Religion | The American Task Force on Palestine

Israel must end provocative digs
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Boston Globe
(Editorial) October 29, 2009 - 12:00am

AS A DISPUTE over land and statehood, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is combustible enough. But recent clashes over the site in Jerusalem that Jews call the Temple Mount and Muslims call Haram al-Sharif are injecting religious passions into one of the world’s most dangerous confrontations. Extremists on both sides are playing with fire. But since Israel is the dominant power, the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu bears primary responsibility for smothering that fire before it erupts into a much larger conflagration.

Israeli military gives settlers free rein
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Seth Freedman - (Opinion) October 29, 2009 - 12:00am

During a swearing-in ceremony at the Western Wall in Jerusalem last Thursday, two soldiers held up a banner that sparked a wave of condemnation by soldiers and civilians alike. The slogan on the banner – "Shimshon [Brigade] does not evacuate Homesh" – referred to the prospect of the soldiers being ordered to evict settlers from an illegal outpost on the site of the former Homesh settlement.

Israel must break growing stranglehold of religion
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
by Stanley Gold, Uri Regev - (Opinion) October 28, 2009 - 12:00am

How does it happen that thousands of Israelis travel each year to Cyprus and Eastern Europe to get married? Is this an Israeli custom, to elope? Not at all. Hundreds of thousands of Israeli citizens cannot marry in Israel due to state law, including numerous Russian olim, all non-Orthodox converts to Judaism and native-born Israeli Jews who want an egalitarian marriage ceremony. Israeli democracy is enlightened and progressive in most respects, but in the area of religious freedom it lags all Western democracies.

Palestinians work to defend Al Aqsa
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Omar Karmi - October 27, 2009 - 12:00am

Musa Qous was still asleep Sunday morning when the muezzin at Al Aqsa mosque, right next to Mr Qous’s home in the old city of Jerusalem, called out. But this was no ordinary call to prayer and, at eight in the morning, came at the wrong time. “I knew there was something wrong,” said Mr Qous, 46, who works with a Jerusalem-based social rights non-governmental organisation. Instead, the muezzin called on Muslims to come and defend the mosque and announced that Al Aqsa was in danger.

Salafism: A New Threat to Hamas
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Dan Williams - October 27, 2009 - 12:00am

On the streets of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, clusters of men wear long tunics over baggy trousers, a costume common in Pakistan but virtually unknown among Palestinians — until recently. It is an emblem of Salafism, a branch of Islam that advocates restoring a Muslim empire across the Middle East and into Spain. Some Salafis preach violence, even killing Muslims deemed not pious enough. While historically a fringe group in the southeastern Mediterranean, Salafis have sought inroads in Lebanon and Jordan and are battling Hamas in Gaza.

US: Israel discriminates against non-Jews
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
October 26, 2009 - 12:00am

Israel continues to discriminate against its religious minorities legally, financially and culturally, according to a US State Department review on worldwide religious freedom released on Monday. In its 2009 International Religious Freedom Report, the foreign service said that despite past documentation of prejudice against minorities, the status of respect for religious freedoms by Israel "was unchanged during the reporting period."

Israeli Police Clash With Palestinians at Sacred Compound in Jerusalem
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - October 26, 2009 - 12:00am

Israeli police officers clashed Sunday with stone-throwing Palestinians at a site sacred to Muslims and Jews, in the latest sign of tension in this volatile city. The police said that their forces had entered the Temple Mount compound twice after Palestinians hurled rocks at officers patrolling there, and that they dispersed rioters with stun grenades. Palestinian medics at the scene said at least 17 Muslims were wounded. Nine police officers were slightly hurt by rocks, a police spokesman said.

Unrest after Israeli raid on Al-Aqsa
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
October 26, 2009 - 12:00am

At least 30 Palestinians were injured and 20 arrested when clashes between Israeli forces and youth erupted anew in the Old City of occupied East Jerusalem on Sunday, Palestinian and Israeli officials said. In violence that followed a reported police raid on the sensitive Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, Israeli forces fired stun grenades, tear-gas canisters and rubber-coated bullets at protesters. Palestinian youth hurled stones and set tires and piles of trash ablaze, according to Ma'an's correspondent, who was reporting from the scene.

Prof. Weiss at rightist event: Build third temple immediately
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Efrat Weiss - October 26, 2009 - 12:00am

In a move that may heighten tensions in the capital, the Organization for Human Rights on the Temple Mount (OHRTM) called for Jews to visit the east Jerusalem compound, which houses the al-Aqsa Mosque. During a rightist event held in Jerusalem Sunday evening, just hours after Muslims rioted in and around the Temple Mount amid reports that Jewish extremists were planning to visit the site, Professor Hillel Weiss said, "The (third) temple must be built now. The mosques do not have to be destroyed in order for us to do this."

Gaza: Hamas tightens, then backs off, Islamic social strictures
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Erin Cunningham - October 25, 2009 - 12:00am

Like many high-schoolers in Gaza City, Diana Hawajiri often favors trendy jeans, a long-sleeved shirt, and a head scarf. But when she showed up after the summer break, signs posted at her government-run school announced that it was mandatory for all female students to wear the jalibab – a loose dress designed to shroud the female figure. Diana complied. And though the decision was later rescinded, she still wears the garment to avoid criticism both at school and in public, she says.

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