How the Occupation Became Legal
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Review Of Books
by Eyal Press - (Film Review) January 25, 2012 - 1:00am

In 1979, a group of Palestinian farmers filed a petition with Israel’s High Court of Justice, claiming their land was being illegally expropriated by Jewish settlers. The farmers were not Israeli citizens, and the settlers appeared to have acted with the state’s support; indeed, army helicopters had escorted them to the land—a hilltop near Nablus—bringing along generators and water tanks. The High Court of Justice nevertheless ordered the outpost dismantled.

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The Palestinian children – alone and bewildered – in Israel's Al Jalame jail
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Harriet Sherwood - January 22, 2012 - 1:00am

The room is barely wider than the thin, dirty mattress that covers the floor. Behind a low concrete wall is a squat toilet, the stench from which has no escape in the windowless room. The rough concrete walls deter idle leaning; the constant overhead light inhibits sleep. The delivery of food through a low slit in the door is the only way of marking time, dividing day from night.

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Don't do it, Bibi
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Roger Cohen - (Opinion) January 16, 2012 - 1:00am

PARIS — A U.S. ambassador in Europe was recently asked by an Israeli ambassador what could be done to improve the lousy relations between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Obama. He replied: “Every once in a while, say thank you.” The American ambassador added a couple of other thoughts. “Maybe, once in a while, ask the president if there’s anything you can do for him. And above all stay out of our election-year politics.”

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Medics: Israeli Fire Injures 2 in Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
January 13, 2012 - 1:00am

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Israeli forces fired on the central Gaza Strip early Friday injuring two people, medics said. Medical services spokesman in Gaza Adham Abu Salmiya told Ma'an that two people were moderately injured after forces shelled east of al-Bureij refugee camp shortly after midnight. The injured were transferred to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, he said. An Israeli army spokeswoman said forces opened fire after they "saw a number of suspects approach the security fence and tamper with the ground suspiciously."

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Was Israel Behind Iran Nuclear Scientist’s Assassination?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Joshua Mitnick - January 12, 2012 - 1:00am

Tel Aviv: Israel has emerged as a key suspect in the assassination of an Iranian nuclear scientist in Tehran yesterday, thought to be the latest strike in a covert war that has targeted technicians, military plants, and computer systems at the heart of Islamic Republic’s uranium enrichment program.

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Israel rethinking position on prisoner swaps
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
January 5, 2012 - 1:00am

JERUSALEM — Israel is rethinking its policy on prisoner swaps to avoid the kind of lopsided deals that saw Israel recently trade more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners for a lone Israeli soldier. A government-appointed panel submitted its recommendations in a secret report Thursday and details were not divulged. But Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Israel has "no choice but to overhaul the rules" now that Sgt. Gilad Schalit has been freed after five years in captivity in Gaza. Barak told Israel Radio, "We have to get off the slippery slope we ventured on 25 years ago."

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West Bank theatre founder wanted by Israel after amnesty deal revoked
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Harriet Sherwood - January 1, 2012 - 1:00am

A former Palestinian militant who renounced violence in favour of "cultural resistance" is in custody after Israel apparently revoked an amnesty deal, in a move seen by his associates as part of a campaign of harassment against a radical West Bank theatre. Zakaria Zubeidi, a former of leader of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade in the northern West Bank city of Jenin, is being held by Palestinian security forces after being told he would be arrested by Israeli authorities if he did not hand himself in.

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Page by page, Marwan Barghouti's anti-war tome walked out of prison
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Joseph Dana - (Opinion) December 23, 2011 - 1:00am

Palestinians across the West Bank and Gaza celebrated the return of their loved ones last Sunday as the final wave of prisoners were released in an exchange between Hamas and Israel. However, one prisoner was notably absent. Marwan Barghouti, the jailed Fatah leader known by many Palestinians as the "prince of resistance", remains behind bars in Israel despite promises from the Palestinian leadership that his freedom would be secured through the exchange of captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

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Israeli court releases 'tortured' Palestinain
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Hugh Naylor - December 8, 2011 - 1:00am

JERUSALEM // In a rare ruling, an Israeli military court has acquitted a Palestinian man because interrogators were found to have brutally forced his guilty confession. All but one of the 17 charges brought against Ayman Hamida, 37, from east Jerusalem's Azariya neighbourhood, were dropped by the military judges, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported yesterday. He was convicted of firing a weapon at Israeli police officers in 2009. The judges concluded that Mr Hamida was subjected to choking, beating and food deprivation during 40 days of interrogation, the newspaper reported.

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NGO: Israel army fails Palestinian complainants
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP)
December 7, 2011 - 1:00am

The Israeli army's inquiries into Palestinian complaints against its soldiers are frequently flawed and less than four percent result in an indictment, an Israeli rights group said on Wednesday. In a report entitled "Alleged Investigation," Yesh Din said more than a third of the 3,150 complaints against Israeli troops filed between 2000 and 2010, were dismissed without a criminal investigation.

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