News Analysis: Palestinian despair grows after Israeli elections
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
by Saud Abu Ramadan - (Analysis) February 3, 2013 - 1:00am

  Two weeks after the Israeli elections, the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank feel a solution to their conflict with Israel is further away with incumbent Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu likely to stay. Although his Likud party shrank from 42 to 31 seats in the parliament after the vote, Netanyahu has been charged with forming the new government after the right wing parties in total won 61 seats, two more than the seats won by the centrist and left-wing parties combined.

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Dancing in Ramallah
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line
by Diana Atallah - February 3, 2013 - 1:00am

  They're dancing the night away, here of all places. While it might be normal to see men offering to buy women at the bar a drink, that hasn't always been the case in this city, where such establishments were once shut down during the second intifada and remain controversial among Palestinians.

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Palestinian farmer, activist, filmmaker — and Oscar nominee
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Edmund Sanders - February 2, 2013 - 1:00am

  Like many Palestinians, West Bank farmer Emad Burnat punctuates his life story with events from the Israeli occupation of his village. His first son was born amid the optimism that followed the 1993 Oslo peace accords, and another came just as the 2000 Palestinian uprising erupted.

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Fire burns Gaza family of six to death
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
January 31, 2013 - 1:00am

A Palestinian family of six died Thursday when a fire broke out in their home in eastern Gaza City, a hospital official said. Hamas police announced an investigation into the incident, in which the father, mother and all their four children, aged between three to six, were burnt to death. Sources said the fire was likely to have been caused by a candle the family lit in their house after midnight. The Gaza Strip suffers from a shortage in electricity due to frequent disruption in fuel supplies to its only power plant.

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Palestinian ghettos
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
by George S. Hishmeh - (Opinion) January 31, 2013 - 1:00am

After Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, was dealt a political lynching in this month’s national election that overthrew many of his supporters, he is walking on a tightrope in search of new partners. But some of his likely new colleagues, who have just surfaced, some gloriously, do not seem very keen on sticking their necks out for the mercurial Israeli prime minister whose days in the premiership are believed to be numbered.

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How a liberal Zionist watches Five Broken Cameras
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Mira Sucharov - (Opinion) January 31, 2013 - 1:00am

  J.J. Goldberg intriguingly writes that of the two documentary films from Israel and Palestine currently nominated for an Academy Award - The Gatekeepers and Five Broken Cameras - both are “painful to watch” but The Gatekeepers is “much harder.”

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Hamas plans more "enemy language" Hebrew in Gaza schools
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Nidal al-Mughrabi - January 30, 2013 - 1:00am

Islamist Hamas authorities plan to expand Hebrew-language classes in the Gaza Strip's high schools to help Palestinians know their enemy in times of conflict with Israel. Far from a sign that peace will soon break out, Hamas's promotion of Hebrew learning in the Israeli-blockaded Mediterranean enclave aims to make linguistic skill a useful new front in the struggle against the Jewish state.

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Palestinians Hope to Tell Their Story Through the Oscars
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line
by Diana Atallah - January 29, 2013 - 1:00am

Palestinians hope an Oscar-nominated documentary depicting a non-violent struggle against Israel will succeed in telling their story, even though some recent viewers who saw the film in Ramallah expressed reservations about Israeli involvement in the movie. 5 Broken Cameras is one of five candidates for the Oscar in the Best Documentary Feature category this year. Released in 2011 by Palestinian director Emad Burnat and Israeli director Guy Davidi, it has been screened in 50 countries and translated into several languages.

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Official: Gaza security to release detained journalists
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
January 28, 2013 - 1:00am

The public freedoms committee, a body set up to implement national reconciliation, has secured an agreement from Gaza's security services to free journalists recently detained in the coastal strip, a representative said Monday. The detention of six reporters in Gaza over two days last week raised concerns about a setback in the reconciliation process. As part of the 2011 deal, Hamas in Gaza and the Fatah-led government in the West Bank agreed to stop media harassment and politically-motivated arrests.

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Gaza university introduces dress code for women
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
January 27, 2013 - 1:00am

A university in the Gaza Strip announced this week that female students must abide by an "Islamic" dress code, causing uproar from Palestinian groups and students themselves. Al-Aqsa University in Gaza City will implement the dress regulations when the new semester begins. University president Salam al-Agha clarified to Ma'an that the code does not require the jilbab (full-length coat) or niqab (face-veil), but rather what he termed dress befitting of the university. He said students would not be expelled for violations of the dress code.

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