Hamas to keep Mashaal as head of politburo: sources
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
July 31, 2012 - 12:00am

Hamas is going to assign a new office term for its political bureau chief Khaled Mashaal after the Palestinian Islamic movement completed its internal elections, sources said Tuesday. The movement finished the polls in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and the Israeli prisons, the sources said, adding that elections in Diaspora should end within days and then the name of the politburo chief would be announced.

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Rivlin comes out against Arab draft
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Hassan Shaalan - July 30, 2012 - 12:00am

Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin on Monday came out against the call to enlist Arabs to the IDF during a Ramadan feast in Kafr Qara. "Any sensible person understands that one cannot draft the Arab sector," he said. "Any such call is tinted with hypocrisy and even malevolence."

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Romney comments at fundraiser outrage Palestinians
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
by Kasie Hunt - July 30, 2012 - 12:00am

Mitt Romney told Jewish donors Monday that their culture is part of what has allowed them to be more economically successful than the Palestinians, outraging Palestinian leaders who called his comments racist and out of touch.

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Arafat inquiry like looking for 'needle in the ocean'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
July 30, 2012 - 12:00am

The investigation into late President Yasser Arafat's death is ongoing, director of the committee responsible for the inquiry said Sunday. Tawfiq al-Tirawi told Ma'an that a medical committee headed by Abdullah al-Basheer is undertaking research in coordination with international specialists and will brief officials on the results once investigations reach their final stages.

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West Bank’s Emerging Silicon Valley Evades Issues of Borders
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - July 29, 2012 - 12:00am

The spotless cafeteria is fashionably furnished with fluorescent orange and lime green tables, and there are table tennis and foosball tables in the basement. What else could it be but a tech start-up, even here?

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Tales from the West Bank: Palestinian Raja Shehadeh chronicles life during occupation
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent
by Raja Shehadeh - (Book Review) July 28, 2012 - 12:00am

13 December 2009: I'm just back from a lovely day spent in Wadi Kelt, the ravine on the way between Jerusalem and Jericho. This is one of the few places in the West Bank where one can be sure of finding water even after the drought of the past eight months. Turned out we were not the only ones who had the idea of an outing there. Just after we put down our rucksacks and stretched out on the rock in the sun, a Palestinian family of nine arrived. They were disappointed to find us there but settled for the second best slab of rock on the opposite side of the pool.

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Palestinians in Syria get pulled into civil war
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
by Ben Hubbard - July 27, 2012 - 12:00am

Like other communities sucked into Syria's widening civil war, the Yarmouk neighborhood in Damascus has seen death and destruction. Soldiers and snipers have gunned down demonstrators. Some protesters have taken up arms to fight back. But there's one key difference: Most of Yarmouk's residents are not Syrian citizens. They are Palestinian refugees.

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Israel bans 5 Gaza women from study in West Bank
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
July 27, 2012 - 12:00am

Israel's Defense Ministry said Thursday it would not allow five female students from Gaza to go to university in the West Bank, rights groups said. In May, Israel's Supreme Court ordered the ministry to reconsider its refusal to allow the students to travel to the West Bank, after Israel admitted there were no individual security concerns about any of the students.

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Over 100 Gaza families flee Syria
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
July 25, 2012 - 12:00am

GAZA CITY (Ma’an) -- More than 100 Palestinian families have fled Syria due to the deterioration in safety and security resulting from the uprising against President Bashar Assad, an official said Tuesday. Hamza Abu Shanab of the Gaza-based Palestinian Coalition for the Syrian Revolution told Ma'an that 105 families originally from the Gaza Strip have returned safely through Egypt's Rafah crossing in recent days. The families had business ties in Syria or were students studying at Syrian universities, Abu Shanab said.

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The myth of Palestinian neutrality in Syria
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
by Budour Hassan - (Analysis) July 24, 2012 - 12:00am

On July 14, thousands of Palestinian refugees marched in a funeral procession for 11 unarmed protesters shot dead by Syrian security forces in the al-Yarmouk refugee camp. Raucous and seething with rage, mourners chanted for Syria and Palestine, called for the downfall of Bashar Assad’s regime, and sang for freedom.

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