Veteran Israeli soldiers speak out about service
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
June 22, 2012 - 12:00am

A group of veteran Israeli soldiers who served in the West Bank and Gaza Strip have spoken out on camera about their experiences in the army. The Israeli organization Breaking the Silence has collected testimonies from 800 veteran Israeli soldiers who served in the West Bank and Gaza. In a new campaign, it has released video testimonies of six former soldiers describing their experiences.

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They started it
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Gideon Levy - (Opinion) June 21, 2012 - 12:00am

This time there is no argument - they started it. This time one can say with certainty that Gaza Kindergarten started the brawl and Israel Kindergarten in the south continued. That's how it is with quarreling kindergarten children.

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The minuses of unilateral withdrawal from the West Bank
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Shaul Arieli - (Opinion) June 19, 2012 - 12:00am

The stalemate in negotiations with the Palestinians and the assumption that it's impossible at present to reach a final-status solution have revived the idea of evacuating part of the West Bank unilaterally. Supporters of this idea believe that current trends, especially the expansion of the settlement enterprise, must be stopped before taking a decision that will anchor the two-state solution. A unilateral evacuation, they believe, will create a two-state reality that will make it easier to implement a final-status agreement.

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Israeli army suspends officer over live fire in stone throwing incident
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
June 13, 2012 - 12:00am

The Israeli army on Wednesday told Xinhua it was probing a recent clash between Israeli soldiers and Palestinians in northern West Bank, in which an Israeli officer fired his rifle towards Palestinian rock-throwers without authorization.

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Israeli forces order Hebron village demolished after settler case
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
June 13, 2012 - 12:00am

Israeli forces on Tuesday handed a southern West Bank village demolition orders for each of its 50 buildings, a week after Israeli authorities agreed to halt all construction in the area in response to a petition filed by a settler group. Susiya village, in the south Hebron hills, has three days to appeal the decision before their village is demolished, resident Nasser Nawaja told Ma'an. The community's lawyer Quamar Mishirqi said she will file an objection to Israel's High Court.

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Palestinian inhibition in the walled city of Bethlehem
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Leila Sansour - (Opinion) June 12, 2012 - 12:00am

It is 45 years since Israel invaded the West Bank, including my hometown of Bethlehem; practically the whole of my lifetime. I have not known my city under any state except Israeli occupation. A year ago, looking at a photo album of an old friend and neighbor, I became acutely aware of how alien his experience of Middle Eastern geography was to me. In the mid-Fifties, he would spend Saturday nights jitterbugging at the Everest, a restaurant coolly positioned on top of the highest hill in Bethlehem, and, at dawn, would drive to Beirut to continue the party.

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Palestinians see 'sharp increase' in demolitions
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
by Jon Donnison - May 29, 2012 - 12:00am

"Wood-fired barbecue was our speciality. Delicious," says Ramzi Kasiyah as he picks his way gingerly over a pile of rubble and twisted metal. Broken glass crackles under his feet. "We had a beautiful terrace. Now I have nothing." Up until a few weeks ago Ramzi was the proud owner of the Palestinian Al Mukhrur restaurant just outside Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank. Now he presides over what looks like a bomb site, a grey scar in a beautiful, small valley, still lush from the winter's rains.

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Security for Israeli settlers, not for Palestinians
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Eyal Gross - (Opinion) May 29, 2012 - 12:00am

When the High Court of Justice upheld the constitutionality (in 2006 and again in January ) of the Citizenship Law clause prohibiting residency permits in Israel for Palestinians from the territories, even if they have an Israeli domestic partner, it based its ruling on the state's justification for the clause. That justification ostensibly stems from security concerns: The state said that in 54 cases since 2001, Palestinians who where involved in terror, or their parents, were legal residents in Israel.

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Israel 'arrests TV director, confiscates equipment'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
May 17, 2012 - 12:00am

JENIN (Ma’an) -- Israeli forces arrested the director of a Jenin-based satellite channel on Thursday after raiding his home, the executive director of the channel said. Saher Qassem, chief of the Al-Asir channel, told Ma'an that a group of soldiers arrested Baha Khayri Ata Musa, 32, after raiding his home in Mirka village. Soldiers confiscated the TV station's broadcasting equipment from Musa's home, preventing the channel from being able to continue its coverage, Qassem said.

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IDF closes Palestinian school to make way for West Bank training zone
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Akiva Eldar - May 14, 2012 - 12:00am

A Palestinian elementary school was shut down last week after Israel's Civil Administration confiscated the vehicle used to transport teachers to it. Teachers initially tried coming to the school, located in the Jinba cave village in the southern Hebron hills, by donkey, but this proved disruptive since they were often late.

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