Christians converge on Jerusalem for Good Friday
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Statesman
by Amy Teibel - April 2, 2010 - 12:00am

The cobblestone alleyways of Jerusalem's Old City became moving forests of wooden crosses as Christian pilgrims and clergymen commemorated the day of Jesus' crucifixion, Good Friday. Black-robed nuns filed past metal barriers erected by police as dozens of tourists in matching red baseball hats held up digital cameras. Some pilgrims carried elaborately carved crucifixes, while others had crude crosses made of two planks held together with tape.

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Palestinian Christians to be barred from Old City
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
April 1, 2010 - 12:00am

Palestinians, particularly Christians will be barred from entering Jerusalem's Old City and accessing the Church of the Holy Sepulchre on Saturday, when eastern Orthodox Christians observe Sept An-Nour, or Saturday of light. Church officials were informed by Israeli police that only international pilgrims would be allowed to access the area, Jerusalem officials said on Wednesday.

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The real price of Israel's settlements
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Seth Freedman - (Opinion) March 25, 2010 - 12:00am

The cost of building Israeli settlements in the occupied territories stands at more than $17bn, according to a report released this week. The painstaking study into the economics of construction in the West Bank encompasses every building and road in the settlements, which cover a combined space of 12m square metres, and in doing so quantifies the enormity of the 43-year-old project of colonisation.

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Jewish settler leader sees building boom
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Allyn Fisher-Ilan - (Interview) March 23, 2010 - 12:00am

Jewish settlement of the West Bank could triple to one million people despite Western pressure to curb the growth of enclaves in occupied land, says a leader of the Israeli settlers' council. "It's totally viable to envisage a million Jews living in Judea and Samaria," said Naftali Bennett, using biblical names for the West Bank, where 2.5 million Palestinians aspire to create their own state, along with 1.5 million in Gaza.

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Israeli Left Emerges From Coma Amid Atrocities
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Inter Press Service (IPS)
by Mel Frykberg - March 9, 2010 - 1:00am

On Saturday night over 3,000 Palestinian, Israeli and foreign peace activists, waving Palestinian flags and shouting "Free Sheikh Jarrah", gathered in the East Jerusalem suburb in support of Palestinians threatened with home demolitions and evictions. Progressive members of the Israeli Knesset, or parliament, called for the removal of illegal Israeli settlers in East Jerusalem and for the rights of Palestinian residents to be respected.

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In Hebron, renovation of holy site sets off strife
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Janine Zacharia - March 8, 2010 - 1:00am

The Tomb of the Patriarchs -- a site revered by Jews, Muslims and Christians as the burial place of their common forefather, Abraham -- needed bathrooms and a new roof over an outdoor prayer area. To the spokesman for Hebron's Jewish settler community, that should not have been grounds for international scandal. "In any normal country, people would take a site like that and turn it into a nationally recognized monument," David Wilder said.

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History as tool of occupation
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
by Uri Avnery - (Opinion) March 7, 2010 - 1:00am

History as tool of occupation During the first years of the State of Israel, an official of the Ministry of Religions (as it was then called), a certain Shmuel Zanwill Kahana, toured the country and discovered holy sites right and left. He found graves of Muslim sheikhs and announced that they were, actually, the tombs of our forefathers. They were declared holy places and taken over by his ministry.

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Clashes erupt at Jerusalem holy site
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Ari Rabinovitch - March 5, 2010 - 1:00am

Israeli police and Palestinians clashed near Jerusalem's flashpoint al-Aqsa mosque on Friday and about 30 people were injured, Israeli police and Palestinian medical workers said. Israeli police entered the compound housing the mosque and fired stun grenades to disperse Palestinians who they said had thrown stones on police officers and Jewish worshippers nearby. Palestinian medical workers said at least 17 Palestinians were injured by tear gas and rubber-coated bullets, one seriously. About a dozen police officers were also lightly hurt in the clashes, a police spokesman said.

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Palestinian sources: 60 wounded in Temple Mount clashes
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Ali Waked - March 5, 2010 - 1:00am

Waqf sources in Jerusalem and Palestinian medical sources reported that at least 60 Arabs, east Jerusalemites and Palestinians were wounded in clashes on the Temple Mount from tear gas, stun grenades, and smoke inhalation. The Palestinians claim that the security forces are using force in areas where there are no clashes and making it difficult for worshippers to leave the mosque. Also according to the reports, five Palestinian protesters were wounded in clashes with the security forces in Nabi Saleh.


Hamas bans men from women's hair salons
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
by Rizek Abdel Jawad - March 4, 2010 - 1:00am

Gaza's Islamic Hamas government on Thursday banned men from working in women's hair salons, the latest step in its campaign to impose strict Islamic customs on Gaza's 1.5 million people. Since seizing Gaza in 2007, Hamas has taken steps in that direction while avoiding a frontal assault on secularism. The majority of Gaza residents are conservative Muslims, but Hamas is under growing pressure from more radical groups to prove its fundamentalist credentials by imposing ever harsher edicts. The latest measure irked one of the victims of the ban.

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