Israeli minister in Arab slur row
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
June 17, 2009 - 12:00am

Israel's internal security minister has apologised after being caught on film using the word "Araboosh" - highly offensive Hebrew slang for Arabs. While Yitzhak Aharonovitch was on a tour meeting police, one plain clothes officer apologised to him for his scruffy appearance. "What do you mean dirty? You look like a real Araboosh," the minister was heard to respond. He is a member of Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman's far right party. Mr Aharonovitch later said he wished to "apologise to anyone who was hurt".

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To alleviate suffering
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
by Daoud Kuttab - (Opinion) June 15, 2009 - 12:00am

Once again the hot summer months are upon us, without any solution in sight for the Palestinian tragedy and the continued suffering of Palestinians crossing the King Hussein Bridge, which is the only exit and entry point for the West Bank. While there is no doubt that the real solution to this tragedy is the end of the occupation, genuine efforts must be exerted to ease the sufferings of individuals and families crossing the bridge.

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On Fiery Birth of Israel, Memories of 2 Sides Speak
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Dina Kraft - May 18, 2009 - 12:00am

In a high-rise apartment with a Mediterranean Sea view, the cameraman checks his frame and the interviewer makes sure the slight, silver-haired man is relaxed enough to tell his story. Then Peleg Tamir, 81, starts recounting his days as a teenage recruit for an underground militia fighting for the Jewish state. Arrested by the ruling British authorities in 1947, he smuggled himself out of a detention center in a suitcase. “Everyone was shocked when I climbed out,” he said.

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Amira Hass / Life among the ruins in Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Amira Hass - May 15, 2009 - 12:00am

Wadi Gaza is an agricultural region southeast of Gaza City. The ruins of Hussein al Aaidy's family home are immediately apparent. The houses (and several other heaps of ruins) are scattered among budding hills, lazing goats and fields that have been plowed but not sown. Up until nine years ago, these houses were surrounded by orchards and other fruit trees. Until the Israel Defense Forces bulldozers uprooted everything in order to safeguard the Israelis driving to the settlement of Netzarim.

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Israel's human rights abuses out in open
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by George S. Hishmeh - (Opinion) May 7, 2009 - 12:00am

The revelation that harsh interrogation methods, including torture, were used against detainees during the US-led war in Iraq by the George W. Bush administration, continues to reverberate here and overseas. The actions, sanctioned in legal memorandums, were recently released by US President Barack Obama. The repercussions of Obama's actions, however, are being felt by key US government officials, especially those within the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), as well as within several other countries including Great Britain and Israel.

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Gaza patients questionings 'rise'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
May 4, 2009 - 12:00am

The number of Palestinians forced to provide information before being let out of Gaza for medical treatment is rising, an Israeli group has reported. In the first three months of 2009 more than 400 patients were interrogated, Physicians for Human Rights says. They say Israeli security services are involved in a systematic attempt to recruit Palestinians as collaborators. Israeli officials say they are carrying out security checks to ensure those entering Israel do not commit attacks.

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Gazans continue digging lifeline tunnels even as Egypt, Israel scramble to seal them
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Nidal Al-Mughrabi - April 30, 2009 - 12:00am

Once a profitable business, Abu Abdullah's tunnel under the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip has been out of work for three weeks due to an Egyptian security crackdown on smuggling. The Palestinian network of some 3,000 tunnels, created to thwart Israel's blockade of the coastal territory ruled by Hamas Islamists, was reduced to hundreds by bombing during Israel's three-week offensive in January. Now Egyptian police efforts are also biting into Gaza's underground supply system, which supplements the tightly restricted flow of aid commodities allowed in by the Israelis.

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Members of US Congress sceptical of Palestinian aid plan
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from McClatchy News
April 29, 2009 - 12:00am

The Obama administration, already on treacherous domestic political ground with its outreach to Iran, Cuba and others, has opened the door, if only slightly, to engagement with the militant group Hamas. The Palestinian group is designated by the US government as a terrorist organisation and under law may not receive federal aid. But the administration has asked Congress for minor changes in US law that would permit aid to continue flowing to Palestinians in the unlikely event that Hamas-backed officials become part of a unified Palestinian government.

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Sick Gazans victims of Hamas-Fatah power struggle
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
April 28, 2009 - 12:00am

Hundreds of Palestinian patients have been trapped in the Gaza Strip, unable to travel abroad for crucial treatment for cancer and other diseases, because of political infighting between Gaza's Hamas rulers and their Palestinian rivals. Eight Gazans who were waiting to travel abroad have died since the crisis began in March, when the dispute shut down a medical referral committee that helps sick residents find treatment outside of Gaza, according to the World Health Organization.

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PA: Olmert received an offer, then bombed Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Ali Waked - April 28, 2009 - 12:00am

Palestinian Authority representatives accused former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of blocking the peace process between Israel and the PA, despite the latter's claims that he had put an offer to the Palestinians on the table that was too good to refuse. According to chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, and as reported by the Palestinian journal al-Ayyam, not only had the prime minister avoided responding to an excellent peace offer, but shortly afterward had bombed Gaza.

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