May 11th, 2012

Israeli city bans girls from singing at conference ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press May 10, 2012 - 12:00am JERUSALEM — An Israeli newspaper says a central city has agreed to a request by an Orthodox religious group to ban girls from singing at a youth conference next week. The Haaretz daily reported Thursday that the Kfar Sava town council imposed the ban to respect the wishes of the Bnei Akiva religious youth group. Various youth movements are set to participate in the conference. Strictly Orthodox Jewish men do not listen to women singing for reasons of religious modesty. » Read more

Hamas shuts down Gaza literary festival, only to later apologize ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz May 11, 2012 - 12:00am A leading Palestinian human rights group has condemned the Gaza Strip's Hamas government on Thursday for violently breaking up a Palestinian literature festival. The Palestinian Center for Human Rights said that armed Hamas men cut off electricity, confiscated cameras and dispersed the Palestine Festival of Literature near Gaza City. Participants said that speakers at Wednesday night's gathering had been critical of Hamas. » Read more

PA: Suspects in Jenin shooting attack detained ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency May 11, 2012 - 12:00am JENIN (Ma'an) -- Security forces on Thursday arrested the perpetrators of a shooting attack on the home of the late governor of Jenin, a spokesman said. On May 1, assailants opened fire on Qaddura Musa's home in Jenin. The governor left his home with security chiefs to investigate when he suffered a heart attack that killed him, police spokesman Mujahid Rabiya said. » Read more

Lawyer: Halahla could die at any moment ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency May 11, 2012 - 12:00am BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Prison doctors have told Thaer Halahla that he could die at any moment after 72 days on hunger strike, his lawyer Mona Neddaf said Thursday. Neddaf visited Halahla, 33, in Ramle prison clinic on Thursday, the prisoner rights group Addameer said in a statement. He is vomiting blood, bleeding from his gums and lips and has extremely low blood pressure, she said. His temperature is fluctuating at dangerous levels and the prison doctor said he also has an infection. He has refused food since Feb. 29 and now weighs 55 kilograms. » Read more

Palestinian leader warns Israel over hunger strike ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press May 10, 2012 - 12:00am RAMALLAH, West Bank — The Palestinian president says his people "will not be quiet" if any harm comes to a group of Palestinian hunger strikers held by Israel. Hundreds of prisoners are striking, including two men who have not eaten for 73 days. The strikers want better conditions and an end to an Israeli system of holding them for months without charge. President Mahmoud Abbas told a West Bank rally on Thursday that if anyone is harmed, "we will not be quiet ever." He did not elaborate. » Read more

The Palestinian taxi driver crucial to Jewish settlement in E. Jlem ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Nir Hasson - May 11, 2012 - 12:00am Mohammed Nabulsi's paper trail has been catching up with him, which is making it difficult for Jewish settlers and their state patrons to take over East Jerusalem homes. Starting in the 1970s, Nabulsi, an East Jerusalem taxi driver, provided settler organizations with affadavits claiming that Palestinian owners of East Jerusalem homes were "absentees" residing in enemy countries, which the state used over and over to expropriate the properties and turn them over to settler organizations. » Read more

Netanyahu to convene special meeting to discuss bill legalizing Ulpana outpost ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua May 11, 2012 - 12:00am JERUSALEM, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu scheduled on Thursday a special cabinet meeting for Friday with government members to debate on a law that would legalize a controversial West Bank outpost. Netanyahu called on the government members on Thursday to debate on the possibility of approving a bill to legalize the 30 Ulpana outpost homes in the West Bank, the Ha'aretz daily reported. » Read more

May 10th

Hamas Looks to the Future: With Gains Come Dilemmas ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Carnegie Endowment for International Peace by Yezid Sayigh - (Analysis) March 8, 2012 - 1:00am Since the start of 2012, the head of the Hamas government in Gaza, Ismail Haniyya, has traveled to Egypt, Tunisia, Turkey, Qatar, Bahrain, and Iran. Six years after Hamas achieved victory at the Palestinian ballot box, it has received genuine regional recognition.  » Read more

Let's Make a Deal ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Foreign Policy by Aaron David Miller - (Opinion) May 10, 2012 - 12:00am Having spent the better part of two decades traveling the negotiator's highway, I've often thought about why some deals get made along the way and others don't. Granted, I've labored almost exclusively in the Middle East coal mines -- an often bizarre, idiosyncratic, and exceptionally dysfunctional place where deals rarely, if ever, get done. » Read more

Changes in Israeli Policy after the Netanyahu-Mofaz Deal ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Institute for Near East Policy by David Makovsky - (Analysis) May 9, 2012 - 12:00am In a stunning political shift, Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Shaul Mofaz, the newly elected head of the leading opposition party Kadima, forged a national unity government in Israel late Monday night. The move adds 28 Kadima parliamentarians to the ruling coalition, increasing the current government's tally to 94 of the Knesset's 120 seats, the most ever. Mofaz will become vice prime minister, a member of the inner security cabinet, and a minister-without-portfolio. Various portfolios will be given to other Kadima members. » Read more