Middle East News: World Press Roundup

Hamas executions highlight Palestinian political divisions. King Abdullah of Jordan tells the Chicago Tribune time is running out for peace. Israeli forces kill a Palestinian in Gaza. Palestinians see return of Israeli military rule in eviction order. Zeev Sternhell says Israeli policies are turning Jerusalem into a settlement. Israeli Amb. Oren meets the J Street leadership. Ha'aretz reports that unauthorized settler outposts slated for demolition are instead receiving significant state funding. Sec. Clinton says Israel must do more for peace. Students in occupied East Jerusalem get half the funding of those in West Jerusalem. Judge Goldstone is banned from his grandson's bar mitzvah. Vice PM Ya’alon says Israelis should be able to stay in "a Palestinian entity" but "under Israeli sovereignty." The JTA profiles tensions in occupied East Jerusalem. Rep. Robert Wexler's makes his public debut as President of the Center for Middle East Peace. UC Berkeley's student government tables a motion on divestment from Israel till next week. The cattle trade continues in Gaza tunnels.

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'Collaborator' executions heighten political tensions in Gaza ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post by Janine Zacharia - April 16, 2010 - 12:00am The Gaza Strip's Hamas-led government on Thursday executed two Palestinians convicted of aiding Israel in the assassination of Palestinian militants, a move that highlighted the deep divisions that endure between the two main Palestinian political factions. » Read more

King Abdullah II of Jordan with Chicago Tribune Editorial Board ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Chicago Tribune April 16, 2010 - 12:00am King Abdullah II of Jordan visited the Tribune's editorial board Thursday to discuss challenges in the Middle East and the peace process. Excerpts: Tribune: What should the United States be doing to advance the Middle East peace process? » Read more

Israeli fire kills 1 east of Gaza City ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency April 16, 2010 - 12:00am Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian operative in the Gaza Strip on Friday morning, Palestinian and Israeli security sources said, following witness accounts of heavy fire. Fatah's Al-Aqsa Brigades said its operatives clashed with Israeli forces along the Gaza-Israel border on Friday. In a statement, the armed wing reported that at 6am, its forces acted defensively against an undercover Israeli force that entered Gaza. Israeli forces reportedly opened fire at the Al-Aqsa fighters, killing one. Another affiliate remained missing Friday afternoon, the group said. » Read more

Gaza executions condemned ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency April 16, 2010 - 12:00am Palestinian and Israeli human rights groups have denounced Thursday's executions of two collaborators in Gaza. The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights reiterated in a statement its position rejecting the death penalty, which it called "a grave and unjustified violation of the right to life and a form of torture and cruel and inhumane treatment." The Ministry of the Interior in Gaza executed by firing squad Nasser Salama Abu Fraih, 35, from Jabaliya and Mohammed Ibrahim Isma'il (As-Sabe), 36, from Rafah. » Read more

Palestinians see return of Israeli military rule in eviction order ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua April 15, 2010 - 12:00am A senior Palestinian official on Thursday said the recent Israeli decision to evict people from the West Bank aimed to exert Israeli military rule on the Palestinian- controlled territory again. "The real context of the decision is the return of the Israeli military rule, which has ended according to Oslo peace accords between Israel and Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1993, " said Tayeb Abdul Rahim, secretary general of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA). » Read more

Israeli actions are turning Jerusalem into a settlement ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Zeev Sternhell - (Opinion) April 16, 2010 - 12:00am Thanks to an attempted settler takeover of the Sheikh Jarrah quarter, that quiet neighborhood of East Jerusalem has turned into a kind of microcosm of the illnesses that are poisoning relations between Jews and Arabs. The worst of these is the refusal to recognize the finality of the situation that was created at the end of the War of Independence. It is possible to understand the settler right, whose existential aim is the continued conquest of the land. But how is it possible that state institutions will lend a hand to an act that destroys the very land under our feet? » Read more

Israel envoy hosts J Street chief in bid to end rift ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Natasha Mozgovaya - April 16, 2010 - 12:00am J Street founder and executive director Jeremy Ben-Ami met Israel's U.S. Ambassador Michael Oren for the first time on Wednesday as as Israel sought to heal a high-profile rift with the Jewish lobby group. Oren invited Ben-Ami the Israeli embassy in Washington for talks that lasted around an hour and covered topics including the peace process, U.S.-Israel relations and Iran. Wednesday's meeting builds on months of discussions between the pro-Israel, pro-peace lobby and the embassy to clarify Israel's understanding of J Street's views. » Read more

Illegal outposts marked for destruction got millions in state funding ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Chaim Levinson - April 16, 2010 - 12:00am Residents of Hayovel, an illegal outpost whose homes are due to be razed, received NIS 77,000 per family from the state when they settled the site, according to documents Haaretz received. The status of Hayovel came before the Supreme Court on Wednesday. Defense Minister Ehud Barak asked the court to give the state another six months to respond to the question of when it plans to raze 12 illegal homes at Hayovel and six others in Horsha. For their part, the settlers and politicians on the right have began lobbying to legalize the outpost. » Read more

Clinton: Israel must do more for peace ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters April 16, 2010 - 12:00am Israel must do more to pursue peace with the Palestinians and to strengthen their institutions or risk empowering militant groups such as Hamas, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Thursday. US President Barack Obama's efforts to revive peace talks have been stymied by a disagreement over Jewish settlement construction that has strained ties between Washington and its close ally Israel and by divisions among the Palestinians. » Read more

Pupils in east Jerusalem get half funding of those in west ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Ronen Medzini - April 16, 2010 - 12:00am Does the city of Jerusalem discriminate between educational institutions and students in the east of the city and the west? Absolutely yes, at least according to a professional opinion written by Jerusalem's municipal legal advisor Attorney Yossi Havilio. » Read more

Report: Goldstone banned from grandson's bar-mitzvah ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Aviel Magnezi - April 15, 2010 - 12:00am Justice Richard Goldstone, whose UN report on Operation Cast Lead accused Israel of committing war crimes in Gaza, has been prohibited from attending his grandson's bar-mitzvah by the South African Zionist Federation, the Writing Rights blog reported Thursday. It said recent negotiations between the federation, the Sandton synagogue at which the ceremony will take place, and the bar-mitzvah boy's family concluded that the judge will be banned from attending the event. » Read more

'No need to remove any settlements' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Herb Keinon - April 16, 2010 - 12:00am Israel should not have to remove any settlements in a peace agreement with the Palestinians, Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Ya’alon has told The Jerusalem Post, adding that just as Arabs live in Israel, so, too, should Jews be able to live in a future Palestinian entity. “If we are talking about coexistence and peace, why the [Palestinian] insistence that the territory they receive be ethnically cleansed of Jews?” Ya’alon asked during a wide-ranging interview that will appear in the Post’s Yom Ha’atzmaut supplement on Monday. » Read more

Multiple battlegrounds in fights over eastern Jerusalem ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) by Marcy Oster - April 13, 2010 - 12:00am The day that Zacharia Zigelman, 26, moved into a home in the Arab neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, in eastern Jerusalem, he got beaten up, he says. “You get used to it," Zigelman said of the incident, which occurred about six months ago. » Read more

Wexler reaches out, and likes his Jewcy lifestyle ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) by Ron Kampeas - (Blog) April 16, 2010 - 12:00am Robert Wexler, the unstoppable congressman from Florida who stopped everyone in their tracks a few months ago when he, um, stopped being a congressman came out tonight in his new incarnation, as the president of the Center for Middle East Peace. » Read more

At Berkeley, Students Fail to Overturn Veto of Bill Calling for Divestment From Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by Josh Nathan-Kazis - April 15, 2010 - 12:00am An effort by members of U.C. Berkeley’s student senate to overturn the veto of a resolution calling for university divestment from some companies doing business with Israel failed earlier today, but the debate is far from over. In mid-March, the student senate passed a resolution that called for the University of California at Berkeley to divest from two companies with Israeli military contracts and create a committee to suggest additional companies for divestment. A week later, the president of the student government vetoed the bill, saying the decision was made too hastily. » Read more

Gaza tunnel is cash cow for smugglers ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National by Omar Karmi - April 16, 2010 - 12:00am The last time Ibrahim Qishta did any business through the vast tunnel network under the Egypt-Gaza border it involved three sheep. Unusually, however, for the underground trade that constitutes Gaza’s lifeline to the outside world, the 60-year-old farmer was exporting. “It’s not a huge trade,” Mr Qishta said on Monday. “The Egyptians are not looking to import livestock for meat, but in order to breed them.” » Read more

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