March 29th

Ramallah court extends arrest of Palestinian reporter ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency March 29, 2012 - 12:00am RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- A Palestinian court has extended the remand of a journalist arrested Monday over allegations of slander and defamation, officials in Ramallah said Wednesday. The Palestinian Authority will continue to hold Yousef al-Shayeb, who was arrested Monday, for another 15 days, the court ruled. He has not yet been charged with a crime. » Read more

Abbas: 'Unity is frozen' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency March 29, 2012 - 12:00am BAGHDAD (Ma'an) -- President Mahmoud Abbas said Thursday that the reconciliation deal between his Fatah party and Hamas has broken down. "Unity is frozen," said Abbas, who is in Baghdad to attend the Arab League summit. The president said he had agreed "on many points" with Hamas chief Khalid Mashaal during their meeting in Qatar in February. "We agreed on the vision and objectives and conditions in full," Abbas said. "I confirm that Mashaal was honest and we were ready (to proceed)." But some Hamas leaders rejected the agreements reached in Doha, the president said. » Read more

Kadima Party in Israel Replaces Livni as Leader ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Isabel Kershner - March 27, 2012 - 12:00am JERUSALEM — Tzipi Livni, who not long ago was a popular and leading force in Israeli politics, lost the leadership of her centrist Kadima Party on Tuesday by a large margin to an archrival, according to results of the primary election. » Read more

March 28th

Brooklyn Food Co-op Voted Against Boycott of Israeli Products ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press by Associated Press - March 28, 2012 - 12:00am A New York food co-op, servicing thousands of Brooklyn residents of varying ethnicities and backgrounds, voted against a proposed boycott of Israeli goods and produce on Tuesday night. With upwards of 15,000 members, of various ethnic and religious backgrounds, including many Jews, the Park Slope Food Co-op, established in 1973, has become a meeting point of sorts for Jews of different backgrounds and religious denominations. The idea of an ideological boycott was not new to the co-op, as a general boycott of South African goods and products was held during the 1970's. » Read more

PA extends remand of detained journalist ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post March 28, 2012 - 12:00am A Palestinian Authority court on Wednesday extended the remand of Palestinian journalist Yousef al-Shayeb, who was detained after writing an article about corruption in the Palestinian diplomatic mission in France, official PA news agency WAFA reported. Shayeb, who works as a correspondent for the Jordanian daily Al-Ghad, was originally detained following a complaint by the head of the diplomatic mission, Hayel Fahoum and his wife and deputy. The PA Foreign Ministry had also filed a complaint against Shayeb. » Read more

Arab Attacked by Israel Soccer Fans: There Were Hundreds, We Had No Chance ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Oz Rosenberg - March 27, 2012 - 12:00am Over a week after the violent incident in which fans of the Beitar Jerusalem soccer team ran amok in the Malha mall, accused of physically assaulting Arab workers in the mall, one of the workers provides a firsthand account of what occurred that night. “I’ve been working here for a year and a half, and my brother for two years,” said N., 20 years old, an East Jerusalem resident. “We’re used to the Beitar fans coming to the mall after the games, singing and getting wild, but we’ve never seen anything like what happened last week. That was the worst.” » Read more

Joining Start-Up Nation ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line by David Rosenberg - March 27, 2012 - 12:00am Living and working on the edges of Israel’s Start-Up Nation, Palestinian and Israeli Arab high tech entrepreneurs are trying their hand getting companies aloft by leveraging their closeness to Israel’s technology juggernaut and the low cost of Palestinian engineers. “There’s a great opportunity in Palestine to create a start-up with a great cost structure,” Tareq Maayah, chief executive officer of Shopzooky, a maker of social shopping apps, which was set up in Ramallah last year. “You couldn’t beat it without going to India,” said his partner Sam Taha, chief technology officer. » Read more

Organizers Fear Palestinian Land Day Protests Could Turn Violent ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Jack Khoury - March 28, 2012 - 12:00am Organizers of international protest marches scheduled for Friday to mark Land Day have expressed concern that the demonstrations could get out of control due to the involvement of outside activists, some from as far away as East Asia. Land Day marks the anniversary of protests in the Israeli Arab community in 1976 over government land policy in which security forces killed six demonstrators. » Read more

Bret Stephens' Crisis of Empathy ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast by Hussein Ibish - (Blog) March 27, 2012 - 12:00am Sometimes crude binaries can be instructive, and it's possible to distinguish two different types of people: those who seek out generous and universalist empathy with others, and those who prefer the warm cocoon of tribal solidarity. » Read more

International Pro-Palestinian Activists Descend on Lebanon Ahead of Land Day Protest ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Jack Khoury - March 28, 2012 - 12:00am Dozens of international delegations comprising hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists began arriving in Lebanon on Wednesday, ahead of massive demonstrations planned for Land Day, which commemorates the 1976 deaths of six Israeli Arabs protesting Israeli government land policies. » Read more