This Israel Independence Day, I’m buying Palestinian
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Bradley Burston - (Opinion) April 24, 2012 - 12:00am

On this anniversary of Israel’s Declaration of Independence, you’re likely to encounter no end of negativity - grousing from the boiling blood extremists, grumbling from heartbroken moderates, resignation from those whose dreams have been dashed and trashed and ground into sand, year after soul-crushing year. Not a small group. A group which often includes me. But not this year. Not me. This year, for Israel Independence Day, I’m buying Palestinian.

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Palestine becomes member of IMF body
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
April 23, 2012 - 12:00am

RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad announced Monday that Palestine has joined an IMF initiative to disseminate statistics to the public. Palestine became a member of the Special Data Dissemination Standard, or SDDS, on April 19, becoming the fifth Arab state to join after Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia and Jordan. SDDS is a standard by the International Monetary Fund to guide countries in the dissemination of national statistics to the public. Palestine's membership, listed as the West Bank and Gaza, indicates the maturity of PA institutions, Fayyad said.

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Palestinian hunger strikes draw attention to Israeli detention practice
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Karin Brulliard - April 23, 2012 - 12:00am

ARRABA, West Bank — A stream of visitors passes through a simple concrete house in this sleepy village, bearing tribute plaques, floral bouquets and plaudits for a soft-spoken man who has become the latest icon for the Palestinian cause.

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Danish Protester: ‘No One Would Care if a Palestinian was hit with a Rifle’
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Harriet Sherwood - April 20, 2012 - 12:00am

Without the video, all Andreas Ias would have to show for his weekend bicycle ride in the Jordan valley would be two stitches and a slightly swollen lower lip – plus a hardening anger about the treatment by Israeli soldiers of Palestinians. But a few seconds of footage uploaded to YouTube catapulted the 20-year-old Danish activist into the media spotlight, drew statements from the Israeli prime minister, president and chief of staff, led to the disciplining of an Israeli army officer, and prompted debate over the use of video cameras as a weapon of modern warfare.

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Rashid Khalidi Responds to Avra Shapiro and Gil Troy
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast
by Rashid Khalidi - (Opinion) April 20, 2012 - 12:00am

It was disappointing to read Avra Shapiro’s letter on behalf of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. Sadly, it was full of red herrings, distortions and falsehoods. Firstly, Ms. Shapiro claims, “the campaign to stop construction of the Museum of Tolerance Jerusalem was…intended to undermine the sovereignty and authority of Israel and its juridical institutions.” She cites as evidence the role of “a declared Muslim extremist,” in initiating “the petition to Israel’s Supreme Court.”

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Shadow of another war hangs over southern Lebanon border
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Michael Young - (Opinion) April 19, 2012 - 12:00am

The negotiations in Turkey over Iran's nuclear programme last weekend were not particularly high in the attentions of the Lebanese living along their country's southern frontier with Israel. And yet if Iran is one day attacked militarily because the talks have failed, the Marjayoun-Hasbayya district will probably again become a front line in a destructive confrontation between Hizbollah and the Israelis.

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Easter in Ramallah
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from International Herald Tribune
by Rajah Shehadeh - (Blog) April 19, 2012 - 12:00am

RAMALLAH, West Bank — Almost every year for over one hundred years on the Saturday before Orthodox Easter, the main street in Ramallah has been overtaken by marching boy scouts and girl scouts banging drums and blowing trumpets before tens of thousands of onlookers. It isn’t much of a parade. The music is as loud and out of tune as it is enthusiastic. Yet I try never to miss Sabt el Nour and the rowdy procession celebrating the miraculous light that beamed from Christ’s tomb in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the Old City of Jerusalem the day before his resurrection.

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Arab Family Evicted in Jerusalem, Jews Move in
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Melanie Lidman - April 18, 2012 - 12:00am

An Arab family was evicted from their home in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina on Wednesday morning, and 10 Jewish activists with the right-wing Israel Land Fund moved into the house, prompting left-wing activists to dub the issue "the new Sheikh Jarrah." The eviction is first step toward creating a new Jewish complex of 50 apartments in the predominantly Arab neighborhood. According to Israel Land Fund director Aryeh King, a Jewish buyer 35 years ago purchased two buildings, each with two apartments. The properties also belonged to Jewish residents prior to 1948, he said.

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Palestinian Filmmakers Embrace Complexities for the Big Screen
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Stephen Dalton - April 18, 2012 - 12:00am

The moveable feast that is Palestinian cinema returns to Britain next week for the latest London Palestine Film Festival. Launched in 1998, the festival hub will once again be the towering concrete battlements of the Barbican Arts Centre, with satellite events scattered across the capital's cinemas and colleges. The 2012 programme features more than 50 works including dramas, documentaries, shorts, video art installations and rare gems from the archives - plus a topical new strand called "Beyond Palestine" focusing on Syria and the western Sahara.

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Palestinians mark prisoners day in Gaza, West Bank
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
April 17, 2012 - 12:00am

JENIN (Ma'an) -- Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank marked Palestinian Prisoners Day on Tuesday with ceremonies symbolizing long-hoped-for freedom from Israeli jails. In Arraba village, south of Jenin, officials gathered to mark the day ahead of the expected release of local Khader Adnan, whose 66-day hunger strike ended with a deal to free him from administrative detention.

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