Why Israel Is Calling For Jonathan Pollard's Release Now ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast by J.J. Goldberg - March 12, 2013 - 12:00am In advance of President Obama’s scheduled March 20 visit, Israeli society at every level is waging an unprecedented, all-out public effort to press for the release of Jonathan Pollard, the American Jew serving a life sentence for spying for Israel. The past month has seen figures as diverse as President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, far-right Likud lawmaker Moshe Feiglin and former Hamas hostage Gilad Shalit calling on Obama to commute Pollard’s sentence to time served and set him free. » Read more

UN agency joins petition against Israeli infiltration law ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua March 12, 2013 - 12:00am The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) joined a petition filed by human rights organizations to the Supreme Court against the Israeli law of infiltration and asked to revoke it, local media reported Tuesday. The UNHCR's unprecedented move is an attempt to overturn a law which it claims "wrongly stigmatizes and penalizes those seeking refuge." » Read more

No Prospects for Palestinian Currency ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Monitor by Omar Shaban - (Opinion) March 12, 2013 - 12:00am Reinstating the Palestine pound has long been a dream for Palestinians. Nevertheless, amid the Palestinians’ eagerness to consolidate their sovereignty and in view of the reality of the Palestinian economy that is controlled by Israel, not to mention the losses and challenges that could result from such a step, it seems that this Palestinian dream still has a long way to go before becoming a reality. » Read more

The apartheid libel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post (Editorial) March 12, 2013 - 12:00am Israel Apartheid Week kicked off this year in Europe on February 25 and runs through March 17 in South Africa. Events include mock checkpoints, replicas of the security barrier, the screening of documentary films critical of Israel and meetings with the “victims” of the “occupation.” Organizers are united by their belief that the situation in the West Bank is comparable to the systematic racial segregation and discrimination that South Africa’s white minority instituted against the black majority. » Read more

I'm an Arab too ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Aviad Kleinberg - March 13, 2013 - 12:00am A racism allegation evokes a conditioned reflex among Israelis. We automatically reject it. We have been accused of politically-motivated racism so many times; we have been compared – foolishly or maliciously – to Nazi Germany so many times, that our natural inclination is to ignore not only the diagnosis but also the symptoms. » Read more

Palestinians seized at Cairo airport 'in possession of military maps' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency March 13, 2013 - 12:00am Sources at Cairo International Airport said Wednesday that seven Palestinians were in custody after being found with maps of military buildings in Cairo. An Egyptian investigative source told Ma’an that the men were on their way back home after visiting Syria and Iran. The suspects have not been identified. The Egyptian source, speaking on the condition of anonymity, added that after investigations it was determined that the men had entered Egypt via tunnels and the stamps in their passports were fake. » Read more

Hamas urges collaborators to hand themselves in ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency March 12, 2013 - 12:00am The Hamas-run Interior Ministry in Gaza has a list of collaborators who will be detained if they do not turn themselves in, a security official said Tuesday. "Collaborators must contact dignitaries to help them turn themselves over to security services," said Muhammad Lafi, of the Internal Security Service. Informers who give themselves up by April 11 will not be detained or sent to interrogation centers, Lafi told reporters in Gaza City. » Read more

Let's face it: Israel has a racism problem ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Ilene Prusher - March 12, 2013 - 12:00am A schoolteacher was attacked on a Jerusalem street last week for no other reason than that she was wearing the headscarf of a religious Muslim woman. The pack of religious teenagers who accosted Wahad Abu-Zamira and her colleague Revital Valkov called the latter “a Jewish bitch who has Arab friends.” » Read more

Hamas threatens to issue own passports for Gaza people ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua March 12, 2013 - 12:00am Hamas accused Tuesday the rival Fatah movement of "depriving thousands of Gaza people of passports, " threatening to issue its own version of Palestinian travel documents. Ibrahim Salah, spokesperson of the Hamas interior ministry, accused the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) in the West Bank, where President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party holds sway, of " depriving thousands of Gaza people of passports." » Read more

The silence after the lynch of Israel's Arabs ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Uri Misgav - (Opinion) March 12, 2013 - 12:00am A young man from Tel Aviv who was injured in a road accident last week wrote on Facebook: “In the emergency room at Ichilov, on the bed next to mine, lay the waiter who was beaten by a mob because he is an Arab. He didn’t stop crying, and I wanted them to run me over again.” » Read more