, 2002, 10 years ago this week, Marwan Barghouti, the secretary general of Fatah's Tanzim militia, was arrested by members of the undercover Duvdevan unit of the Israel Defense Forces in Ramallah. His capture was preceded by two weeks of cat-and-mouse games with the IDF and the Shin Bet security service, during which the Israelis also disseminated threatening hints about an intention to assassinate him. » Read more

An occasional Palestinian Christian encounter of Israeli intolerance ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency by Baha Hilo - (Opinion) April 17, 2012 - 12:00am The Israeli ambassador to the US appears to really believe that Palestinian Christians suffer significantly from Palestinian Muslims, and just occasionally from Israeli intolerance. Palestinian Christians' reality is the complete opposite. The ambassador's latest missives in the American press have provoked Palestinian Christian leaders to remind him and his readers that Israel really isn't all that friendly to its Christians. » Read more

Medics: Palestinian Teen Shot During Israeli Military Training ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency April 20, 2012 - 12:00am TUBAS (Ma'an) -- Israeli soldiers shot an 18-year-old shepherd in the chest on Thursday evening during military training exercises in the northern West Bank, medics said. Yasir Suleiman Nijad Kaabnah was shot while herding sheep and camels near Wadi al-Maleh in the northern Jordan Valley, medics told Ma'an. Salem Kaabneh, the victim's uncle who was with him when he was shot, told Ma'an that Israeli troops who were training in the area fired at Suleiman injuring him in the chest. » Read more

A Textbook Case for the Clash Of World Views in Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'ariv by Omri Meniv - (Opinion) April 10, 2012 - 12:00am The struggle over the nature of civics studies in Israeli schools has reached a new low: the Civil Service Commission is now conducting an inquiry into the actions of Civic Education Inspector Adar Cohen. The issue under examination is whether he allegedly committed ethical offenses, including changing the minutes of the Civics Professional Committee. » Read more

UN Rights Office Says Gaza Death Sentences Unlawful, Urges Hamas to Halt Planned Firing Squad ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press April 20, 2012 - 12:00am GENEVA — The U.N.’s human rights office says three men recently sentenced to death in the Palestinian territory of Gaza were executed unlawfully. A spokesman for U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay says the men didn’t have regular access to lawyers and were tried by a military court despite being civilians. Rupert Colville told reporters in Geneva that the death sentences carried out by hanging April 7 also weren’t approved by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as required by law. » Read more

Neeman’s Own ATFP World Press Roundup Article from International Herald Tribune by Shmuel Rosner - (Blog) April 19, 2012 - 12:00am JERUSALEM — About two weeks ago, on the eve of Passover, Israel’s Justice Minister, Yaakov Neeman, dropped a policy bomb. He proposed a bill that would allow a small majority of legislators in the Knesset to reinstate laws struck down by the Supreme Court. » Read more