March 4th

We are fighting for all Palestinians ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian by Sameer Abu Eisheh - (Opinion) March 3, 2013 - 1:00am My story is no different from that of many other Palestinian young people who were born and have lived their whole lives under Israeli occupation. At 17, I was arrested for the first time, and jailed for two years. I was arrested again in my early 20s, at the height of the second intifada in Ramallah, during an Israeli invasion of numerous cities in the West Bank – what Israel called Operation Defensive Shield. I was sentenced to 30 years in prison on charges relating to my resistance to the occupation. » Read more

Leader waits in shifting sands of Middle East ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Sydney Morning Herald by Kate Geraghty - (Opinion) March 2, 2013 - 1:00am First comes one projectile, then another. Both are in full flight, moving quickly. Launched by Khalid Mishal in the early hours of the morning, they could be rockets over Gaza. But he is in Doha, deftly quartering apples and guavas, then hurling pieces the length of the room, to a colleague at the other end of a long, leather-inlaid conference table. » Read more

On the bus to Israeli apartheid ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Aeyal Gross - (Opinion) March 4, 2013 - 1:00am In 1896 the United States Supreme Court handed down one of its most shameful decisions in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson, rejecting the argument that the segregation between whites and blacks on trains in the state of Louisiana violated the principle of equality. » Read more

White House Announces New Coordinator for the Middle East, North Africa, and the Gulf Region ATFP World Press Roundup Article from White House Office of the Press Secretary (Press Release) March 4, 2013 - 1:00am Today, National Security Advisor Tom Donilon announced that Philip Gordon will be joining the National Security Staff as Special Assistant to the President and White House Coordinator for the Middle East, North Africa, and the Gulf Region. He will take up his duties beginning on March 11. » Read more

Palestinians suspected of aiding Syria regime 'hanged' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star March 3, 2013 - 1:00am Syrian rebels on Saturday hanged two Palestinians at a refugee camp in Damascus on suspicion of aiding the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, a rights watchdog said. "Rebels in the Yarmuk camp executed two men accused of cooperating with the regime by identifying targets that were bombed last week," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. "They were hanged from trees in the camp." » Read more

Anger At The Wall: 10 Years Later ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast by Anna Miller - (Opinion) March 1, 2013 - 1:00am the first slab of the separation barrier—or Apartheid Wall, as it is called in Palestine—was erected in Bethlehem. Ten years later, the 14-foot concrete slabs now weave through the outskirts of the city, surrounding homes and casting shadows over entire neighborhoods and economically choking the Palestinian residents of Bethlehem. » Read more

Palestinian Justice System Still a Work in Progress ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line by Diana Atallah - March 4, 2013 - 1:00am Ramallah -- When a Palestinian court ordered a government center in 2011 to remove garbage they disposed of on lands belonging to Majid Zaher (not his real name) near Ramallah, he thought his case was over. » Read more

Israel industrial park, meant to pull in Bedouins, draws skeptics ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Los Angeles Times by Edmund Sanders - March 1, 2013 - 1:00am On a patch of agricultural land outside Israel's only officially recognized Bedouin city, workers are laying concrete for what the government says will be a cornerstone of its policy to lure impoverished Arabs from barren Negev desert terrain to approved Israeli towns. » Read more

Palestinians Still Feel The Squeeze Of The Restrictions On Gaza ATFP World Press Roundup Article from National Public Radio (NPR) by Larry Abramson - March 4, 2013 - 1:00am The streets of Gaza are busy, but they are also crumbling. Since Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, Israel has maintained tight limits on shipments of anything that could be used for military purposes. That includes basic building materials that could be used for bunkers and rocket launching sites. Ask businessman Ali Abdel Aal what's the toughest thing for him to find, and he'll tell you "cement and gravel." » Read more

Erdogan’s Double Standards ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Monitor by Shlomi Eldar - March 3, 2013 - 1:00am “Turkey and Israel are both vital allies of the United States. We want to see them work together in order to be able to go beyond the rhetoric and begin to take concrete steps to change this relationship,” said new U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry at a news  conference in Ankara on Friday [March 1]. » Read more