Slain US activist's parents face Israeli killer
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Statesman
by Tia Goldenberg - October 21, 2010 - 12:00am

The parents of an American protester crushed to death by an Israeli military bulldozer in the Gaza Strip got their first chance Thursday to hear from the man who drove the vehicle that killed her. But they were denied a chance to confront him face-to-face in an Israeli courtroom, dashing a central goal of their civil lawsuit against Israel's Defense Ministry. The unidentified former soldier was shielded behind a wood-and-plastic partition, and his testimony about the events leading up to 23-year-old Rachel Corrie's death floated into the hall over a microphone.

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Blast in Gaza Hamas compound injures children
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Statesman
by Ibrahim Barzak - October 20, 2010 - 12:00am

A huge blast Wednesday at a Hamas military base in southern Gaza lightly injured more than a dozen people, including children, Hamas officials said. It appeared the explosion was accidental. Hamas did not say what caused the blast in a crowded neighborhood in the town of Rafah and the Israeli military said it wasn't involved. Israeli warplanes often target Hamas weapons facilities, but Israel usually confirms those attacks.

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Israel marks 15 years since Rabin assassination
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Statesman
by Diaa Hadid - October 20, 2010 - 12:00am

Israel on Wednesday marked 15 years since Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated by an Israeli extremist who opposed his concessions for peace with the Palestinians. At ceremonies around the country, speakers assessed Rabin's legacy, and many warned that the incitement to violence that preceded his assassination has not disappeared.

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This Peaceful Position Takes Courage
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Inter Press Service (IPS)
by Mel Frykber - October 20, 2010 - 12:00am

Yonatan Shapira, 38, was fired from his job, has been verbally abused in public, subjected to death threats in newspaper talk-back comments, called a traitor by many Israelis, falsely charged with assaulting Israeli security forces, and interrogated by Israel's domestic intelligence agency, the Shin Bet. While Israel often gets a lot of negative publicity for its brutal treatment of Palestinians and the inherent racism within its society, there is a growing core of Israeli human rights activists who are challenging government policy -- and paying a high price for their courage.

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Debasing a foundational idea
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Michael Herzog - (Opinion) October 18, 2010 - 12:00am

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saturday that until Israel apologized for its May attack on a Gaza-bound aid ship in which nine Turkish citizens were killed it would remain isolated in the Middle East. “Israel must apologize to Turkey and pay compensation for the state terrorism in the Mediterranean," Erdogan said while addressing members of his Islamic-oriented party at a weekend retreat, adding that "If it does not, it will be doomed to remain isolated in the Middle East.”

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No to a third intifada
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Common Ground News Service
by Hussein Ibish - (Opinion) October 14, 2010 - 12:00am

Whether or not a solution to the crisis over settlements is achieved in the coming days, it's becoming increasingly clear that the direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations are in serious trouble. The Israeli daily Ha’aretz quoted unnamed Western officials as saying the talks are “going nowhere.” And the most cautious, sober and measured of the senior PLO leadership, Yasser Abed Rabbo who is a member of the negotiating team, has been moved to declare that, “there will be no serious political process with Netanyahu's government.”

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Rights group asks Netanyahu to make 'no population transfer' pledge
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Liel Kyzer - October 13, 2010 - 12:00am

The Association for Civil Rights in Israel has written to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asking he make clear his government has not discussed the transfer of Israeli Arab citizens to the Palestinian Authority as part of a peace agreement, and that the government will not bring the subject up in the future.

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Israel says flotilla detainees were treated well
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Statesman
October 12, 2010 - 12:00am

Israeli officials have denied allegations in a U.N. report that international activists detained during a deadly raid of a Gaza-bound flotilla were abused. In testimony to an Israeli investigative committee in Jerusalem on Monday, Interior Ministry official Yossi Edelstein, who was in charge of processing detainees, said everyone was treated "with restraint and respect." He also said he had received no formal complaints of mistreatment. The U.N. report accused Israel of "extreme and unprovoked violence" against detainees.

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New arrest revealed in Mabhouh assassination
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Wafa Issa - (Analysis) October 11, 2010 - 12:00am

The Dubai Police chief says a major suspect in the killing of Mahmoud al Mabhouh was arrested in a western country about two months ago – but authorities in that country asked that nothing be made public. “The suspect who was arrested played a key role in the killing, but we were informed by the ambassador during a meeting that they did not wish to release the information,” Lt Gen Dahi Khalfan Tamim, who declined to give any further details on the identity of the suspect, said yesterday.

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Israeli troops accused of shooting children in Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Harriet Sherwood - October 11, 2010 - 12:00am

At least 10 Palestinian children have been shot and wounded by Israeli troops in the past three months while collecting rubble in or near the "buffer zone" created by Israel along the Gaza border, in a low-intensity offensive on the fringes of the blockaded Palestinian territory. Israeli soldiers are routinely shooting at Gazans well beyond the unmarked boundary of the official 300 metre-wide no-go area, rights groups say.

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