Foul sewage flooding raises Palestinian ire
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Jazeera English
by Mohammed Omer - March 9, 2013 - 1:00am

Gazans are crying foul after Egypt stepped up its campaign to wipe out an underground network of transportation tunnels by blasting raw sewage down them, sometimes with deadly results for Palestinian workers.

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IFJ Slams Hamas Travel Ban on Safety Trainer in Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
March 8, 2013 - 1:00am

in a strongly worded letter, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) accused the Hamas administration in Gaza of sabotaging the Federations safety training for Palestinian women journalists. The letter to Prime Minister Ismael Haneya followed the decision of Hamas to ban the IFJ safety trainer in Gaza, Sami Abu Salem, from travelling to Cairo to deliver a training marking the International Day of Women.

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Parallel lives in a tragicomic mirror: Novelist Sayed Kashua is trampling every barrier
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent
by Boyd Tonkin - March 8, 2013 - 1:00am

In January, one TV show swept the boards at the awards ceremony of the Israeli Film and Television Academy. It won five gongs. Small-screen buffs might assume that the recipient of all these accolades was Hatufim, the Israeli drama which – in its American remake – became Homeland. Not at all. Instead, honours rained on the bitingly funny and fearless sitcom Arab Labour (avoda aravit, a Hebrew idiom for a botched job).

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Women's Day: 'We need extra workshops for men'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
March 8, 2013 - 1:00am

Marking International Women's Day, Palestinian women seek freedom and a better life in a liberated state, while calling for equality in their society. Aisha Abu Shanab, the recent recipient of an award honoring Arab mothers, dedicated the title to all Palestinian women "who are mothers for the prisoners, the martyrs, and injured." Abu Shanab is the wife of late Hamas leader Ismael Abu Shanab, who was assassinated by Israel in 2003. Her son died in the Cast Lead assault on Gaza in 2008.

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Israel's Dreaded Tipping Point Has Finally Arrived
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Atlantic
by S. Daniel Abraham - (Editorial) March 8, 2013 - 1:00am

As President Obama prepares to visit Israel later this month, reports from administration officials indicate that he does not intend to focus on resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but rather to discuss regional threats such as Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons and the continuing violence in Syria. But Obama should realize that Israel's continued presence in the West Bank is an existential threat to its continuity as a democratic, Jewish state -- and time is not on Israel's side.

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Large rally in Rafah in solidarity with prisoners
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
March 8, 2013 - 1:00am

Protesters in Gaza organized a massive rally Thursday in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners in the Israeli jails. Participants raised Palestinian flags, and held pictures of hunger strikers. They condemned aggressive Israeli practices. Palestinian national and Islamic factions participated in the rally. Rasmi Abu al-Ainin, a member of the the Palestinian Arabic Front political office, called for implementing national unity to support the Palestinian prisoners inside Israeli jails.

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Females Share of Palestinian Population of 2012 is 49.2%, says Statistics Bureau
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Palestine News Network
March 8, 2013 - 1:00am

The estimated population of Palestine at the end of 2012 was 4.35 million of whom 2.21 million were males and 2.14 million females. Males comprise 50.8 percent of the total population compared to 49.2 percent for females. In other words, for every 100 persons there were 49 females, a sex ratio of 103.2, said Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) Thursday on the occasion of International Woman's Day, Palestinian official news agency WAFA reported.

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Gaza Sees Rise in Violence And Crime
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Monitor
by Hazem Balousha - March 7, 2013 - 1:00am

Violence has been rife in Gaza but reached its peak in mid-2007, when clashes erupted between political rivals Hamas and Fatah, in a battle that resembled a civil war that left many wounded and dead. The Gaza Strip has also suffered from military confrontations with Israel, not to mention the political and economic blockade, which has led to increased violence in Gazan society.

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Court: PA liable for terror attack by teen in ‘03
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Yonah Jeremy Bob - March 7, 2013 - 1:00am

The Tel Aviv District Court on Wednesday held the Palestinian Authority liable for NIS 1.3 million in damages for training and indirectly encouraging a 15-and-ahalf- year-old Palestinian to murder Amit Amos Monitin on June 26, 2003. The boy murdered Monitin while he was on the job as a technician for the Bezek telephone company in Baka al- Gharbiya, east of Hadera. The killer was caught, tried, convicted and is serving his sentence in Israel.

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INSIGHT-Palestinian street boils at plight of prisoners
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Noah Browning - March 7, 2013 - 1:00am

In a sprawling Israeli prison, Palestinian activist Hassan Karajeh sat through a hurried court hearing in a language he didn't understand under the authority of a military occupation he and his people reject. The translator in the cramped portacabin-turned-courtroom seldom bothered to relay the military judge's words, and the tall, bearded detainee spent most of the time whispering to his family and blowing kisses to his young fianc?e.

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