Israel to UN: West Bank ‘outside our boundaries’
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Tovah Lazaroff - July 16, 2010 - 12:00am

Israel argued this week that a major human rights treaty, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, did not apply to its treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, because those areas were outside the country’s national boundaries, even as it defended its record on that score before the covenant’s monitoring body in Geneva.

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Trapped by Gaza Blockade, Locked in Despair
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner, Michael Slackman - July 14, 2010 - 12:00am

The women were bleary-eyed, their voices weak, their hands red and calloused. How could they be expected to cook and clean without water or electricity? What could they do in homes that were dark and hot all day? How could they cope with husbands who had not worked for years and children who were angry and aimless? Sitting with eight other women at a stress clinic, Jamalat Wadi, 28, tried to listen to the mental health worker. But she could not contain herself. She has eight children, and her unemployed husband spends his days on sedatives.

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Arabs have a complex relationship with the Holocaust
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Gilbert Achcar - (Analysis) May 12, 2010 - 12:00am

The issue of Holocaust denial in the Arab world has been widely covered in the media. Every public display of Holocaust denial by an Arab source is prominently reported and construed as further evidence of the pro-Nazi inclinations that Arabs, or Muslims, hold in their deepest hearts, especially when they are hostile to Israel. The deliberate provocations that the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, stages regularly contribute considerably to fostering this image.

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Israel halts care for dead militant's relative
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Statesman
by Karoun Demirjian - May 11, 2010 - 12:00am

Israel has barred a cousin of an assassinated Hamas operative from entering from Gaza for medical care, security officials said Tuesday, though the man's doctors warn his life is in danger. Mohammed al-Mabhouh, 56, is the cousin of senior Hamas figure Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, who was assassinated in Dubai in January in a hit local authorities blamed on Israel's Mossad spy agency. Israel has not commented on the charge.

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My mandate on Gaza was even-handed, my loyalty is to justice
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Richard Goldstone - May 6, 2010 - 12:00am

At the outset let me say that I have taken no pleasure in seeing people around the world criticise the South African Jewish community and I commend the South African Jewish Board of Deputies and all responsible for bringing an end to the unfortunate public issues that had arisen relating to my grandson's bar mitzvah. My family and I are delighted that I was able to attend the bar mitzvah on Saturday and that it was such a joyous and meaningful occasion. I am deeply grateful to Rabbi Suchard, the members of the committee and the congregation at Sandton Synagogue for having made this possible.

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Children stand trial for stone throwing
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
April 27, 2010 - 12:00am

Fourteen and 15-year-old brothers stood trial at Ofer's military court on Monday, facing charges of throwing stones at Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank. The boys, Nadim and Jihad Basim Kawazba from Bethlehem's Al-Minya neighborhood, were recommended for sentences of three and four months detention but the judge's decision was delayed when lawyers Eyhab Al-Ghaleith and Iyad Misk requested that the hearing be postponed until Thursday.

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Israel's messianic terrorists
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by Patrick Seale - (Opinion) April 23, 2010 - 12:00am

Barely a week goes by without news of some act of violence by Jewish colonists against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. By any definition, what colonists and religious activists do to Palestinians is terrorism. But it goes unpunished. Time and again, Muslim graves and mosques are desecrated, harvests torched, sheep rustled, cars stoned and damaged, homes and shops forcibly occupied. Palestinians are chased off their own land by gun fire. Just last week, colonists cut down 300 olive trees.

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Israeli army to investigate human shield report
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
April 22, 2010 - 12:00am

The Israeli army said Wednesday it would investigate allegations that a 14-year-old boy was used as a human shield by Israeli forces in Beit Ummar, a Hebron village, following a Ma'an inquiry. The Palestine Solidarity Project (PSP) said at 11am on Friday 16 April four jeeps entered the main street of Beit Ummar as local children responded by throwing stones.

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Abbas to fight Israeli orders on West Bank deportations
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
April 20, 2010 - 12:00am

Last week it was revealed the Israeli Defence Force changed their orders broadening the definition of people they could remove from the West Bank. Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said he was prepared to take the issue to the UN Security Council, reports say. He said the order that would affect West bank residents without Israel-approved IDs was "a provocation". "Israel has no right to deport any Palestinian," Mr Abbas said after a meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Denied

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Gaza tunnel is cash cow for smugglers
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Omar Karmi - April 16, 2010 - 12:00am

The last time Ibrahim Qishta did any business through the vast tunnel network under the Egypt-Gaza border it involved three sheep. Unusually, however, for the underground trade that constitutes Gaza’s lifeline to the outside world, the 60-year-old farmer was exporting. “It’s not a huge trade,” Mr Qishta said on Monday. “The Egyptians are not looking to import livestock for meat, but in order to breed them.”

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