Religious Extremism | The American Task Force on Palestine

In Israel, hatred begins at home. Every home. So does hope.
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Bradley Burston - February 12, 2013 - 1:00am

I was born into an America of segregation and skewed horizons, of ingrained prejudice of word, of heart, of workplace, of residence. Yet it was not until I came to live in Israel that I began to understand racism. I was born into an America where the Ku Klux Klan and the American Nazi Party taught people to hate people like me. But I was taught to be a minority secreted inside a majority, and it was only when I came to live in the Middle East that I began to understand extremism.

Soccer racism raises concern in Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Joel Greenberg - February 11, 2013 - 1:00am

With 10 minutes left to play, Dzhabrail Kadiev, a Muslim soccer player from Chechnya, took the field for the first time for Beitar Jerusalem, a local team notorious for fan violence and racism. A chorus of catcalls went up from the stands, quickly drowned out by a welcoming ovation. Yet every kick of the ball by the newly signed player was met with jeers and whistles, punctuating Sunday night’s tense game that ended in a 2-2 tie with a squad from the Israeli Arab town of Sakhnin.

The Death of Cinema in Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Monitor
by Asmaa Al-Ghoul - February 6, 2013 - 1:00am

Heavy slabs of concrete seal the doors of al-Nasr Cinema in Gaza City. Not one aperture exists through which you can see the interior of the building, which has been abandoned for decades. Its towering walls loom over the street, stained black from the old fire. In the 1980s, these walls housed one of the largest cinemas in the Middle East, but now new generations in the Gaza Strip grow old having never been inside a cinema. Memories of better times

Hamas Pushes Islamization of Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Monitor
by Abeer Ayyoub - (Opinion) February 4, 2013 - 1:00am

When Muhammad, who refused to give his family name out of security concerns, asked the DJ at his brother’s wedding in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, to play music for slow dancing, the DJ refused on the grounds that he would be punished by the authorities. Bemused, Muhammad warned the DJ that the family wouldn't continue the wedding if he didn’t play the song. The DJ shrugged off the threat and stood by his refusal. “We were really angry, because we were never informed that the slow dance wasn’t allowed,” Muhammad said.

Some Fear a Soccer Team’s Racist Fans Hold a Mirror Up to Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Jodi Rudoren - January 30, 2013 - 1:00am

The shouting match began long before kickoff, and many of the slogans had little to do with soccer. “The Temple Mount is in our hands,” chanted the notoriously aggressive fans of the home team, Beitar Jerusalem.

Alcohol serving restaurants set alight in Ramallah
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by Nasouh Nazzal - January 30, 2013 - 1:00am

The Palestinian security apparatus has released a number of Palestinians accused of setting alight two restaurants which serve alcohol in Beir Zeit, a town north of Ramallah, for lack of evidence. Palestinian crowds gathered in front of the adjacent restaurants last weekend and threw stones at their windows, doors and signboards. Others set the two restaurants on fire and the crowds remained at the scene, watching until the two restaurants were totally gutted.

Israel arrests settlers suspected of W.Bank attacks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Allyn Fisher-Ilan, Dan Williams - December 3, 2012 - 1:00am

JERUSALEM, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Israeli police arrested three Jewish settlers on Monday whom they suspect of arson and other attacks on Palestinian property in the occupied West Bank. At a time of heightened diplomatic tension over claims to the land, the men were found carrying fuel and spikes shortly after a car was torched in a Palestinian village near Hebron. A police spokesman said they had appeared to be about to conduct a second attack in another village nearby when they were detained.

Settlers: Annex Area C in response to PA's UN bid
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Tovah Lazaroff - November 29, 2012 - 1:00am

Settlers and right-wing activists called on Israel to annex Area C and threatened to burn the Palestinian flag, in response to Palestinian plans to Thursday to ask the UN General Assembly to grant it the status of non-member state. Left-wing Israelis, in turn, planned to rally in Tel Aviv in support of the Palestinian move, which constitutes a de facto UN recognition of Palestinian statehood. Settlers argued that now was the moment to strengthen Israel’s hold on the West Bank, particularly since the Palestinian bid was an abrogation of the 1993 Oslo Accord.

Israeli settlers, police clash amid West Bank outpost demolition
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
November 1, 2012 - 12:00am

JERUSALEM, Nov. 1 (Xinhua) -- Several dozen Israeli settlers of a northern West Bank settlement scuffled with police and soldiers during an operation to raze several illegal structures overnight. "Security forces evacuated three illegal buildings," an army source told Xinhua Thursday, in the early morning operation in hilltop Yitzhar's "Haseruga" outpost -- built six months ago without municipal approval.

A party in denial
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Zvi Barel - (Opinion) October 31, 2012 - 12:00am

It took some effort to get worked up about the jubilant fanfare with which the Likud Central Committee welcomed the product of Benjamin Netanyahu and Avigdor Lieberman's fusion. One might mistakenly suppose that two noble metals had just blended in the blistering crucible of the right wing.

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