Racing in Ramallah
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Julia Niemann - January 13, 2012 - 1:00am

"Be careful, you're a female driver," says the Israeli soldier at the checkpoint. His warning smacks of irony, considering the fact that the car is headed to Ramallah to meet Noor Daoud, one of the most successful female racers in the Palestinian territories.

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Israel, Palestinians Must Let Go of Justice and Join Reality
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Salman Masalha - (Opinion) January 13, 2012 - 1:00am

The poet Taha Muhammad Ali, who recently passed away, revealed to us in one of his poems that it took him 60 years to realize that "water is the best of drinks / And bread is the tastiest of foods." Someone who takes so much time to understand reality can be tolerated. He's allowed to be backward and learn slowly; he'll write poems about that. But it's different when we're talking about the backwardness of a nation, and how much more so, its elected leadership.

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A Sad Basis in Fact
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Nirit Anderman - (Film Review) January 13, 2012 - 1:00am

One by one, the actors face the camera. Each is filmed in a different place, against a different landscape. The landscapes are simultaneously threatening and stunning. Though each actor tells a different story, each delivers it looking directly at the camera - directly at the viewer. And each recounts, in a precise and matter-of-fact way, a difficult incident experienced by the character he or she is portraying. Shlomi Elkabetz - David Adika - January 2012

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Protecting Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
(Editorial) January 12, 2012 - 1:00am

Critics were quick to attack the High Court of Justice’s decision Wednesday to uphold the Citizenship and Entry Law, which severely restricts the right of Palestinians married to Israelis to receive Israeli citizenship. Before rushing to accuse our highest court of discrimination, racism or worse, it would be instructive to recall how the Citizenship and Entry Law came about in the first place.

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Israel Upholds Limits on Palestinian Spouses
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
January 12, 2012 - 1:00am

JERUSALEM — Israel's Supreme Court upheld late Wednesday a controversial law that bans most Palestinians who marry Israelis from living inside the Jewish state. In a 6-5 ruling, the court agreed that Palestinians who gain Israeli citizenship through marriage pose a security threat. The law is believed to have prevented thousands of Palestinians from living with their spouses. Parliament passed the law in 2003, at the height of the second Palestinian uprising, a time when militants from the West Bank frequently entered Israel to carry out deadly attacks.

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High Court Okays Citizenship Law, Legalizing Racial Discrimination of Arabs
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from 972 Magazine
by Noam Sheizaf - (Opinion) January 12, 2012 - 1:00am

Israeli Arab MK Ahmed Tibi famously said that “Israel is indeed a Jewish-democratic state: it is democratic for Jews and Jewish for all the rest.” This rings truer than ever after Israel’s High Court of Justice rejected yesterday (again) the petitions against the Citizenship Law, one of the first measures to make racial discrimination against the Arab minority not just common practice, but part of Israel’s legal codex.

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Drivers Protest Israeli-only roads in West Bank
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
by Jenny Baboun - January 11, 2012 - 1:00am

JERICHO (Ma'an) -- Around 60 people from across the West Bank on Tuesday tried to drive from Jericho to Ramallah on an Israeli-only road to protest Israel's restrictions on Palestinian movement. Popular resistance committees organized the motorcade of around 50 cars to protest the network of roads in the West Bank designated for the exclusive use of Jewish settlers. Committee spokesman Bashir Tamimi told Ma'an the protest aimed to send a message that the roads were built on Palestinian land and to protest settler attacks on Palestinians and holy places.

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Israel Arrests 10 Palestinians in West Bank
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from WAFA
January 11, 2012 - 1:00am

WEST BANK, Israeli forces Tuesday arrested 10 Palestinians from across the West Bank, according to security sources. In Jenin, Israeli forces arrested two Palestinians from Jenin refugee camp after raiding their houses, searching them and tampering with their contents, according to the sources. They also raided a garage and confiscated four cars. Forces also raided several Palestinian houses in Battir, a village west of the southern West Bank city of Bethlehem, searched them thoroughly and arrested three Palestinians, including a 16-years-old boy.

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Palestinian Sesame Street ails without US funds
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
by Daniella Cheslow - January 7, 2012 - 1:00am

RAMALLAH, West Bank — It's quiet time on Palestinian Sesame Street. The iconic children's program, known as "Sharaa Simsim" in Arabic, has been put on hold for the 2012 season because of a funding freeze by the U.S. Congress. Sharaa Simsim is one of many U.S.-funded Palestinian programs suffering after Congress froze the transfer of nearly $200 million to the U.S. Agency for International Development in October. The suspension aimed to punish the Palestinians for appealing to the United Nations for statehood.

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Pinkwashing’s Complicated Context
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gay City News
by Michael Luongo - (Opinion) January 4, 2012 - 1:00am

Israel is known as the most advanced country in the Middle East on LGBT rights issues. It has openly gay politicians, a parade and bars in Tel Aviv, open service in the military, and a burgeoning queer film and arts scene. This positive atmosphere, however, is largely useful only if you happen to be Jewish and are living on a certain side of the West Bank separation wall.

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