Gaza, West Bank to live in different time zones
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
August 28, 2011 - 12:00am

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- For the first time in history, Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip will live in different time zones. Clocks were pushed back an hour at the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan on August 1 in the West Bank and Gaza. The Palestinian Authority cabinet decided Tuesday to revert to summer time (+3 hours GMT) at the end of Ramadan. The cabinet announced that the Eid Al-Fitr holiday which marks the end of Ramadan would begin Tuesday.

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Palestinian, Jew give both sides on joint Jerusalem tours
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from CNN
by Catriona Davies - August 26, 2011 - 12:00am

As a soldier in the Israeli Defense Forces, Kobi Skolnick once fired shots at Aziz Abu Sarah's aunt's house in the West Bank town of Hebron. Ten years later, Skolnick, a former Israeli settler, who grew up in an ultra-orthodox household, and Abu Sarah, once a Palestinian militant, work together explaining both sides of the Middle East conflict to tourists. They discovered the uncomfortable coincidence during a tour in Hebron for Mejdi, a "dual-narrative" tour company co-owned by Abu Sarah, where every tour is jointly led by Jewish and Palestinian guides.

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Lebensraum as a justification for Israeli settlements
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Yossi Sarid - (Opinion) August 26, 2011 - 12:00am

Until now Israel had supported the occupation of the territories with two pillars: history and security - its right to inherit the land and its obligation to defend it. In recent weeks a third pillar was added, which all these years was hidden under straw and stubble. And maybe it's not a pillar but a snake, whose head must be crushed while it's still small.

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Ramadan discounts lure customers back to West Bank's ghost town
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP)
August 25, 2011 - 12:00am

An unlikely noise can be heard in the Old City of Hebron in the southern West Bank - the sound of Ramadan bargain hunters dipping in and out of shops and buying cut-price goods. The crowds milling in the ancient streets are a change of pace for vendors here, who for years have suffered the consequences of Israeli-imposed security restrictions that brought business to a near standstill. Israel says the restrictions are necessary to protect 600 hardline Jewish settlers who live in the heart of the city among a Palestinian population of about 6,000.

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Fatah official: Hamas requested elections delay
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
August 24, 2011 - 12:00am

Fatah central committee member Mahmoud Al-Aloul on Tuesday said Hamas requested the postponement of local elections. In a statement, Al-Aloul said a delegation representing Hamas requested that the vote be postponed until reconciliation with Fatah was finalized. President Mahmoud Abbas issued a decree on Monday postponing local West Bank elections, scheduled for Oct. 22, "until appropriate circumstances" exist. The October vote was planned to take place in the West Bank and the elections commission said Hamas had blocked efforts to organize elections in the Gaza Strip.

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Haniyeh urged to allow students out of Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
August 24, 2011 - 12:00am

A Palestinian human rights official is urging the leadership in Gaza to reverse a decision blocking eight students from traveling to the United States for university. Rawyeh Ash-Shawwa, member of the legislative council and head of the Independent Commission for Human Rights, called on Prime Minister in Gaza Ismail Haniyeh to personally reverse the decision. She called the decision an explicit violation of human rights.

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Resentment toward Hamas grows among Gaza's budding middle class
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
August 23, 2011 - 12:00am

A budding middle class in the impoverished Gaza Strip is flaunting its wealth, sipping coffee at gleaming new cafes, shopping for shoes at the new tiny shopping malls, and fueling perhaps the most acrimonious grass roots resentment yet toward the ruling Hamas movement.

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Israel has no strategy
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Nahum Barnea - (Opinion) August 21, 2011 - 12:00am

The same story repeats under all our governments: Following a terror attack, both sides embark on a chain reaction of attacks and counter-attacks. At the end of the day, the battle is over who will be firing the last rocket; who will emerge as a hero and who will be the chicken.

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Semites unite! You’ve nothing to lose but your pain
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
by Roi Ben-Yehuda - (Opinion) August 19, 2011 - 12:00am

On July 15 a small bit of history was made in Jerusalem. Around 3,000 Jews and Arabs marched from the Jaffa Gate in the Old City to the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in East Jerusalem calling for Palestinian independence, freedom and dignity. The demonstration was organized by the Sheikh Jarrah Solidarity Movement and leaders of the Palestinian East Jerusalem neighborhood committees. We, an Israeli from Tel Aviv and a Palestinian resident of Jerusalem, were among those who joined and made our voices heard.

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Rights group: Hamas ban on study abroad students 'illegal'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
August 18, 2011 - 12:00am

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights denounced Wednesday the decision by Hamas to ban Gaza scholarship students from studying in the United States. "PCHR believes that this decision contradicts basic human rights standards, especially the Universal Declaration of Human Rights," a statement said. The rights group said that the students were banned from traveling for "social and cultural reasons" by the Ministry of Education in the Gaza Strip.

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