A conversation with British-Palestinian writer Selma Dabbagh
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by David Green - (Interview) October 1, 2012 - 12:00am

Selma Dabbagh’s life story, like that of so many other Palestinians, has been an odyssey, with a simple question about the bare-bones trajectory of her biography eliciting a good 10-minute response. Though born in Scotland and today a resident of London, Dabbagh, 42, a lawyer who has in recent years become a full-time writer of fiction, has spent long stretches of her life in Kuwait, France, Cairo and Bahrain, even as her heart has largely been focused on Palestine.

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Danny Ayalon and the Jewish refugee fallacy
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Times of Israel
by Daniel Haboucha - (Opinion) October 1, 2012 - 12:00am

The Israeli government has recently launched a campaign to win international recognition for the plight of the approximately 700,000 Arab Jews, or Mizrahim, who fled their homes during the 20-odd-year period following Israel’s establishment in 1948.

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Israel scrambles Palestinian 'right of return' with Jewish refugee talk
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Christa Case Bryant - October 1, 2012 - 12:00am

More than 60 years after the founding of Israel precipitated two tides of refugees in the Middle East, the Israeli government has launched a campaign to persuade the world that it’s not just Palestinians who suffered in Israel's early days.

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4 Palestinian refugees killed in northern Syria, violence elsewhere
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
September 28, 2012 - 12:00am

  DAMASCUS, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- A pro-government radio said four Palestinian refugees were killed Friday when armed groups fired mortar shells at the al-Nairab camp in Syria's northern province of Aleppo. Sham FM gave no further details, but also reported that loud explosion was heard Friday in the coastal city of Banyyas. It said, however, that the details surrounding the blast are still emerging.

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Israel campaign throws spotlight on Jewish refugees from Arab lands
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
by Yolande Knell - September 28, 2012 - 12:00am

At the edge of Mahane Yehuda market in Jerusalem, elderly men sit playing backgammon - or shesh besh as it is known locally - wearing looks of intense concentration. It is a scene which can be found in coffee shops across the Middle East, such as in Egypt, Syria, Yemen and Iraq. In fact many of the men here are Jewish Israelis who originally came from those Arab countries.

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Spineless bookkeeping: The use of Mizrahi Jews as pawns against Palestinian refugees
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from 972 Magazine
by Yehouda Shenhav - (Blog) September 25, 2012 - 12:00am

In the last three years, we have witnessed an intensive campaign aimed at winning political and legal recognition of Arab Jews as “refugees.” The aim of this campaign is to create symmetry in public opinion between the Palestinian refugees and the “Oriental” Jews who arrived to Israeli in the 50s and 60s, presenting both populations as victims of the 1948 war.

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Syria denies shelling Palestinian camp in Aleppo
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
September 24, 2012 - 12:00am

  DAMASCUS, Sept. 24 (Xinhua) -- Syrian Information Ministry denied news that the government troops shelled the Nairab camp for Palestinian refugees in Aleppo city. In a statement aired by the state TV on Monday, the ministry held " the "bloody media outlets" responsible for disseminating such news. Also in Aleppo, the state TV said the army has carried a " qualitative" operation at al-Arkoub roundabout in Aleppo, killing large numbers of armed militias.

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Syrian conflict makes Palestinians into both refugees and combatants
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Nicholas Blanford - September 24, 2012 - 12:00am

Omar Hassan was just three years old when he and his family were forced to leave their home in northern Palestine during the creation of Israel, making a home as stateless refugees in a camp in Syria. Now, six decades on, Mr.

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PLO: Over 400 Palestinians killed in Syria conflict
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Khaled Abu Toameh - September 20, 2012 - 12:00am

More than 400 Palestinians have been killed since the beginning of the fighting between the Syrian army and anti-government forces, Zakariya al-Agha, a senior PLO official, announced Thursday. The announcement came as Palestinian refugees who fled from Syria to Jordan complained that the Palestinian Authority was doing nothing to assist them. Nearly 500,000 Palestinians live in a number of refugee camps in Syria.

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The Jewish refugee issue
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Yoram Dori - (Opinion) September 20, 2012 - 12:00am

In recent days I have been exposed, like many others, to a campaign of the Foreign Ministry and the National Security Council which is titled: “Restitution of property to Jewish refugees from Arab countries.” The intention, according to the international campaign editors, is to compare in the eyes of the world public opinion the loss of the property of the Palestinian refugees with the loss of Jews who were forced to leave the Arab countries and came to Israel. To compare the damages and the costs.

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