To Save From the Sea, and the Siege
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Inter Press Service (IPS)
by Eva Bartlett - (Opinion) August 17, 2011 - 12:00am

It's a sunny Gaza morning and although a work day, the beach along Sheik Rajleen has enough people on it to keep Gaza's small number of lifeguards busy and alert. From a simple, raised wooden hut, a team of three monitor the sea, periodically calling out to swimmers below to move to calmer waters. "I've known how to swim since I knew how to walk," says Ahmed el Basha, 42, one of Sheik Rajleen's lifeguards.

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U.S. Threatens to Halt Gaza Aid Over Hamas Audits
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner - August 11, 2011 - 12:00am

JERUSALEM — The State Department sent a message to Gaza’s Hamas leaders on Thursday that it would withdraw some $100 million it is spending in Gaza on health care, agriculture and water infrastructure if they did not back off a demand to audit the books of American-financed charities operating there. The threat, delivered via an intermediary, came after Hamas officials suspended the operation of the International Medical Corps on Sunday for its refusal to submit to a Hamas audit at the charity’s site.

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UN flotilla report delayed again
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
July 26, 2011 - 12:00am

JERUSALEM (AFP) -- A UN report into Israel's deadly 2010 raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, which was to have been published later this week, has been delayed once again, an Israeli official said on Monday. "The secretary-general asked to delay the publication of the report," foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said, referring to the UN chief, Ban Ki-moon. But he refused to confirm reports suggesting Israel had requested the delay in a bid to have more time to mend its relations with Ankara, devastated since the flotilla raid in which Israeli forces killed nine Turks.

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REFILE-Israel torn on apologising to Turks over Gaza ship
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Dan Williams - July 21, 2011 - 12:00am

JERUSALEM, July 21 (Reuters) - Israel is debating whether to say sorry for storming a Gaza-bound Turkish activist ship last year, after its jurists recommended satisfying Ankara's demand for an apology to help fend off war-crimes lawsuits. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has so far voiced only "regret" for the navy's killing of nine pro-Palestinian Turks aboard the Mavi Marmara, but Israeli officials say support for a stronger show of contrition is spreading in his government.

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Israeli navy takes over Gaza-bound ship
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
by Amy Teibel - July 19, 2011 - 12:00am

JERUSALEM — Israeli naval commandos on Tuesday seized control of a French ship attempting to break Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip, reporting no resistance during the takeover in international waters. The navy boarded the ship after the pro-Palestinian activists on board ignored calls to change course. The military had warned it would stop any attempt to break the sea blockade of Gaza, which Israel imposed four years ago in what it says is a measure to prevent arms smuggling to Gaza's ruling Hamas militant group.

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End Gaza blockade
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
(Editorial) July 10, 2011 - 12:00am

THE collective punishment Israel is inflicting on Palestinian citizens continues. Tel Aviv is currently preventing a gathering of foreigners invited by Palestinian activists to fly into Israel's Ben-Gurion International Airport and then travel to the West Bank for a week in a “Welcome to Palestine” initiative. It is doing so by blocking, deterring and preventing mainly European activists from boarding flights to Israel on foreign airlines.

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Gaza flotilla: 'Solidarity more important than aid'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Ruqaya Izzidien - (Opinion) July 6, 2011 - 12:00am

Support for the aid flotilla is universal in Gaza, partly because of the aid it aims to deliver, but more popularly because of the symbolism it holds. Khalil Shaheen, head of economic and social rights at the Palestinian centre for Human Rights, believes the most important message carried by the Gaza aid flotilla, which is attempting to leave Athens, is solidarity.

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Gaza flotillas have made a difference
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by Adam Shapiro - (Opinion) July 6, 2011 - 12:00am

As ships continue preparing to depart for Gaza from Greece and as the Greek government continues to serve as the Israeli ‘call centre’ for outsourcing the blockade of 1.6 million Palestinians in Gaza, the myth continues to perpetuate that ‘established channels’ should be used to reach Gaza.

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Washington Watch: Ships of fools
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Douglas Bloomfield - (Opinion) July 6, 2011 - 12:00am

There’s more to the story of this year’s would-be Gaza flotilla than friends of Hamas going for another Mediterranean cruise just to poke their fingers in Israel’s eye. As this is being written, the ships remain bottled up in Greek harbors, stopped not by Israeli commandos rappelling from helicopters, but by something even more intimidating: squads of Jewish lawyers and diplomats. Israel also had help from international leaders who didn’t want to appear to be backing an international terrorist organization.

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Conspiracy to block flotilla
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by Linda S. Heard - (Opinion) July 5, 2011 - 12:00am

It never ceases to astonish how a sliver of a country that has been illegally occupying another people's land for 44 years succeeds in leading the international community by the nose. The efforts by several countries to block the Freedom Flotilla II from setting sail to Gaza for the purpose of breaking the Israeli blockade is a shameful example of governments' machinations.

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