June 29th

‘I Am an Illegal Alien on My Own Land’ ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Review Of Books by David Shulman - (Opinion) June 28, 2012 - 12:00am In 1949, shortly after Israel’s War of Independence, S. Yizhar—the doyen of modern Hebrew prose writers—published a story that became an instant classic. “Khirbet Khizeh” is a fictionalized account of the destruction of a Palestinian village and the expulsion of all its inhabitants by Israeli soldiers in the course of the war. The narrator, a soldier in the unit that carries out the order, is sickened by what is being done to the innocent villagers. » Read more

Palestinian: US supports 'an apartheid system that is suffocating us' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from MSNBC by Yara Borgal - June 28, 2012 - 12:00am BETHLEHEM, WEST BANK – At the Aida Refugee Camp, a few blocks from Israel’s separation wall, is the Al Rowwad Cultural and Theater Center founded by Dr. Abdelfattah Abusrour in 1998 with the philosophy of “beautiful resistance” against the Israeli power over their land. Abusrour is part of the first generation of children born to refugee parents in the Aida Refugee Camp, which was established in 1950 between the towns of Bethlehem and Beit Jala. It is now home to around 5,000 inhabitants all descendants from the 1948 expulsion from Palestine. » Read more

Carter compares conflict to U.S. civil rights movement, not apartheid, says former adviser ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Mordechai Twersky - (Opinion) June 29, 2012 - 12:00am Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter views Israel's treatment of the Palestinians as similar to that of the "African Americans of the 1950s and '60s," a former Carter adviser told Haaretz during a recent trip to Israel. According to Stuart E. Eizenstat, who served as Carter's chief White House domestic policy adviser from 1977 to 1981, Carter "looks at the conflict through the lens of the Civil Rights movement, as a Southerner who witnessed discrimination against African Americans, who he equates with the Palestinians." » Read more

Hamas says the Mossad killed its senior figure ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian by Harriet Sherwood - June 28, 2012 - 12:00am A senior Hamas figure has been killed at his home in Damascus, in an operation that the Islamist organisation swiftly attributed to the Israeli intelligence service, the Mossad. Kamel Ranaja, who died on Wednesday night, was reported to be a deputy to Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, who was killed in a Dubai hotel in 2010. » Read more

Experts: Israel didn't kill Hamas man in Damascus ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Yaakov Lappin - June 28, 2012 - 12:00am Israel was most likely not behind the assassination of Hamas operative Kamal Ranaja in Damascus, Israeli security experts told The Jerusalem Post Thursday. » Read more

The calm may not last for ever ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Economist (Opinion) June 30, 2012 - 12:00am FIVE years after Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, dismissed an elected government run by the Islamists of Hamas and decided to rule instead by decree, the Palestinian Authority (PA) that oversees the West Bank is being dangerously challenged from within. In Nablus, the first city where Mr Abbas chose to fill the security vacuum with his American-trained national-security battalions, turf wars have recently erupted between rival commanders, puncturing four years of calm. » Read more

Israel freezes plan to move East Jerusalem Bedouin to site near garbage dump ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Amira Hass - June 29, 2012 - 12:00am The state has suspended a plan to forcibly relocate Bedouin from East Jerusalem to a site next to a city garbage dump. The state told the High Court of Justice two weeks ago it was putting off the plan until surveys were conducted to assess the environmental repercussions and hazards involved. » Read more

Report: Police intelligence told to target Israeli Arabs joining social protests ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Roy Arad, Ofra Edelman - June 29, 2012 - 12:00am Police intelligence officers have been told to collect information about Israeli Arabs who join the social justice protests, Channel 10 reported last night. Police Commissioner Yohanan Danino issued a directive to the police top brass ordering them to document every "involvement of the Arab community in the protests." Unlike the directives about Jewish demonstrators, which focus on rioters and anarchists, the section about Arabs does not specify which type of demonstrators police should watch out for, referring only to Arabs in general. » Read more

Fearing Public Backlash, Israeli Settlers Speak Out Against Their Own ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast by Dan Ephron - (Opinion) June 29, 2012 - 12:00am When you hear an Israeli criticizing violence among settlers in the West Bank, it’s usually a peacenik or a human rights advocate. But in recent weeks, a number of prominent Jewish settlers themselves have spoken out against the hooliganism, perpetrated mainly by young extremists living in the occupied territories. Their record includes mosque burnings and other attacks on Palestinians and even assaults against Israelis whom they perceive as adversaries. » Read more

Erekat: Meeting between Abbas, Mofaz is not a renewal of peace talks ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Deutsche Presse Agentur (DPA) June 29, 2012 - 12:00am RAMALLAH - A meeting between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz scheduled for Sunday does not signal a renewal of stalled negotiations, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat has said. The two are to meet at Abbas' Ramallah headquarters. On Thursday, Erekat told Voice of Palestine Radio the meeting did not mean a renewal of the stalled Palestinian-Israeli negotiations. "I do not know what Mofaz will bring with him," he said. "But it is not going to be negotiations." » Read more