Gaza govt urges ministry against torture
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
April 27, 2011 - 12:00am

Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said Tuesday night that he had designated his Minister of the Interior to reinforce rules against torture, following an outcry over the death of a detainee earlier in April. "There is good treatment of inmates in our prisons," Haniyeh said in a statement, adding that following concern from rights organizations, the minister would again instruct all security departments and interrogators about Gaza's prohibitions on the use of torture.

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Intolerant streak continues to afflict Palestinian society
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by Fawaz Turki - (Opinion) April 23, 2011 - 12:00am

Let's not allow the brazen murder of Juliano Mer Khamis, 52, and Vittorio Arrigoni, 36, two engaged idealists who were gunned down respectively in the West Bank and Gaza within two weeks of each other earlier this month, to pass largely unnoticed, relegated to a mere footnote in the narrative of the Palestinian struggle.

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Itamar murders don’t justify stripping Palestinians' rights
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Amira Hass - April 20, 2011 - 12:00am

The Israeli settlement enterprise does not need the murder of Jewish families in order to strip Palestinian families of their land and endanger the future of both peoples. But when such a murder "falls into its hands," the settlement enterprise knows how to make the most out of it, by building new neighborhoods and outposts, blaming Palestinian nature and education, and dropping biblical terms like "bitter enemies" and "Amalek."

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Four Arab lawyers suspected of passing messages for Islamic Jihad
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Nir Hasson - April 20, 2011 - 12:00am

Four Arab lawyers working in Jerusalem have been arrested in recent weeks for allegedly passing information from prisoners from Islamic Jihad jailed in Israel to the group's officials in Gaza, according to details that emerged Wednesday after a gag order was lifted. Among the four is Suhir Ayoub, a 42-year-old female lawyer from Acre in northern Israel.

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Palestinian support for attacks drops, poll finds
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
April 18, 2011 - 12:00am

Overall Palestinian support for suicide bombings against Israeli civilians, the firing of rockets into Israel has dropped since 2009, with a majority opposed to both, a poll showed on Sunday. The survey conducted by the Jerusalem Media and Communication Centre found that support for Palestinian "military operations of any kind' against Israel fell from 53.3 percent in January 2009 to 37.1 percent in April of this year.

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Gaza police identify murder suspects
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
April 18, 2011 - 12:00am

Gaza police on Monday released the photos of four men identified as the prime suspects in the murder of Italian activist and journalist Vittorio Arrigoni. Police said the four were currently fugitives, and apparently in hiding. The four were identified as Abdul-Rahman Al-Breizat, Mahmoud Muhammad Nimir Salfiti, Muhammad Al-Breizat, and Bilal Al-Umari. Police did not say whether any of the men were affiliated with a political, religious or military group in the coastal enclave. Two men detained earlier were not directly involved in the murder, police said.

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Gaza Killing of Italian Activist Deals a Blow to Hamas
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Fares Akram, Isabel Kershner - April 18, 2011 - 12:00am

For Vittorio Arrigoni, an Italian pro-Palestinian activist who friends said fought peacefully for justice, the end was as violent as it was incongruous. Police officers from Hamas, the Islamic militant group that rules Gaza, found his body in a house in Gaza City that was empty of furniture, except for the mattress on which the body was lying, according to witnesses. The doctor who performed the autopsy said Mr. Arrigoni’s killers had used a plastic cord to strangle him.

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2 Palestinian Teens Held in Killing of Israeli Family
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - April 17, 2011 - 12:00am

Israeli officials announced on Sunday the arrest of two Palestinian teenagers from this village in the northern West Bank who they said were responsible for the killing of five members of the Fogel family in the neighboring Jewish settlement of Itamar last month. Israeli security officials said that the two suspects, ages 17 and 18, had confessed and carried out a reconstruction of the attack.

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Hamas Says It Found Body of Italian Activist
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Fares Akram - April 15, 2011 - 12:00am

An Italian activist found dead here early Friday was strangled with a plastic cord, apparently by abductors from a radical Islamic organization inspired by Al Qaeda that said it had kidnapped him a day earlier, according to a physician who performed an autopsy. Vittorio Arrigoni taking part in March in a protest against gainst an Israeli decision to tighten the border area in Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza strip.

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Palestinian factions denounce murder of Italian activist
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
April 15, 2011 - 12:00am

Palestinian factions have condemned the murder of Italian peace activist Vittorio Arrigoni found dead in Gaza early Friday morning. Salafist extremists in Gaza were suspected of kidnapping Arrigoni, an activist for the International Solidarity Movement, last seen alive in a video posted online Thursday. In the video, the kidnappers threatened to kill Arrigoni unless Hamas released Salafist prisoners by Friday evening. Before the deadline passed, however, Hamas said his body was found hanged in a home northwest of Gaza City.

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