Official: Palestinian figures responsible for Arafat's death
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency July 16, 2012 - 12:00am A Palestinian intelligence officer and member of an official investigation committee on Sunday accused Palestinian figures of killing late president Yasser Arafat. Fahmi Shabana made the comments during an interview with Israeli journalist Yoni Bin Manahim, which was published Sunday on Israel's Reshet Bet new-site. Shabana said that two Palestinian figures were involved in Arafat's death, a security figure from the Gaza Strip and a political figure who helped cover up the crime. |
Abbas to ask Arabs to set date for new UN bid
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua July 15, 2012 - 12:00am Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will announce to the Arab League (AL) his decision to seek Palestinian membership in the United Nations, a Palestinian official said Sunday. Abbas will ask the AL's Arab-Israeli relations committee to set a date for submitting the Palestinian request to the UN General Assembly, said Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator. The committee will meet next week in Doha, Qatar. The decision comes as Israeli officials failed to meet their Palestinian counterparts to revive the peace talks that have been stalled for two years. |
Palestinian PM to meet Clinton in Jerusalem
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua July 16, 2012 - 12:00am Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad will meet U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday during her visit to Israel, a Palestinian official said. Ghassan al-Khatib, spokesman for the Palestinian government, said that Fayyad will head to Jerusalem to meet with Clinton, who arrived in Israel Sunday. Clinton will not visit the Palestinian territories as she did in her last tour in the Middle East two years ago. Al-Khatib said that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is visiting Italy and that he coordinates with Fayyad over the meeting with Clinton. |
Gazans visit relatives jailed in Israel after 5 years
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters by Nidal al-Mughrabi - July 16, 2012 - 12:00am Israel allowed 40 Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to visit relatives held in Israeli jails on Monday, the first such visits in five years, implementing a deal reached in May that ended a prisoners' hunger strike, families and officials said. "Forty people - families of 24 prisoners - arrived a short while ago at the Ramon prison," a Prisons Service spokeswoman said, adding that visits from prisoners' relatives in Gaza would now be held on a weekly basis. |
Israel to grant settlement subsidy, despite pledge
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press by Amy Teibel - July 16, 2012 - 12:00am The Israeli government has quietly agreed to grant subsidies to build more than 500 new homes in the West Bank, backtracking from a promise earlier this year to deny these incentives to the settlements, The Associated Press has learned. The planned construction, at a time when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to shore up support among settlers, has enraged the Palestinians and could cloud a visit starting Sunday by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton as she tries to re-energize moribund Mideast peace efforts. |
Special investigator dies in Palestinian custody
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press by Mohammed Daraghmeh - July 16, 2012 - 12:00am A senior Palestinian official suspected of embezzling public funds fell to his death from the third-floor kitchen window of a West Bank security compound where he was being interrogated, officials said Monday. The official investigating the incident said Osama Mansour jumped and that there is security camera footage to prove it. Mansour's family and a leading human rights activist called for an autopsy in the presence of an independent doctor. |
Hamas seeks new Gaza policy from Egypt
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press by Karin Laub - July 16, 2012 - 12:00am Egypt's new president holds the key to blockaded Gaza, but he is signaling that he won't rush to help the territory's Hamas rulers by striking a border deal with them, even though they are fellow members of the region's Muslim Brotherhood. A bilateral border agreement between Egypt and Hamas could hurt chances of setting up a single Palestinian state, made up of the West Bank and Gaza, alongside Israel. "I don't think they (the Egyptians) are ready for that," said Palestinian economist and business leader Samir Hulileh. |
Does the U.S. matter any more in Egypt and Israel?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from CNN by Aaron David Miller - (Opinion) July 13, 2012 - 12:00am Poor Hillary Clinton. Later this week and next, she'll have the unenviable task of visiting Egypt and Israel at a time when America's capacity to influence the policies of both countries has fallen to new lows. And not even the secretary of state -- a veritable superstar of persuasion -- can charm America back into a position of influence. |
Arab singer in Israeli spotlight after talent show win
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC World News by Farhana Dawood - July 12, 2012 - 12:00am A young Israeli Arab woman who won a popular Israeli TV music talent show has become an unlikely star in a country where suspicion and hostility often mark relations between Israel's minority Arab population and the Jewish majority. Nissren Kader won first place on a programme that seeks to find the best singer of Mizrahi songs - the musical tradition of Middle Eastern Jews. The past few months have been an incredible journey for Ms Kader, who used to work as a wedding singer in the coastal city of Haifa. |