What if a war broke out?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat
by Emad El Din Adeeb - (Opinion) August 27, 2012 - 12:00am

What would happen if a regional war broke out between Israel and Iran? I'm not here to talk about who would be the "devil" or the "angel" in this political context. I will not enter into the issue of who is right and who is wrong, nor will I touch upon the overwhelming state of hostility towards Israel or the hostility that the majority of Arabs currently display towards Iran. Rather, I will focus my attention on answering the big question.

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The arc of the pendulum
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Ghassan Khatib - (Blog) August 27, 2012 - 12:00am

When Yossi Alpher and I sat in my Jerusalem office in the year 2000, discussing plans for the first bitterlemons web magazine, we never imagined that it would grow to encompass four different publications and two books, or that it would span 12 years of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

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Why we are closing
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Yossi Alpher - (Blog) August 27, 2012 - 12:00am

We are closing bitterlemons' two weekly e-magazines. The publications that you, our readers, have known for the past 11 years will, with this special edition, cease to exist. You deserve an explanation as to why this is happening. It is not disconnected from what is transpiring around us in the Middle East and globally.

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Rights group: investigate Palestinian police abuse
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
August 27, 2012 - 12:00am

An American rights group is calling on the Palestinian Authority to investigate incidents where police beat protesters in the West Bank. The New York-based Human Rights Watch said in two incidents, Palestinian police beat Palestinian demonstrators in the West Bank city of Ramallah in June and July. The group said six people were hospitalized. The group said Palestinian officials conducted four inquiries but did not prosecute any of the police involved.

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Israel closes key Jerusalem checkpoint, limiting Palestinian residents' access
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Oz Rosenberg - August 27, 2012 - 12:00am

The Defense Ministry is planning to seal up the Ras Khamis checkpoint, one of the only two exits into Israel for the 65,000 Palestinian residents of the Shoafat refugee camp in northeast Jerusalem. The Palestinian, who are considered residents of Jerusalem, can now enter Israel only through the Shoafat central checkpoint, severely limiting their access to the city.

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Former Israeli soldiers disclose routine mistreatment of Palestinian children
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Harriet Sherwood - August 26, 2012 - 12:00am

More than 30 former Israeli soldiers have disclosed their experiences of the treatment of Palestinian children during military operations and arrests, pointing to a pattern of abuse. A booklet of testimonies, published by Breaking the Silence, an organisation of former Israeli soldiers dedicated to publicising the day-to-day actions of the army in the occupied territories, contains descriptions of beatings, intimidation, humiliation, verbal abuse, night-time arrests and injury. Most of the children had been suspected of stone-throwing.

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Market stalls turn into prime real estate in fight between Jews, Palestinians over Hebron
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
by Mohammed Daraghmeh, Nasser Shiyoukhi - August 26, 2012 - 12:00am

Four stalls in a trash-filled, abandoned outdoor market have turned into hotly contested real estate in the center of biblical Hebron where several hundred ultranationalist Jewish settlers are wrestling with Palestinian residents for control, house by house and storefront by storefront. The stalls’ Palestinian tenants want Israel’s Supreme Court to evict settlers who seized the properties a decade ago, but some in Israel’s pro-settler government believe the small shops should remain in Jewish hands.

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Gaza 'not consulted' over reforms to divorce law
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
August 24, 2012 - 12:00am

Religious authorities in the West Bank failed to consult their counterparts in the Gaza Strip over proposed changes to divorce laws, the head of Islamic courts in Gaza said Thursday. The chief Islamic judge in the West Bank Sheikh Yusef Ideis announced Thursday that the Islamic supreme court would meet Monday to discuss a new law granting women the right to initiate divorce. The law will come into effect in September, Ideis said in a statement.

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Swiss laboratory to investigate Arafat death
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
August 24, 2012 - 12:00am

A Swiss laboratory is to help investigate the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat after receiving the go-ahead from his widow, researchers from the Institute of Radiation Physics at Lausanne’s university hospital said on Friday.

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Palestinian town gets new mayor, aged 15
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Harriet Sherwood - August 22, 2012 - 12:00am

She could have spent the long, hot summer holiday hanging out with friends or helping at home. But instead, 15-year-old Bashaer Othman is making speeches, signing documents, chairing meetings, attending civic functions and meeting citizens as mayor of Allar, a small Palestinian town high in the West Bank hills.

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