Palestinian Society | The American Task Force on Palestine

Press freedom group: Attacks on media decrease in 2012
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
August 11, 2012 - 12:00am

A Palestinian press freedom group has recorded over 100 violations of media freedom in the first half of 2012, a slight decline on last year, a report said this week. "The status of media freedoms in the occupied Palestinian territories remains under serious threat," the Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms said Wednesday. MADA documented 102 press freedom violations in the first six months of 2012, compared to 113 in the same period in 2011, the group's report said.

First Palestinian male ballet dancer battles prejudices
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC World News
by Sylvia Smith - August 10, 2012 - 12:00am

As the young ballet dancer stretches backwards lifting his leg over the barre and rising up on to demi-pointe, beads of sweat appear on his forehead. The two hour-long routine takes place daily in south London in a practice studio surrounded by mirrors. The practice is so demanding that it would break the will, not to mention the physical strength, of anyone less passionate about dance. But it is not just the gruelling requirements of ballet that this young dancer has to contend with but also entrenched cultural prejudices.

Syria's Palestinians flee to Lebanon, but for how long?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from USA Today
by Stephen Starr - August 10, 2012 - 12:00am

At the edge of a sprawling Palestinian camp in south Beirut, Syrian volunteers unload two dozen boxes from the trunk of a taxi. Young boys help carry them into the dark, narrow alleyways where families peer out from underground houses that were bomb shelters during Lebanon's past civil wars.

Another Look at Palestinian Culture
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Huffington Post
by Ziad Asali - (Blog) August 9, 2012 - 12:00am

Given the current conversation about issue of Palestinian culture and its relationship to politics and economics, I feel it's appropriate for me to add my own Palestinian-American perspective.

The Palestine Romney doesn’t know
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Zahi Khouri - (Opinion) August 9, 2012 - 12:00am

I am a proud American. I am a hardworking businessman and job creator. I am a faithful Christian. And I am Palestinian. Much as my multiple identities might drive Mitt Romney to head scratching, it is he who needs a lesson in, to borrow his recent words, “culture and a few other things.”

Susiya: A Human Rights Calamity
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast
by Kathleen Peratis - (Opinion) August 9, 2012 - 12:00am

In 2004, Ha'aretz ran the following story: "Last week, the High Court of Justice postponed for four months the state's request to destroy the structures and tents in Susiya, a village of caves in the southern part of the Hebron Hills.”

Swiss experts invited to conduct Arafat autopsy
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
by Mohammed Daraghmeh - August 9, 2012 - 12:00am

Swiss experts have been invited to the West Bank to test Yasser Arafat's remains for possible poisoning, the chief investigator looking into the 2004 death of the Palestinian leader said Wednesday. The announcement followed weeks of zigzagging on the autopsy issue by officials in the Palestinian Authority, the self-rule government that Arafat established. Their conflicting positions and hesitation triggered speculation they were trying to quietly kill the investigation.

Occupation, Not 'Culture,' Holds Back Palestinians
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Sari Bashi - (Opinion) August 9, 2012 - 12:00am

As a Jew of Iraqi descent living in Israel, I was taught to take prideful note of the role that my ethnic group played in building the country. ”You see that bridge?” my uncle would ask me as we watched footage of a Tel Aviv sports event. “An Iraqi Jew built it.” And when the TV switched to a commercial for an appliance company, my uncle, who left Baghdad in 1943 at the age of 16, would say: “The owner of that company is Iraqi. Do you see how he built it from nothing?”

Israel frees Palestinian prisoner after 78-day hunger strike
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
August 9, 2012 - 12:00am

Israel on Thursday freed a Palestinian prisoner who has been on a hunger strike for more than two months, the fifth similar case this year.

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