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Friday, 21 July

06:44

Some More News on Hawaii, National Parks, and the Perils of Overtourism "IndyWatch Feed Nthamerica"

I like going to new places. Getting there is often so miserable and expensive that its not worth it, but Im fond of my memories of stuff like climbing Kilimanjaro, or teaching juggling to kids in Cuba, or writing in a garret overlooking an Italian river valley. Ive been fortunate to be able to do some traveling on other peoples dime, and I sincerely believe that travel should be available to everyone, regardless of wealth. That said, I do think that there are limits on that, because simply going to a place is not a neutral act. We need to accept that there are some places that, out of respect for the land and the people, we just cant visit.

I did a research project and presentation in college, about the impacts of eco-tourism, and it quickly became clear that even when were not aware of the animals nearby, theyre generally aware of us, and we make them nervous. Im too lazy to try to find the exact research I cited, but two studies stand out in my memory. The first was about the effects of traffic on ducks (equipped with monitors) nesting near a road. Basically, every time a car went by, the ducks heart rate elevated. The other study looked at penguins that nested near a boardwalk, where tourists were allowed to get near enough to see them, but not actually close. The penguins in direct line of sight of the boardwalk, even through gaps in bushes, also had an elevated heart rate when they could see humans.

That may not sound like a lot, a faster heartbeat means more calories burned, which means more food is needed, which could take away from things like egg incubation. Similar problems have been recorded for cheetahs dealing with tourists in Kenyas Maasai Mara. Another problem I heard about, when I was in the Bahamas helping with iguana research, was tourists feeding the lizards stuff like bread, which messed up their digestion. Travel is great, but its pretty clear that there need to be limits on how many people can go to a given place, and on what they can do there.

Well, there ought to be limits if we want those places to be there for future generations, or if we respect the people who live at tourist destinations, because thats the other part of all this. Tourists are not there to help the locals. They often do, by bringing in money, but thats within the context of a system that has forced a number of poor colonies into a situation where tourism and ecological beauty are the only things that havent been extracted and removed for profit. As with so much else, we need to change how we do things, and s...

05:07

Hamas slams US House resolution calling Israel not racist state "IndyWatch Feed War"

Palestine Information Center July 19, 2023

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM The Hamas Movement has strongly denounced the US House of Representatives for passing a resolution claiming that the Israeli occupation state is not a racist or apartheid state.

In a statement on Wednesday, Hamas condemned the resolution as a flagrant US bias in favor of the occupation state and a step intended to encourage it to persist in its crimes and violations against the Palestinian people, especially its ethnic cleansing policy.

This US resolution has ignored the black history of the Zionist occupation, which is filled with dozens of massacres, and turned a blind eye to the crimes that were committed recently by settler gangs under military protection in Huwara town and dozens of Palestinian villages, which were exposed to arson attacks and organized destruction of homes, vehicles and farms, Hamas underscored.

Hamas described the recent settler crimes in the West Bank as an example of the racist practices and the ethnic cleansing policy that are pursued by the occupation state against the Palestinian people.

Many Israeli officials have voiced fascist positions, such as the recent remarks of the criminal minister, Smotrich, in which he gave the Palestinians the choice between living in the so-called state of Israel as second-class citizens or being banished or killed, the Movement said.

Such a US resolution will not change the reality of the criminal and racist Zionist occupation entity, which relies on ethnic cleansing, displacing the rightful owners of the land and replacing them with intruders, it added.

The US House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a resolution calling Israel not a racist or apartheid state, on Tuesday

The measure passed, in a 412-to-nine vote, a few hours after president Joe Biden met with Israeli president Isaac Herzog at the White House.

The legislation comes in response to remarks last Saturday from Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, in which she called Israel a racist state.

Later, the congresswoman apologized following pressures, while stressing that Israels extreme right-wing government has engaged in discriminatory and outright racist policies.

03:48

Perseverance and Resistance: Story of Jenin is the Story of Palestine "ConflictWatch Feed Palestine"

To Israels frustrations, the perseverance of the refugees in Jenin and all Palestinian refugee camps remains a testament to the failed 1948 Israeli assessment of the Palestinian people.

There is a clear relationship between the recent Israeli incursion into the Jenin camp and the laws of cause and effect. Understanding the catalyst that led to the establishment of the refugee camp is therefore crucial in comprehending both the Israeli war on the camp this month, and its destruction in 2002. All this can be summarized in a short sentence: Jenin camp is as old as the state of Israel.

In 1948, Israel was founded on the ruins of over 535 Palestinian villages and towns and the ethnic cleansing of approximately 800,000 native Palestinians from their homes. Jenin camp emerged as a home for some of those who were forcefully expelled from their towns and villages.

In 1950, the United Nations established the United Nations Relief and Work Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) to administer 58 refugee camps, including 27 located in the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem.

These refugee camps housed nearly one-third of all registered 1948 Palestine refugees. They provided shelter for the most vulnerable and destitute, the bottom of the bottom class. As I write, Im not presenting an analysis, but I draw from personal life experience, having grown up in one of these camps. I have written extensively on this subject, including books on the life and formation of these camps.

In my first book, Children of Catastrophe, in the script below, I explain how these camps were established:

The development of the camp skipped all the normal historical evolution of townships. Members of the new community came from all sorts of backgrounds and localities. Landowners, farmers, city dwellers, Bedouins, doyens, family chiefs (mukhtars), professionals, rich and poor all found themselves living and sharing a new communal life. A nomadic Bedouin was living next to a city dweller, a landowner was residing next to a farm laborer and mukhtars competed for power and authority. Local neighborhoods immediately became prototypes of old villages as the camp was informally divided by refugees based on the origin of their hometowns in Palestine. Societal class, rank and structure disappeared overnight in the catastrophe of dispossession and Nakba (catastrophe).

...

01:16

Israel to allow entry of Palestinian Americans as it pursues US visa waiver "IndyWatch Feed War"

Israel to allow entry of Palestinian Americans as it pursues US visa waiver

Israel announces 'reciprocity' agreement and Washington will monitor whether Palestinian Americans are discriminated by Israeli security

MEE staff Thu, 07/20/2023 - 16:16

Passengers arrive on the Jordanian side of the Allenby Bridge crossing on 19 July 2022.

Passengers arrive on the Jordanian side of Allenby Bridge crossing, on 19 July 2022 (AFP)

Israel has said it will allow all United States citizens, including Palestinian Americans living in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, to enter the country, as Israel continues seeking entry into a US visa waiver programme.

The announcement was made on Thursday after US ambassador to Israel Thomas Nides and Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who is currently on a visit to Washington, signed a reciprocity agreement, according to an Israeli statement.

The full implementation of the program will apply to any US citizen, including those with dual citizenship, American residents of Judea and Samaria [the occupied West Bank] and American residents of the Gaza Strip, the statement said.

The agreement will allow Palestinian Americans who do not reside in the occupied West Bank to be able to freely enter Israel and the West Bank as tourists, Axios reported, citing Israeli officials and foreign ministry documents.

For Palestinian Americans who reside in the West Bank, they will have to use a special app in order to get a 90-day entry permit to Israel.

Thursday, 20 July

23:49

Guardian corrects one of their many, many errors "IndyWatch Feed War"

The Guardian is arguably the largest English-language mainstream media purveyor of disinformation about Israel in the world. The quantity of distortions, errors and demonising rhetoric about Israel and, by extension, Jews qua Jews at the outlet is at times hard to keep up with.

Since the time we can spend addressing inaccuracies in the British media is of course limited, we often engage in the media monitoring equivalent of triage assessing each article or op-ed to determine which ones are most deserving of attention and, when appropriate, warrant complaints pursuant with the accuracy clause of the Editors Code.

We sent one such complaint about an article by the outlets Jerusalem correspondent Bethan McKernan (Gaza: Israeli targeted killing operations prompt petition for inquiry, July 17), which included the following claim, which we knew to be false:

After the ceasefire, Israels prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, described [Jenin operation] as perfect due to the low Israeli death toll.

As the Israeli media reported, directly quoting Netanyahu, he didnt call it perfect due to the low Israeli death toll, but because the army took out many of the top leaders of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a group that is proscribed as a terror group by the British government.

Heres the quote from the prime minister as reported in the Jerusalem Post:

Well done, Netanyahu said. The execution was, indeed, perfect. In a total surprise and continuing initiative we took out the entire top echelon of Islamic Jihad in Gaza. We destroyed 17 Jihad command centers, killed dozens of terrorists, struck rocket and missiles stores, stopped anti-tank cells and more.

Though the Guardian is not typically responsive to communications concerning erroneous claims, they did uphold this one, and changed the sentence i...

16:19

Judaism as a Self-Terminating Religion "IndyWatch Feed Allworld"

Nick Kollerstrom The Unz Review July 18, 2023

Untrue stories exist at each end of Jewish historys three thousand years fictional, fabricated and of immense magnitude. We may start in the tenth century BCE, where archaeologists have after diligent study found no trace of King Solomon, his Temple or his empire. Half a century of intensive excavation of the Holy Land has now reached that conclusion. The alleged mighty empire of David and Solomon, stretching from the Nile to the Euphrates on the basis of which the modern state of Israel was formed did not exist. Meanwhile the Bible makes no mention of the great empire of Egypt, which really did in that period stretch from the Nile to the Euphrates. These things must be relegated to storyland, like Moses parting the Red Sea. Experts were finally attaining this negative conclusion as the new millennium dawned, e.g.

Mythic Past, Biblical Archaeology and the Myth of Israel, Thomas Thompson, 1999
David and Solomon, In search of the Bibles sacred Kings, Israel Finklestein and N.A. Silberman, 2006
The Quest for the Historical Israel, Finklestein and A. Mazar, 2007
The Invention of the Jewish People, Shlomo Sand, 2009
Palestine, a Four Thousand Year History, Nur Masala, 2018.

Moses, Wikipedia assures us, is just a myth. The Exodus, traditionally the basis of Jewish self-identity and the most-told narrative in the western world,[1] spawns great conferences which tend to end up with the same threefold negation:

no evidence for the Children of Israel in Egypt or escaping therefrom,
no evidence of their trekking across the Sinai desert
no evidence of them storming into Canaan and conquering the locals.

In modern times, Jews were given land in Palestine and called it Israel. Inspired by a great hope, their conviction was that archaeology would validate their epic history, as it had unfolded through past millennia. They went to work with a trowel in one hand and the Bible in the other but received a big shock. The Holy Land did indeed reveal to them centuries of devout monotheism during the time recorded by their ancient scriptures but, it was a reverence for the Goddess, as shown by the thousands of figurines dug up everywhere in Judea where they excavated. They were all similar with head, torso and large naked breasts.[2] Nor could any trace be discerned of a fierce invasion of Canaan by the Children of Israel as their texts averred, plus the odd record of their Jehovah-god had him with a partner, his Asherath.

It was discovered that, in the tenth century BCE there had been an intensive drought....

06:04

They Were Not Alive when the Siege Began: Gaza Kids Demand Justice (PHOTOS) "ConflictWatch Feed Palestine"

The Palestine Chronicle joined a group of children and teenagers as they held a vigil at the Gaza port, demanding an end to the Israeli siege.

Most of Gazas youthful population were either not born or were not mature enough to remember the first days of the Israeli siege.

Yet, they fully understand that their harsh reality is the outcome of the 17-year-long blockade, involving not only Israel but Egypt as well.

The Palestine Chronicle joined a group of children and teenagers as they held a vigil at the Gaza port, demanding an end to their seemingly perpetual imprisonment in the tiny, overpopulated, and impoverished enclave.

One of the placards held by the children read: 800,000 Children in Gaza Have Only Ever Known Life Under Blockade.

Indeed, the statement expresses a painful reality.

Gazas population has been estimated to be 2.2 million according to the Gisha Legal Center for Movement. Half of them are children and 70 percent are under 30.

Though the international community seems to have turned a blind eye to Gazas suffering, the children at the port were hoping to send a message to the rest of the world: End the Siege Now.

...

Wednesday, 19 July

22:12

Gaza's power cuts leave Palestinians sweltering amid rising temperatures "ConflictWatch Feed Israel"

Gaza's power cuts leave Palestinians sweltering amid rising temperatures

From struggling businesses to clinics unable to treat patients, frustration is mounting in the besieged enclave

Mohammed al-Hajjar Wed, 07/19/2023 - 13:12

A young girl struggles to keep cool at home in Gaza (MEE/Mohammed al-Hajjar)

Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip have been left struggling to cope with rising temperatures, due to widespread electricity cuts.

The Middle East and North Africa have been experiencing scorching temperatures, with some countries registering record figures, prompting the World Meteorological Organization to issue a warning.

For more than two million people living in Gaza, which has been under an Israeli land, sea and air blockade for over 15 years, many are left dreading the coming months.

With most people only getting around 10 hours of electricity a day, keeping cool has been a challenge. The constant power cuts have also had a knock-on effect on businesses, medical facilities and the wider economy.

The temperatures, which have surpassed 38C, are starting to cause discontent and anger, as people struggle to complete daily tasks without proper electricity.