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San Joaquin Valley residents express their concern over drinking water contamination « El Tecolote :: 40 Years en la Misión

itamar — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 20:03:16 +0000

In the case of Tulare County, this neglect was written into official planning documents. The Tulare County General Plan, which is being updated for the first time since 1971, includes the following language under the ‘Water and Liquid Waste Management’ element: “Public commitments to communities with little or no authentic future should be carefully examined before final action is initiated. These non-viable communities would, as a consequence of withholding major public facilities such as sewer and water systems, enter a process of long term, natural decline as residents depart for improved opportunities in nearby communities.”

The plan goes on to list 15 communities that “are expected to lose population because of the factors mentioned above.” Of these, at least 10 have had problems with water contamination in the last 5 years, including East Orosi.

via San Joaquin Valley residents express their concern over drinking water contamination « El Tecolote :: 40 Years en la Misión.

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The Orthodox Jews fighting the Judaization of East Jerusalem – Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News

itamar — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 18:15:31 +0000

“From my point of view, being in Sheikh Jarrah is the full and supreme realization of my religious existence,” Ben Sasson says, as he walks on a recent day through the neighborhood. “When I don’t show up on a Friday, I feel as though I have not put on tefillin [phylacteries] in the morning. When I am here, I am fighting against the expulsion of people who will become refugees for a second time, but also against the settlers − because they are trying to expel me from the boundaries of legitimacy. They are double enemies: They are trying to plunder the homes of the Palestinians and, by contrast of course, also the religion to whose God I pray.”

via The Orthodox Jews fighting the Judaization of East Jerusalem – Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News.

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Al-Ahram Weekly | Opinion | Blaming the lobby

itamar — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 20:38:20 +0000

What then would have been different in US policy in the Middle East absent Israel and its powerful lobby? The answer in short is: the details and intensity but not the direction, content, or impact of such policies. Is the pro- Israel lobby extremely powerful in the United States? As someone who has been facing the full brunt of their power for the last three years through their formidable influence on my own university and their attempts to get me fired, I answer with a resounding yes. Are they primarily responsible for US policies towards the Palestinians and the Arab world? Absolutely not. The United States is opposed in the Arab world as elsewhere because it has pursued and continues to pursue policies that are inimical to the interests of most people in these countries and are only beneficial to its own interests and to the minority regimes in the region that serve those interests, including Israel. Absent these policies, and not the pro-Israel lobby which supports them, the United States should expect a change in its standing among Arabs. Short of that, the United States will have to continue its policies in the region that have wreaked, and continue to wreak, havoc on the majority of Arabs and not expect that the Arab people will like it in return.

via Al-Ahram Weekly | Opinion | Blaming the lobby.

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No Direction Home – by Daniel Luban > Tablet Magazine – A New Read on Jewish Life

itamar — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 18:35:38 +0000

Similarly, the claim that Israel’s “security decisions” are Israel’s business alone invites an obvious answer: namely, that outsiders have every right to question these decisions because they affect millions of people who are not Israelis. But because mainstream liberal Zionists have refused to move beyond a myopic focus on Israeli interests, this is an answer that is foreclosed to them, and the charge of “second guessing” will always be devastating.

via No Direction Home – by Daniel Luban > Tablet Magazine – A New Read on Jewish Life.

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Harrowing Update from Family of Ameer Makhoul | The Only Democracy?

itamar — Thu, 27 May 2010 07:39:05 +0000

Ameer Makhoul, Director of Ittijah, a coalition of Palestinian Israeli Community Organizations, was arrested three weeks ago from his home in Haifa. Makhoul was unable to see his lawyer for the first weeks of his arrest and now his lawyers and his family, having seen him, assert that he has been tortured.

via Harrowing Update from Family of Ameer Makhoul | The Only Democracy?.

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Neve Gordon: Even picnics in Israel are political | Israeli Occupation Archive

itamar — Tue, 25 May 2010 23:53:36 +0000

As Nawi put it during the picnic, in a country where laws are immoral, civil disobedience is obligatory; therefore, he continued, it will not be long before more of you will join me in jail. As he walked away, I looked towards the soldiers who stood gazing at us from a nearby hill, wondering whether soon picnics, too, will be considered acts of civil disobedience.

via Neve Gordon: Even picnics in Israel are political | Israeli Occupation Archive.

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Akiva Eldar: Who says Jews and racism don’t go together? | Israeli Occupation Archive

itamar — Tue, 25 May 2010 23:49:30 +0000

Polakow-Suransky relates that in November 1974, Shimon Peres, who at the time was minister of defense in then-prime minister Yitzhak Rabin’s first government, returned from a secret visit to South Africa. Peres wrote to thank his hosts for their contribution to establishing a “vitally important link between the two governments.” Peres continued: “This cooperation is based not only on common interests and on the determination to resist equally our enemies, but also on the unshakeable foundations of our common hatred of injustice and refusal to submit to it.”

via Akiva Eldar: Who says Jews and racism don’t go together? | Israeli Occupation Archive.

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Yitzhak Laor: Israelis’ state of denial over treatment of Palestinians | Israeli Occupation Archive

itamar — Tue, 18 May 2010 12:15:57 +0000

The territories are far away. The Palestinians live far away. This hallucination can be attributed to the walls, the separation roads, the army and the TV news. “Judea and Samaria” are close. The settlers live among us. There are photographs of them, their homes are photographed. They are in the army. They are the army. But the separation between those who are very close, who have the right to vote, weapons, rights and state financial support, and those who live at the same physical distance but must be left far away, on the other side of the walls, the fences, the roadblocks – this separation is made with the aid of the refusal to know. The denial.

via Yitzhak Laor: Israelis’ state of denial over treatment of Palestinians | Israeli Occupation Archive.

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Azmi Bishara: ‘We want to live’ | Israeli Occupation Archive

itamar — Mon, 17 May 2010 13:13:46 +0000

An elaborate Western-financed optical illusion is in the works. It is intended to pass off life in overcrowded Palestinian enclaves as ordinary, to make the artificial look normal, to impose calm while the Palestinian Authority PA builds government buildings with elegant façades, to organise a giant game of make-believe under occupation.

via Azmi Bishara: ‘We want to live’ | Israeli Occupation Archive.

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‘NYT’ ignores gigantic elephant named Gaza in the room

itamar — Thu, 06 May 2010 21:57:17 +0000

It follows a pattern of corporate media when discussing Israel/Palestine: the emphasis is on the “peace process,” the leadership of the Palestinian Authority, and the Israeli government. There’s very little discussion about the people of Gaza’s suffering, the leadership of Hamas, and the deep divisions in Palestinian politics caused, in part, by the U.S. arming Fatah and trying to overthrow Hamas after the Islamist group won elections in 2006.

via ‘NYT’ ignores gigantic elephant named Gaza in the room.

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