Will someone please pay attention to the suffering?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
by Daoud Kuttab - (Opinion) July 29, 2010 - 12:00am

Once again the summer heat is upon us. And once again, people's anguish, and appeals at the overcrowded King Hussein Bridge are melting as quickly as an ice cream cone in the Jordan Valley's high temperatures.

»

Egypt seizes 10 Gaza tunnels
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
July 28, 2010 - 12:00am

Egyptian forces took control of 10 smuggling tunnels under the Egypt-Gaza border area of Salah Ad-Din in Rafah on Wednesday and thwarted a cement-smuggling operation, a security source said. Forces seized a tunnel after receiving information on its location, the official told Ma'an. The tunnels were raided and 30 bags of cement were found inside. The smugglers fled the scene before security forces arrived. The cement, weighing approximately 1.5 tons, was confiscated. The tunnels will be demolished, the source said.

»

Gaza tunnel smugglers cutting through Egypt's wall
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
by Karoun Demirjian - July 23, 2010 - 12:00am

A Palestinian tunnel smuggler with a blowtorch sliced through an underground steel wall early Thursday, the latest of what officials say are hundreds of holes cut into the Egyptian barrier meant to stop smuggling of goods, cash and weapons to the blockaded, Hamas-run Gaza Strip. Smugglers say the wall was never a serious obstacle, and they are far more worried about competition from consumer goods being brought to Gaza legally, now that Israel has eased its closure of the Palestinian territory. Rare Associated Press Television News footage showed the smuggler breaching the wall.

»

When is a border not a border?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by David Newman - (Opinion) July 20, 2010 - 12:00am

When is a border not a border? When it is a security barrier. Or so, our politicians will tell us as they continue to live in a state of denial that the heavily fortified and electrified security fence/wall which has been constructed during the past six years around much of the West Bank is no more than an antiterror prevention device and that it has little, or no, significance for the eventual demarcation of borders between sovereign and independent Israeli and Palestinian states.

»

Netanyahu: Illegal African immigrants - a threat to Israel's Jewish character
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Barak Ravid - July 19, 2010 - 12:00am

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that the recent "flood of illegal workers infiltrating from Africa" into Israel was "a concrete threat to the Jewish and democratic character of the country."

»

Southern Gaza crossing to expand
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
July 16, 2010 - 12:00am

Among the goods brought into Gaza on Thursday, officials said, were pebble aggregates to be used for expanding the Kerem Shalom crossing facilities. The expansion comes in line with Israeli announcements that under the new terms of the siege on Gaza, crossings facilities would be upgraded.

»

Who'd be a travel agent in Gaza?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent
by Donald MacIntyre - July 16, 2010 - 12:00am

Nabil Shurafa breaks off his explanation of the trials of being a travel agent in a territory where the large majority of citizens cannot travel, to take a call from one of his few lucky clients. It is a bank employee booked on a Cairo-Damascus Egyptair flight at 2.30am tomorrow. "You'll get the bus from Rafah at 11. Be sure to tell the [Egyptian] soldier that you have to be at the airport by 1am at the latest. The flight goes from terminal three."

»

Legitimate questions
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
by Daoud Kuttab - (Opinion) July 15, 2010 - 12:00am

Over dinner in Bethlehem recently, I mentioned to my brother-in-law how Israel has strategically succeeded in cutting off Gaza Strip from the West Bank. While agreeing with me, he told me what a senior Israeli officer told him shortly after the beginning of the Oslo process. He said that Palestinians shouldn’t celebrate too much the withdrawal of Israel from Bethlehem, for before too long, Palestinians in Bethlehem will need to have a visa to enter Jerusalem.

»

PA minister banned from entering Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
July 7, 2010 - 12:00am

PA Minister of Prisoners Affairs Issa Qaraqe was denied entry into Israel on Tuesday and stripped of his VIP card permitting him to cross Israeli military checkpoints without harassment. The minister told Ma'an that he was en route to a meeting in Nazareth with a follow-up committee on the cases of Palestinian prisoners in Israel who hold Israeli ID cards when he was detained.

»

On Netanyahu's map of concerns there is no room for neighbors
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Akiva Eldar - July 6, 2010 - 12:00am

Social Affairs Minister Isaac Herzog was quoted in these pages over three months ago as saying: "The diplomatic issue is the main thing keeping us in the government, because we have a genuine wish to reach a breakthrough with the Palestinians and the Syrians." ("What is the Labor Party still doing in a right-wing government?" March 22 ). "And we see the possibility of ending this partnership if there is no change of direction in the coming months," Herzog, one of the top members of the Labor Party, added assertively during that interview given to Aluf Benn.

»


American Task Force on Palestine - 1634 Eye St. NW, Suite 725, Washington DC 20006 - Telephone: 202-262-0017