Fatah mourns death of Venezuela's Chavez
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
March 6, 2013 - 1:00am

A top Fatah leader expressed Palestine's condolences early Wednesday after learning of the death of Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez. “Palestine says good bye to a loyal friend who passionately defended our right to freedom and self determination. His contribution to the cause of dignity had no borders and reached the hearts and minds of the Arab World,” Nabil Shaath said in an emailed statement.

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UN agency cancels Gaza marathon over ban on women
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
by Ian Deitch - March 5, 2013 - 1:00am

JERUSALEM — A U.N aid agency canceled the Gaza marathon on Tuesday after the Palestinian territory's militant Hamas rulers banned women from participating in the annual sporting event.UNWRA, which assists Palestinian refugees and also sponsors and organizes the event, announced that plans for the race next month have been scrapped because of the Hamas demand that women be barred.

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Abbas, Fayyad at odds over finance minister's resignation
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
March 5, 2013 - 1:00am

The opposing statements by President Mahmoud Abbas and his premier Salam Fayyad over the finance minister's resignation have stirred debates over the leaders' jurisdictions. Nabil Qassis on Saturday announced his resignation, less than a year after he was appointed to replace Fayyad as finance minister. Abbas refused the resignation, but Fayyad told the cabinet on Sunday that he had accepted it. Under Palestinian Basic Law, the prime minister is responsible for dismissing ministers or accepting their resignations.

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On the bus to Israeli apartheid
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Aeyal Gross - (Opinion) March 4, 2013 - 1:00am

In 1896 the United States Supreme Court handed down one of its most shameful decisions in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson, rejecting the argument that the segregation between whites and blacks on trains in the state of Louisiana violated the principle of equality.

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Gaza Gas Can't Help Palestinians
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Monitor
by Omar Shaban - March 4, 2013 - 1:00am

Despite their geographical distance, Gaza and Nigeria are similar on many levels. Nigeria is one of the largest oil exporters in the world, but one of the poorest countries. Hundreds of Nigerians die while trying to obtain a few liters of their own oil, even as it flows right in front of their eyes. Gazans also suffer from severe poverty, high unemployment and deaths due to continuous power cuts, despite large gas fields in the Mediterranean Sea, right before their eyes.

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Palestinian Justice System Still a Work in Progress
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line
by Diana Atallah - March 4, 2013 - 1:00am

Ramallah -- When a Palestinian court ordered a government center in 2011 to remove garbage they disposed of on lands belonging to Majid Zaher (not his real name) near Ramallah, he thought his case was over.

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We are fighting for all Palestinians
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Sameer Abu Eisheh - (Opinion) March 3, 2013 - 1:00am

My story is no different from that of many other Palestinian young people who were born and have lived their whole lives under Israeli occupation. At 17, I was arrested for the first time, and jailed for two years. I was arrested again in my early 20s, at the height of the second intifada in Ramallah, during an Israeli invasion of numerous cities in the West Bank – what Israel called Operation Defensive Shield. I was sentenced to 30 years in prison on charges relating to my resistance to the occupation.

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Palestinian finance minister quits in budget dispute
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Nidal al-Mughrabi - March 3, 2013 - 1:00am

Palestinian Finance Minister Nabil Qassis announced his resignation on Sunday, saying the government had failed to address a gaping budget deficit. "No decision has been taken to lower the deficit substantially, and on the contrary it is growing ahead of ratifying the (2013) budget," Qassis said in comments to al-Ayyam newspaper explaining his reasons for quitting. Prime Minister Salam Fayyad told cabinet members he had accepted Qassis's resignation.

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On the IDF's most wanted list: A Palestinian shepherd and two baby goats
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Amira Hass - March 3, 2013 - 1:00am

If it weren’t for the nudniks of Ta'ayush – a group of Israelis active in the southern West Bank – this story would be yet another unwritten chapter in the chronicles of the hostile rule, another grain of dust from the daily fallout of toxins we're addicted to.

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Palestinian Reconciliation Not Close
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Monitor
by Naela Khalil - (Editorial) March 3, 2013 - 1:00am

Despite the "warm peace" witnessed between Azzam al-Ahmad, the Fatah official responsible for the reconciliation file, and Moussa Abu Marzouk, the deputy chief of Hamas' political bureau, on Feb. 28 in Cairo, the meeting's good feelings did not transfer to the West Bank or the Gaza Strip in any way. Moreover, the relationship between the two movements continues to deteriorate.

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