Middle East News: World Press Roundup

NEWS: UNESCO votes to add Bethlehem holy sites to world heritage list. The evacuation of the “unauthorized” settler outpost of "Ulpana” is completed without incident. Palestinian citizens of Israel express concern about new plans regarding mandatory National Service. Hamas airs videos of confessions of accused Israeli collaborators. Another 25 Palestinian prisoners are going on hunger strike in Israeli jails. Women in Palestinian society with disabilities face double discrimination. Palestinians say the upcoming meeting between Pres. Abbas and Deputy PM Mofaz is not a resumption of negotiations. Israeli police are reportedly told to specifically target any Palestinian citizens of Israel joining “social justice” protests. Israel reportedly suspends plans to relocate Bedouins to a site near a garbage dump. A Palestinian activist in the occupied West Bank says the US is supporting “an apartheid system that is suffocating us.” COMMENTARY: Tania Hary talks about supporting human rights in Gaza. Mira Sucharov says the only way for Israelis to forget about the occupation in the long run is to end it. Jay Bushinsky says that since Israel is effectively annexing the occupied Palestinian territories, ways should be found to integrate the Palestinian population better into Israeli society. Ami Kaufman says it would be foolish to combine Israeli social justice protests with the issue of the occupation. Jessica Montell says PM Netanyahu is playing a shell game with settlements in the occupied West Bank. Donald MacIntyre says Israel must see that mistreatment of Palestinian children in detention will come with a heavy international cost. Dan Ephron says moderate Israeli settlers are afraid to speak out against extremists among them. The Economist says frustration is bubbling up in the occupied West Bank and another intifada is indeed possible. Stuart Eizenstat evaluates the views of his former boss, Pres. Carter, on Israel and the occupation. David Shulman looks at the threatened Palestinian West Bank village of Susya, slated for demolition by Israeli occupation authorities.

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UNESCO votes to add Bethlehem holy sites to world heritage list ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency June 29, 2012 - 12:00am BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- UNESCO on Friday declared Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity and the nearby pilgrimage route World Heritage sites. Thirteen members of the 21-nation World Heritage Committee voted in favor of the Palestinian application, securing exactly the needed number of votes. Two countries abstained and six voted against the bid. "I am delighted," Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki told the conference in St. Petersburg, to rapturous applause. "You have our most gracious thanks." » Read more

Illegal West Bank settlement outpost cleared ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press June 29, 2012 - 12:00am JERUSALEM — Israel has finished evacuating some 30 settler families from an illegal West Bank outpost, encountering little resistance, police and the military said Friday. The Ulpana outpost was evacuated in two phases, with the second set of families leaving Thursday night. Police say residents left peacefully, but 15 settlers from outside Ulpana barricaded themselves inside one apartment to protest the eviction. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said officers broke down two doors to remove the resisters and arrested six people. » Read more

National service proposal riles Israeli Arabs ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press June 29, 2012 - 12:00am NAZARETH, Israel — Israel's plan to overhaul its military draft has veered into turbulent new territory with the government's abrupt proposal to mobilize the country's Arab minority for civilian national service. » Read more

Hamas airs video confessions of Israel's informers ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua June 29, 2012 - 12:00am GAZA, June 28 (Xinhua) -- The Hamas interior ministry on Thursday aired recorded confessions for what it called veteran informers and collaborators of Israel in the Gaza Strip. The video, produced by the Hamas internal security, showed several agents with shadowed faces, who admitted help Israel acquire information that led to the death of senior leaders of the Islamic movement and other armed groups. » Read more

Group: 25 prisoners start hunger strike in Israel jail ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency June 28, 2012 - 12:00am BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Two dozen prisoners in an Israeli detention facility in the occupied West Bank have launched a hunger strike against their living conditions, the Palestinian prisoners society said Thursday. The 25 detainees in the Etzion detention facility near Bethlehem started refusing food over two weeks ago, said Jaclyn Fararjeh, a lawyer for the prisoners rights group. » Read more

Women with disabilities face dual discrimination ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency June 29, 2012 - 12:00am BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Women with disabilities face a dual discrimination in Palestinian society and their families and the government are failing to protect them, experts say. Legal researcher for the rights group Al-Haq Issam Abdeen and Zaid Amro, an adviser to the PA Ministry of Social Affairs, appeared on Ma'an TV's talk show "You" to discuss issues facing women with disabilities. » Read more

Erekat: Meeting between Abbas, Mofaz is not a renewal of peace talks ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Deutsche Presse Agentur (DPA) June 29, 2012 - 12:00am RAMALLAH - A meeting between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz scheduled for Sunday does not signal a renewal of stalled negotiations, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat has said. The two are to meet at Abbas' Ramallah headquarters. On Thursday, Erekat told Voice of Palestine Radio the meeting did not mean a renewal of the stalled Palestinian-Israeli negotiations. "I do not know what Mofaz will bring with him," he said. "But it is not going to be negotiations." » Read more

Report: Police intelligence told to target Israeli Arabs joining social protests ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Roy Arad, Ofra Edelman - June 29, 2012 - 12:00am Police intelligence officers have been told to collect information about Israeli Arabs who join the social justice protests, Channel 10 reported last night. Police Commissioner Yohanan Danino issued a directive to the police top brass ordering them to document every "involvement of the Arab community in the protests." Unlike the directives about Jewish demonstrators, which focus on rioters and anarchists, the section about Arabs does not specify which type of demonstrators police should watch out for, referring only to Arabs in general. » Read more

Israel freezes plan to move East Jerusalem Bedouin to site near garbage dump ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Amira Hass - June 29, 2012 - 12:00am The state has suspended a plan to forcibly relocate Bedouin from East Jerusalem to a site next to a city garbage dump. The state told the High Court of Justice two weeks ago it was putting off the plan until surveys were conducted to assess the environmental repercussions and hazards involved. » Read more

Experts: Israel didn't kill Hamas man in Damascus ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Yaakov Lappin - June 28, 2012 - 12:00am Israel was most likely not behind the assassination of Hamas operative Kamal Ranaja in Damascus, Israeli security experts told The Jerusalem Post Thursday. » Read more

Palestinian: US supports 'an apartheid system that is suffocating us' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from MSNBC by Yara Borgal - June 28, 2012 - 12:00am BETHLEHEM, WEST BANK – At the Aida Refugee Camp, a few blocks from Israel’s separation wall, is the Al Rowwad Cultural and Theater Center founded by Dr. Abdelfattah Abusrour in 1998 with the philosophy of “beautiful resistance” against the Israeli power over their land. Abusrour is part of the first generation of children born to refugee parents in the Aida Refugee Camp, which was established in 1950 between the towns of Bethlehem and Beit Jala. It is now home to around 5,000 inhabitants all descendants from the 1948 expulsion from Palestine. » Read more

Lessons from Gaza ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency by Tania Hary - (Opinion) June 29, 2012 - 12:00am This month, I mark two important events which took place five years ago and changed the course of my life. It has been five years since I moved to Israel from New York and five years since Hamas took over the Gaza Strip and the closure of the enclave tightened. » Read more

Want to forget the occupation? End it ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Mira Sucharov - (Opinion) June 29, 2012 - 12:00am It’s easy to forget the occupation. It’s easy not to notice it, when grasping the tip of the iceberg means arranging to have Lior Amihai, one of the talented and committed staff members at Peace Now’s Settlement Watch, drive me through the northern West Bank in the organization’s white Hyundai, painstakingly explaining the criss-crossed landscape of state appropriation amidst the interminable status quo. » Read more

The creeping annexation of Judea and Samaria ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Jay Bushinsky - (Opinion) June 28, 2012 - 12:00am One of the most effective ways for an expansionist state to annex territory conquered by its armed forces is to populate it with its own people. That is what Israel seems to be doing in the West Bank: Performing a demographic fait accompli in which the number of Jewish inhabitants eventually may equal or even outnumber the Palestinians there. » Read more

J14 V. The Occupation: Why Talking About The Occupation Will Only Prolong It ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast by Ami Kaufman - (Opinion) June 28, 2012 - 12:00am When I was a teenager back in the 80’s, there was an ad on Israel’s only TV channel about road safety. It urged drivers to use their heads rather than simply rely on driving legally. The catchy slogan was “On the road, don’t be right—be smart!” » Read more

Bibi's Shell Game in the West Bank ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Foreign Policy by Jessica Montell - (Opinion) June 28, 2012 - 12:00am JERUSALEM — The United States isn't the only country where the highest court in the land is making its voice heard on the thorniest political issues. In Israel, the whole country has been gripped by the fate of five apartment buildings in the West Bank settlement of Beit El. The Israeli Supreme Court ruled last year that these buildings, which were built on privately owned Palestinian land without the owner's permission, must be removed by July 1. » Read more

Donald Macintyre: Nothing resonates like the mistreatment of minors ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent by Donald MacIntyre - (Opinion) June 27, 2012 - 12:00am The charge that Israel violates international law in its treatment of Palestinian prisoners in general and child prisoners in particular is hardly new. » Read more

Fearing Public Backlash, Israeli Settlers Speak Out Against Their Own ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast by Dan Ephron - (Opinion) June 29, 2012 - 12:00am When you hear an Israeli criticizing violence among settlers in the West Bank, it’s usually a peacenik or a human rights advocate. But in recent weeks, a number of prominent Jewish settlers themselves have spoken out against the hooliganism, perpetrated mainly by young extremists living in the occupied territories. Their record includes mosque burnings and other attacks on Palestinians and even assaults against Israelis whom they perceive as adversaries. » Read more

The calm may not last for ever ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Economist (Opinion) June 30, 2012 - 12:00am FIVE years after Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, dismissed an elected government run by the Islamists of Hamas and decided to rule instead by decree, the Palestinian Authority (PA) that oversees the West Bank is being dangerously challenged from within. In Nablus, the first city where Mr Abbas chose to fill the security vacuum with his American-trained national-security battalions, turf wars have recently erupted between rival commanders, puncturing four years of calm. » Read more

Carter compares conflict to U.S. civil rights movement, not apartheid, says former adviser ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Mordechai Twersky - (Opinion) June 29, 2012 - 12:00am Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter views Israel's treatment of the Palestinians as similar to that of the "African Americans of the 1950s and '60s," a former Carter adviser told Haaretz during a recent trip to Israel. According to Stuart E. Eizenstat, who served as Carter's chief White House domestic policy adviser from 1977 to 1981, Carter "looks at the conflict through the lens of the Civil Rights movement, as a Southerner who witnessed discrimination against African Americans, who he equates with the Palestinians." » Read more

‘I Am an Illegal Alien on My Own Land’ ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Review Of Books by David Shulman - (Opinion) June 28, 2012 - 12:00am In 1949, shortly after Israel’s War of Independence, S. Yizhar—the doyen of modern Hebrew prose writers—published a story that became an instant classic. “Khirbet Khizeh” is a fictionalized account of the destruction of a Palestinian village and the expulsion of all its inhabitants by Israeli soldiers in the course of the war. The narrator, a soldier in the unit that carries out the order, is sickened by what is being done to the innocent villagers. » Read more

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