Palestinians are up to ears in debt
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Edmund Sanders - March 18, 2012 - 12:00am

Reporting from Ramallah, West Bank— Ayman and Rahma abu Hussein can't help but feel they are moving up in the world. The database engineer and his wife just bought their first home, and it's large enough for both of their children to have their own rooms. There's a Hyundai parked outside and a flat-panel TV hangs in the living room, one of many new appliances decking out the place.

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Palestinians are up to ears in debt
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Edmund Sanders - March 18, 2012 - 12:00am

Reporting from Ramallah, West Bank— Ayman and Rahma abu Hussein can't help but feel they are moving up in the world. The database engineer and his wife just bought their first home, and it's large enough for both of their children to have their own rooms. There's a Hyundai parked outside and a flat-panel TV hangs in the living room, one of many new appliances decking out the place.

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Stop Humiliating Palestinian Refugees
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
by Sari Hanafi - (Opinion) March 16, 2012 - 12:00am

In a recent talk at the American University of Beirut, Chile’s former president, Michelle Bachelet, described how her country’s parliament was forced to issue a general amnesty in 1978, as a condition imposed by the dictator Augusto Pinochet to abandon power. Yet Chilean judges have refused to implement the law. Along with a vibrant civil society, they refuse to grant immunity to those who violated human rights.

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Gilad Shalit’s Father: I Would Kidnap Israelis if I were Palestinian
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Phoebe Greenwood - March 15, 2012 - 12:00am

The father of an Israeli soldier held in captivity for more than five years by Hamas has said he would kidnap Israeli soldiers if he were a Palestinian. Noam Shalit, who announced earlier this year that he would be standing for the opposition Labour party in the next Israeli elections, has provoked outrage among the Israeli right with the comments. His son, Gilad, was released in a prisoner swap in October 2011.

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Compete on sacrifices, not leadership
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
by Maath Musleh - (Analysis) March 15, 2012 - 12:00am

On March 15, 2011, Palestinians took to the streets in the occupied West Bank and Gaza calling for unity and elections to the Palestinian National Council. The youth took the lead, inspired by the Arab uprisings, mainly in Tunisia and Egypt. Was it a trend or a natural development? What lasting effects did it have on Palestinian politics? Both Hamas' government in Gaza and Fatah's in the West Bank were ready for the movements. They had never dealt with such a mass movement, but they definitely planned to hijack it and direct it to their paths.

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Study: Children struggle to cope after Israeli detention
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
March 13, 2012 - 12:00am

RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- Thousands of Palestinian children struggle with mental health problems and reintegration into society after they are detained by Israel, a new report on child detention says. According to the study released by Save the Children Sweden and YMCA-East Jerusalem on Monday, 90.6 percent of detained children suffer Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after release.

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A typical Gaza wedding
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Harriet Sherwood - (Analysis) March 11, 2012 - 1:00am

She slips through the door resembling any other Gaza girl, head scarf and jilbab concealing her hair and body, and emerges three hours later looking like a beauty queen. But before Aya Abu Shoqa steps outside the salon in her wedding finery, she dons a hooded ivory satin cape, complete with opaque veil.

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Hamas Security Forces Attack Journalists in Gaza City
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
March 9, 2012 - 1:00am

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Hamas security forces attacked three journalists covering a mass wedding in Gaza City on Thursday, the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate said Friday. Security forces beat the reporters in a nearby playground, it said. The journalists were covering a mass wedding of 500 couples, funded by a charitable organization and in coordination with Hamas. Local media identified the journalists as Muhammad Masharawi, a reporter for Sky News, and Adnan al-Barsh of the BBC. Another journalist, Amer Abu Omar, was assaulted in the incident, witnesses said.

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Study: 37 Percent of Palestinian Women Exposed to Violence by Husbands
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
March 9, 2012 - 1:00am

RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- Some 37 percent of Palestinian women were exposed to violence by their husbands in 2011, says a new study revealed on International Women's Day. The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics says the highest percentage of the phenomenon was reported in Gaza, where 58.1 percent of women were subject to violence by their husbands. The Ramallah and Al Bireh district witnessed the lowest rates of domestic violence against women for 2011, with 14.2 percent of wives exposed to violence.

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Building Palestinian prosperity
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from National Post
by Alexander Joffe, Asaf Romirowsky - (Opinion) March 9, 2012 - 1:00am

The Palestinian cause has never been more marginalized than it is today. That was the message conveyed by Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in a recent meeting in Ramallah. The Arab Spring has deflected the attention of the international community and the Arab world, to the detriment of the Palestinians. But Fayyad was also frank that the uprisings were inevitable. The fundamental lack of respect for citizens in places such as Syria, Tunisia and Egypt, he stated, could not be sustained forever.

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