Archaic Israeli convictions and bad faith ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News by Adel Safty - May 17, 2010 - 12:00am One of the fundamental tenets of political Zionism has been the so-called redemption of the land for the purpose of founding a Jewish state where all the Jews of the world are supposed to gather and find a safe haven from persecution. The early Zionist leaders recognised the difficulty they faced: the land to be redeemed was Palestine and it was inhabited by another people who could not be expected to peacefully acquiesce to the transformation of their country into a Jewish state. » Read more

Israel's apartheid road ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian by Rachel Shabi - May 17, 2010 - 12:00am If you didn't have peripheral vision, it would probably be fine. If you didn't glance to the sides of Israel's highway 443 between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, then it wouldn't smack you in the face that the road is – how shall we put it? – segregated. As it is, you can't help but notice that when the 443 passes by the Israeli town of Modi'in and heads east into the occupied West Bank, some of its side-routes are blocked. Concrete boulders, metal barriers, rubble and heaps of rubbish halt roads from Palestinian villages such as Beit Sira and Beit Ur al-Fuka. » Read more

'IDF to blame for price-tag atmosphere' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Tovah Lazaroff - May 17, 2010 - 12:00am The head of the soon-to-be-demolished Od Yosef Hai Yeshiva in the Yitzhar settlement has blamed the IDF for creating an atmosphere in which some Jews were executed a "price-tag" policy of retribution against Palestinians for the IDF demolition of settler homes in Judea and Samaria. "A price tag policy is anarchy and they [the IDF] are the anarchists," said Rabbi Yitzhak Shapira on Sunday night at a solidarity event at the yeshiva. "A person who does things that can not be accepted by any sane person, is an anarchist." » Read more

Report: Egypt cutting Hamas off ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Roee Nahmias - May 17, 2010 - 12:00am New record in Hamas-Egypt tensions? Cairo has decided to cut all contact with heads of the Hamas movement, both in the Palestinian territories, and abroad, "high-ranking Egyptian officials were quoted as saying. In Monday's edition, independent paper al-Mesryoon, which is affiliated with the Egyptian opposition, reported that Cairo has decided to reject any requests by Hamas officials for entry visas to Egypt in the near future, and to freeze all channels of diplomatic and security communications with the movement. » Read more

Report: IDF soldiers kill elderly Palestinian near Gaza border ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz May 15, 2010 - 12:00am Palestinian emergency services and witnesses said Israel Defense Forces soldiers killed one Palestinian and wounded another near the border with Gaza, Israel Radio reported on Saturday. Medical officials in Gaza said the man, who was 75 and whose body was only discovered on Saturday when it became light, had been shot several times. They added that his family had reported he had been missing for two days. » Read more

U.S. Jewish leaders echo European call to end Israeli settlement building ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz May 16, 2010 - 12:00am Following in the footsteps of the European initiative launched by JCall, a group of Jewish-American leaders on Friday launched an online petition urging an end to Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and calling for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israeli protest against settlements Called "For the Sake of Zion," the petition is signed by dozens of prominent American rabbis, judges, writers, academics and philanthropists. » Read more

Hamas destroys dozens of homes in southern Gaza ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press by Rizek Abdel Jawad - May 16, 2010 - 12:00am Hamas police wielding clubs beat and pushed residents out of dozens of homes in the southern Gaza town of Rafah on Sunday before knocking the buildings down with bulldozers, residents said. Gaza's militant Hamas rulers said the homes were built illegally on government land. Newly homeless residents were furious over Palestinians on bulldozers razing Palestinian homes. » Read more

Palestinians mark displacement in 1948 Mideast war ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press by Rizek Abdel Jawad - May 15, 2010 - 12:00am Bitter Palestinian rivals marched together Saturday in a rare show of unity as they marked 62 years of displacement in the war surrounding Israel's creation. Loyalists of rival groups Hamas and Fatah held Palestinian flags and a giant key symbolic of their hoped-for return as part of annual commemorations of what they call the "catastrophe," or "nakba" in Arabic. The names of the villages and towns emptied during the war were written across the key, alongside the slogan "We will return." » Read more

Israeli left flies flag to urge end to occupation ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters by Alastair MacDonald - May 16, 2010 - 12:00am A weekend rally in Jerusalem by Israelis demanding an end to their country's settlement and occupation of the West Bank was hailed by its left-wing sponsors as the start of a major push that could help U.S. peace efforts. But the turnout of just a couple of thousand people drew scorn from settlers, who count on the rightist-led government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to resist President Barack Obama's drive for a deal to establish a Palestinian state. » Read more

Israel shuts down PA municipal office in Hebron ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency by Muhammad Oweiweih - May 17, 2010 - 12:00am Israeli authorities closed down the Palestinian Authority Municipal Inspectors building in the Old City of Hebron on Sunday, the city's mayor said. Hebron Mayor Khalid Al-Useili said the procedure was "illegal and a violation of the Hebron agreement," and would endeavor to reopen the office immediately. Al-Useili said Israeli authorities accused the PA of allowing its police force to operate secretly in the area, known as H2 and under full Israeli control, which would constitute a contravention of the Hebron Protocol and Agreement signed on 15 January 1997 between the PA and Israel. » Read more