March 28th

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

Rewriting 'Hatikvah' as Anthem for All ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by Philologos - (Opinion) March 27, 2012 - 12:00am Back in 1998, I wrote a column about “Hatikvah.” It was occasioned by a European Cup soccer game between Israel and Austria, before which, as usual on such occasions, the national anthems of both countries were played. When the band struck up the Israeli anthem, the whole Israeli team joined in singing it except for a talented young Arab player named Walid Badir, who stood in silence. » Read more

Peter Beinart's problematic 'Zionist BDS' proposal ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian by Jane Eisner - (Opinion) March 28, 2012 - 12:00am Peter Beinart deserves credit for continually testing how big the Jewish tent really is. His new and controversial proposal for a targeted boycott of products from Israeli settlements in the contested West Bank is only the latest case in point. The tent is a euphemism for acceptable discourse in the often fractious conversation about Israel among American Jews. We don't merely argue about the fraught issue of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. We argue about who has the right to argue about it. » Read more

Israel is comfortable ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat by Bilal Hassan - (Opinion) March 28, 2012 - 12:00am The Arab region is experiencing a state of inertia with regards to the Arab-Israeli conflict, a struggle supposed to exist and continue for as long as Palestine remains occupied, and as long as other Arab territories in the West Bank and the Golan Heights remain occupied. This stalemate has existed for quite a long time in terms of Lebanon, Syria and Jordan - the countries surrounding Israel; however matters used to be heated and highly active in the Palestinian-Israeli sphere until such mobility lost momentum on the Palestinian side, as a result of the "negotiations" endeavor. » Read more

PA, Egypt Sign Gas Deal to End Gaza Crisis ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency March 28, 2012 - 12:00am CAIRO (Ma'an) -- The Palestine Electricity Company on Tuesday announced a deal with Egypt to provide gas to the Gaza Strip. Palestine Electricity Company director in Gaza Walid Saad Sayil signed the agreement with the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation in Cairo on behalf of the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority. Sayil told reporters that Egyptian technicians have been instructed to conduct geographical surveys to find the best route for a network of pipelines to transport gas from Sheikh Zweid to the Rafah crossing on Gaza's border. » Read more