Give us a border!
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Aluf Benn - (Opinion) September 8, 2010 - 12:00am

The direct talks that were launched at the Washington summit should have one aim - to fix the border between Israel and the Palestinian state that will be set up in the West Bank. Israel needs a border that will delineate its borders, normalize its international status, end the dissent over the settlements and solidify the national consensus. This is Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's mission in life. If he succeeds, he will have justified his return to power and go down in history as a formative leader.

»

Israeli army cracks down on soldiers' controversial photos
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
August 27, 2010 - 12:00am

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) military prosecution Thursday asked to extend the remand of three soldiers after their photos of posing with a handcuffed and blindfolded Palestinian were found saved on their mobile phones last week. The photos, in which the soldiers are seen pointing a gun at a suspected Hamas member, were apparently taken eight months ago in the West Bank town of Jenin.

»

UN official criticises Israel over flotilla probe
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
August 24, 2010 - 12:00am

Israel is not co-operating with the UN Human Rights Council's probe of May's deadly raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, a UN official said today. Juan Carlos Monge said the fact-finding mission is speaking to witnesses and government officials in Turkey and Jordan. But Mr Monge said Israel has not granted the team an invitation. Israel's UN mission said today it was not commenting on the investigation. Israeli commandos killed nine pro-Palestinian activists trying to break the Jewish state's blockade of Gaza. Israel says the soldiers acted in self-defence.

»

Israeli army's female recruits denounce treatment of Palestinians
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Harriet Sherwood - August 22, 2010 - 12:00am

It was a single word scrawled on a wall at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem that unlocked something deep inside Inbar Michelzon, two years after she had completed compulsory military service in the Israeli Defence Force. The word was "occupation". "I really felt like someone was speaking the unspoken," she recalled last week in a Tel Aviv cafe. "It was really shocking to me. There was graffiti saying, 'end the occupation'. And I felt like, OK, now I can talk about what I saw."

»

Witnesses: Settlers beat 10-year-old Palestinian girl
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
August 18, 2010 - 12:00am

Israeli settlers assaulted a 10-year-old Palestinian girl on Sunday evening and an Israeli military jeep struck an 8-year-old boy in Hebron, witnesses said. Inas Mazen Qaaqour was beaten by residents of the illegal Tel Rumeida settlement and treated at the Hebron Government Hospital where medics said she was bruised all over her body. Sameh Natshe Jacob was taken to the same hospital, and medics described his condition as stable. An Israeli military spokesman did not respond to several requests for comment.

»

IDF soldiers suspected of theft from Gaza flotilla ship
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
August 18, 2010 - 12:00am

Military Police arrested an Israel Defense Forces officer suspected of stealing laptop computers from activists aboard the Gaza-bound aid ship raided by Israeli commandos in May and selling them to other officers. The officer allegedly sold the computers to a friend, who in turn sold them to friends of his. Three officers who are suspected of having bought the computers have also been detained for questioning.

»

Israeli in Facebook storm defends prisoner photos
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Ori Lewis - August 17, 2010 - 12:00am

A former Israeli soldier said on Tuesday she saw nothing wrong in having posted pictures of herself on Facebook posing next to handcuffed and blindfolded Palestinian detainees. The images, from Eden Abergil's "Army -- the best period of my life" photo album on the social media website, drew international attention and condemnation by Israel's military after they appeared in Israeli newspapers on Monday. The Palestinian Government Media Center described the pictures as indicative of "the mentality of the occupier, to be proud of humiliating Palestinians".

»

Ex-Israeli Soldier’s Photos Condemned
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner - August 16, 2010 - 12:00am

An Israeli woman who completed her military service last year posted photographs of herself from the army posing with blindfolded and bound Palestinian prisoners under the title “The Army ... The Most Beautiful Time of My Life,” producing enraged commentary on the Internet and condemnation from the military. The woman, Eden Abergil, from the southern city of Ashdod, is seen in the pictures, posted on her Facebook page, smiling next to the prisoners.

»

Israel should not keep its history behind lock and key
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Jonathan Cook - August 16, 2010 - 12:00am

History may be written by the victors, as Winston Churchill is said to have observed, but the opening up of archives can threaten a nation every bit as much as the unearthing of mass graves. That danger explains a decision quietly taken last month by Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, to extend by an additional 20 years the country’s 50-year rule for the release of sensitive documents.

»

Inside Israel's commando unit which raided Gaza flotilla
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
by Jane Corbin - August 15, 2010 - 12:00am

Some of the Israeli special forces took off their balaclavas to talk to me and show me the wounds they received the night nine people were killed and 50 were wounded on board the Turkish ship the MV Mavi Marmara. "I saw a knife in my abdomen and pulled it out," Captain R said. "The beating was continuous - and the cries of Allah Akbar." Israeli footage shows Captain R, a member of Naval Commando 13 being beaten with bars by activists, stabbed and then thrown to the deck below. Who started the violence that ended in death on the boat, has been fiercely contested.

»


American Task Force on Palestine - 1634 Eye St. NW, Suite 725, Washington DC 20006 - Telephone: 202-262-0017