More History Before 1967

[georgephillip]

Could it be, Georgie Boy, because the Egyptians and Jordanians didn't care about these particular Arabs do did nothing to elevate their lot when it comes to such things as putting in infrastructure? Meanwhile, I don't think you realize, being the anti-Semite you are, how the Arabs in the territories must have been up in arms that the Jews were going to administer the areas. We can chip in, Georgie Boy, and send you to Israel where you can ask the Arabs if they prefer to live in Israel or in any other Middle East country. I know that Georgie Boy will like to accommodate the viewers and give them another Israeli newspapers report on this.

"Israeli Apartheid Week is an annual series of university lectures and rallies of the Israeli situation with the Palestinians held in February or March.

"According to the organization, "[t]he aim of IAW is to educate people about the nature of Israel as an apartheid system and to build Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaigns as part of a growing global BDS movement".[1]

"It began in Toronto in 2005 and, by 2010, spread to 55 cities around the world including locations in Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States, South Africa, the West Bank, Mexico, Norway and Australia.[2][3][4][5][6][7]"

Israeli Apartheid Week - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Of course we all know that Israel practices no apartheid.
This has been proved time and time again on the forum.

It is a term used by the ignorant.
​

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByMufgpcdnI]The Palestinian Wall of Lies - YouTube[/ame]

"British Journalist Johann Hari, a columnist for the London Independent wrote about the sewage problem as a counterpoint to the acclaim Israel was winning internationally on the occasion of its sixtieth anniversary in April and May 2008.

"He wrote that he could not participate in the praise.
'Whenever I try to mouth these words, a remembered smell fills my nostrils. It is the smell of shit.

"'Across the Occupied West Bank, raw untreated sewage is pumped every day out of the Jewish Settlements along large metal pipes straight into Palestinian land. From there it can enter the groundwater and the reservoirs and become a poison'".

The racist poison of Zionism... Breathe deep

FNOTW: Breaking Israel/Palestine Silence

 

[Sweet_Caroline]

"Israeli Apartheid Week is an annual series of university lectures and rallies of the Israeli situation with the Palestinians held in February or March.

"According to the organization, "[t]he aim of IAW is to educate people about the nature of Israel as an apartheid system and to build Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaigns as part of a growing global BDS movement".[1]

"It began in Toronto in 2005 and, by 2010, spread to 55 cities around the world including locations in Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States, South Africa, the West Bank, Mexico, Norway and Australia.[2][3][4][5][6][7]"

Israeli Apartheid Week - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Of course we all know that Israel practices no apartheid.
This has been proved time and time again on the forum.

It is a term used by the ignorant.
​

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByMufgpcdnI]The Palestinian Wall of Lies - YouTube[/ame]

"British Journalist Johann Hari, a columnist for the London Independent wrote about the sewage problem as a counterpoint to the acclaim Israel was winning internationally on the occasion of its sixtieth anniversary in April and May 2008.

"He wrote that he could not participate in the praise.
'Whenever I try to mouth these words, a remembered smell fills my nostrils. It is the smell of shit.

"'Across the Occupied West Bank, raw untreated sewage is pumped every day out of the Jewish Settlements along large metal pipes straight into Palestinian land. From there it can enter the groundwater and the reservoirs and become a poison'".

The racist poison of Zionism... Breathe deep

FNOTW: Breaking Israel/Palestine Silence

And what has that got to do with the Muslim Students' Association being part of Hamas?

 

[georgephillip]

Of course we all know that Israel practices no apartheid.
This has been proved time and time again on the forum.

It is a term used by the ignorant.
​

The Palestinian Wall of Lies - YouTube

"British Journalist Johann Hari, a columnist for the London Independent wrote about the sewage problem as a counterpoint to the acclaim Israel was winning internationally on the occasion of its sixtieth anniversary in April and May 2008.

"He wrote that he could not participate in the praise.
'Whenever I try to mouth these words, a remembered smell fills my nostrils. It is the smell of shit.

"'Across the Occupied West Bank, raw untreated sewage is pumped every day out of the Jewish Settlements along large metal pipes straight into Palestinian land. From there it can enter the groundwater and the reservoirs and become a poison'".

The racist poison of Zionism... Breathe deep

FNOTW: Breaking Israel/Palestine Silence

And what has that got to do with the Muslim Students' Association being part of Hamas?

The Muslim Students' Association and Hamas came into existence as a response to Zionism and its racist legacy of apartheid in Israel:

"While academic institutions hosted the events, amidst controversy and debate,[24] other speakers at the various meetings around the world supported the goals of the Week. An Arab citizen of Israel and Member of the Knesset, Jamal Zahalka, spoke in Montréal in 2007.

"He said: 'Calling the occupation apartheid isn’t an overstatement, it’s an understatement. The Israeli occupation in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip are worse than apartheid."

Try thinking of settler shit as a metaphor for the European colonization of Palestine, unless you're timelessly ignorant.

Israeli Apartheid Week - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Sweet_Caroline]

"British Journalist Johann Hari, a columnist for the London Independent wrote about the sewage problem as a counterpoint to the acclaim Israel was winning internationally on the occasion of its sixtieth anniversary in April and May 2008.

"He wrote that he could not participate in the praise.
'Whenever I try to mouth these words, a remembered smell fills my nostrils. It is the smell of shit.

"'Across the Occupied West Bank, raw untreated sewage is pumped every day out of the Jewish Settlements along large metal pipes straight into Palestinian land. From there it can enter the groundwater and the reservoirs and become a poison'".

The racist poison of Zionism... Breathe deep

FNOTW: Breaking Israel/Palestine Silence

And what has that got to do with the Muslim Students' Association being part of Hamas?

The Muslim Students' Association and Hamas came into existence as a response to Zionism and its racist legacy of apartheid in Israel:

"While academic institutions hosted the events, amidst controversy and debate,[24] other speakers at the various meetings around the world supported the goals of the Week. An Arab citizen of Israel and Member of the Knesset, Jamal Zahalka, spoke in Montréal in 2007.

"He said: 'Calling the occupation apartheid isn’t an overstatement, it’s an understatement. The Israeli occupation in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip are worse than apartheid."

Try thinking of settler shit as a metaphor for the European colonization of Palestine, unless you're timelessly ignorant.

Israeli Apartheid Week - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wow, you post an article on sewage which I have already debunked here:

http://www.usmessageboard.com/israel-and-palestine/304723-the-iron-wall-a-jewish-majority-in-palestine.html#post7591203

with you linking sewage to the Muslim Students' Association, then twist the sewage topic to apartheid.

 

[georgephillip]

And what has that got to do with the Muslim Students' Association being part of Hamas?

The Muslim Students' Association and Hamas came into existence as a response to Zionism and its racist legacy of apartheid in Israel:

"While academic institutions hosted the events, amidst controversy and debate,[24] other speakers at the various meetings around the world supported the goals of the Week. An Arab citizen of Israel and Member of the Knesset, Jamal Zahalka, spoke in Montréal in 2007.

"He said: 'Calling the occupation apartheid isn’t an overstatement, it’s an understatement. The Israeli occupation in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip are worse than apartheid."

Try thinking of settler shit as a metaphor for the European colonization of Palestine, unless you're timelessly ignorant.

Israeli Apartheid Week - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wow, you post an article on sewage which I have already debunked here:

http://www.usmessageboard.com/israel-and-palestine/304723-the-iron-wall-a-jewish-majority-in-palestine.html#post7591203

with you linking sewage to the Muslim Students' Association, then twist the sewage topic to apartheid.

Golly, you've debunked nothing and now you're in denial about Jewish apartheid.
Why don't you twist some hasbara around Israel limiting the right of return to Jews only at the same time it sets limits on creating any new settlements for Arabs? I suspect you're also confused about political Zionism's dependence upon the ethnic cleansing of unwanted Arab natives in order to bring a Jewish majority state into existence in 1948. Start with explaining why you believe Jews who owned less than 7% of the land and amounted to one-third of the population received over half the land between the River and the sea.

 

[Toddsterpatriot]

The Muslim Students' Association and Hamas came into existence as a response to Zionism and its racist legacy of apartheid in Israel:

"While academic institutions hosted the events, amidst controversy and debate,[24] other speakers at the various meetings around the world supported the goals of the Week. An Arab citizen of Israel and Member of the Knesset, Jamal Zahalka, spoke in Montréal in 2007.

"He said: 'Calling the occupation apartheid isn’t an overstatement, it’s an understatement. The Israeli occupation in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip are worse than apartheid."

Try thinking of settler shit as a metaphor for the European colonization of Palestine, unless you're timelessly ignorant.

Israeli Apartheid Week - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wow, you post an article on sewage which I have already debunked here:

http://www.usmessageboard.com/israel-and-palestine/304723-the-iron-wall-a-jewish-majority-in-palestine.html#post7591203

with you linking sewage to the Muslim Students' Association, then twist the sewage topic to apartheid.

Golly, you've debunked nothing and now you're in denial about Jewish apartheid.
Why don't you twist some hasbara around Israel limiting the right of return to Jews only at the same time it sets limits on creating any new settlements for Arabs? I suspect you're also confused about political Zionism's dependence upon the ethnic cleansing of unwanted Arab natives in order to bring a Jewish majority state into existence in 1948. Start with explaining why you believe Jews who owned less than 7% of the land and amounted to one-third of the population received over half the land between the River and the sea.

The Arabs had enough land.

 

[georgephillip]

"I make no apology for inserting the word SHIT instead of facile euphemisms

"One of the most crucial fields of dispute in Israel is below the surface
Israel uses 83 percent of its annually available water for the benefit of Israeli cities, and its settlements while Palestinians use the remaining 17 percent..."

"The Israeli Minister of National Infrastructure and his fellow criminals accused the Palestinians of deliberate waste and Shit dumping in order to;
'pollute Israel's ground water'.

"Israeli policies generated 300 pirate dumps for Sewage where truckloads of Shit were poured into the valleys besides towns and villages.

"Tens of thousands of tonnes of human waste from Tel Aviv has caused a total breakdown of sewerage systems, unpiped sewage runs overground from most valleys..."

"The piles of shit and garbage affirm a common national-territorial imagination that sees the presence of Palestinians as a 'defiled substance' within the 'Israeli' landscape.

"By inducing dirt and raw sewage, Israel could go on demanding the further application of its 'hygienic practices' of separation and segregation.

"The politics of segregation are woven together by the flow of Sewage."

FNOTW: Breaking Israel/Palestine Silence

 

[georgephillip]

Wow, you post an article on sewage which I have already debunked here:

http://www.usmessageboard.com/israel-and-palestine/304723-the-iron-wall-a-jewish-majority-in-palestine.html#post7591203

with you linking sewage to the Muslim Students' Association, then twist the sewage topic to apartheid.

Golly, you've debunked nothing and now you're in denial about Jewish apartheid.
Why don't you twist some hasbara around Israel limiting the right of return to Jews only at the same time it sets limits on creating any new settlements for Arabs? I suspect you're also confused about political Zionism's dependence upon the ethnic cleansing of unwanted Arab natives in order to bring a Jewish majority state into existence in 1948. Start with explaining why you believe Jews who owned less than 7% of the land and amounted to one-third of the population received over half the land between the River and the sea.

The Arabs had enough land.

What entitles a Jew from Russia to land in Palestine that an Arab possesses a valid deed to?

 

[Toddsterpatriot]

Golly, you've debunked nothing and now you're in denial about Jewish apartheid.
Why don't you twist some hasbara around Israel limiting the right of return to Jews only at the same time it sets limits on creating any new settlements for Arabs? I suspect you're also confused about political Zionism's dependence upon the ethnic cleansing of unwanted Arab natives in order to bring a Jewish majority state into existence in 1948. Start with explaining why you believe Jews who owned less than 7% of the land and amounted to one-third of the population received over half the land between the River and the sea.

The Arabs had enough land.

What entitles a Jew from Russia to land in Palestine that an Arab possesses a valid deed to?

How many Arabs had deeds to land controlled by the Turks?

 

[Sweet_Caroline]

The Muslim Students' Association and Hamas came into existence as a response to Zionism and its racist legacy of apartheid in Israel:

"While academic institutions hosted the events, amidst controversy and debate,[24] other speakers at the various meetings around the world supported the goals of the Week. An Arab citizen of Israel and Member of the Knesset, Jamal Zahalka, spoke in Montréal in 2007.

"He said: 'Calling the occupation apartheid isn’t an overstatement, it’s an understatement. The Israeli occupation in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip are worse than apartheid."

Try thinking of settler shit as a metaphor for the European colonization of Palestine, unless you're timelessly ignorant.

Israeli Apartheid Week - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wow, you post an article on sewage which I have already debunked here:

http://www.usmessageboard.com/israel-and-palestine/304723-the-iron-wall-a-jewish-majority-in-palestine.html#post7591203

with you linking sewage to the Muslim Students' Association, then twist the sewage topic to apartheid.

Golly, you've debunked nothing and now you're in denial about Jewish apartheid.
Why don't you twist some hasbara around Israel limiting the right of return to Jews only at the same time it sets limits on creating any new settlements for Arabs? I suspect you're also confused about political Zionism's dependence upon the ethnic cleansing of unwanted Arab natives in order to bring a Jewish majority state into existence in 1948. Start with explaining why you believe Jews who owned less than 7% of the land and amounted to one-third of the population received over half the land between the River and the sea.

Of course I debunked your article here in post 607 and the other thread in the link I showed you, but obviously I need to post the details of the link for a third time for you.

-------------------------------------------



March 6, 2009 by Steven Stotsky

The Independent Refuses to Correct Flawed Column on West Bank Sewage

The Independent, a British newspaper, has firmly established its reputation over the years as a relentless critic of Israel. It has long featured Robert Fisk, whose lively writings are laced with imaginary Israeli crimes, like his bizarre claim that Israel used "a secret new uranium-based weapon" in Lebanon (later found to be baseless by a UN investigation team), and doctored quotes by Israeli leaders to impugn their motives. In recent years, the newspaper has featured another Israel basher with a similar flair and imagination — Johann Hari. Like Fisk, Hari employs flawed portrayals and doctored quotes to cultivate the theme of Israel abusing Palestinians.

A case in point is Hari's column entitled "Israel is Suppressing a Secret it Must Face" published on April 28, 2008, where he suggested that Israel is deliberately contaminating Palestinian water. He wrote that:

Across the occupied West Bank, raw untreated sewage is pumped every day out of the Jewish settlements, along large metal pipes, straight onto Palestinian land. From there, it can enter the groundwater and the reservoirs and become a poison.

In fact, published studies demonstrate that it is the Palestinians who are mainly responsible for contaminating the water. Palestinian sources are responsible for 95 percent of all untreated waste in the West Bank, yet the remaining five percent from Jewish settlements receives all of Hari's approbation.

It seems rigorous fact-checking is not part of Hari's skill set. Not only did he misrepresent the facts about untreated waste in his column, but in a subsequent article, "The loathsome smearing of Israel's critics" (May 8, 2008), which was spurred by criticisms of his column, he falsely accused CAMERA of calling him "an anti-Jewish bigot akin to Joseph Goebbels and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad....."

When CAMERA wrote a letter to The Independent requesting a correction of both the errors in his column on untreated waste and the subsequent smear, the paper's Executive Editor, Louise Hayman, stonewalled, justifying her refusal to correct factual errors by stating, "there is no legal, regulatory or ethical requirement on The Independent that every article should be balanced, or even fair." Apparently, there is also no requirement to be factually accurate.

She claimed that this was not an isolated incident by citing reports in the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz, which she described as Israel's most distinguished newspaper — a highly subjective opinion — and the BBC.

CAMERA responded to her anecdotal defense by providing unequivocal data showing that the raw sewage problem in the West Bank was overwhelmingly of Palestinian origin. Confronted with these facts, Ms. Hayman fell back upon the primacy of The Independent's political narrative which holds Israel as an illegal occupier.

In her final response to CAMERA, Ms. Hayman stated:
Johann Hari's column chose to focus on the untreated sewage emanating from the settlements he believes "there is a qualitiative difference between Israeli settlements, constructed illegally, pumping untreated sewage towards the occupied population, and a collapsing Palestinian Authority being unable to treat its own sewage partly because it exists under military occupation."

A columnist — who is clearly flagged up to readers as writing an opinionated take on the news — is perfectly within his rights to do this. The facts he offered were accurate; his opinions and choice of emphasis are his own, as any reader can see, and as they should be for an op-ed writer.

According to her logic, only Israeli settlers deserve approbation for polluting the land since, in The Independent's opinion, the settlements are illegal. And Israel's military occupation absolves the Palestinian Authority of any responsibility to provide adequate sewage treatment. Despite the billions in aid provided by foreign donors, the Palestinian Authority has made limited investment in sanitation infrastructure. Nevertheless, the Independent condemns Jewish settlements alone for the problem.

Hari Ignores the Findings of Several Environmental Studies in Order to Blame Israel

Hari's allegation that Jewish settlers are responsible for contaminating West Bank land contradicts not only the statements of Israeli regulators, but the findings of an independent environmental group, Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME), which indicates that Palestinians are the primary culprits in generating raw sewage and contaminating water supplies with untreated waste. Hari's disproportionate focus on Jewish settlements as the problem defies logic, considering the much larger Palestinian population in the West Bank.

In typical fashion, Hari selectively cited a single figure culled from a 2005 study by FoEME claiming that only six percent of Jewish settlements treated their sewage properly. What he neglected to mention, however, is that the figures were based on a survey of only about half of the existing settlements, many of which had already begun to implement treatment processes but were deemed inadequate by FoEME. The other settlements had not been evaluated. Another report by the Israeli Water Commission found 70 percent was adequately treated.

But even the critical FoEME report provides figures showing that more than three quarters of all the waste water in the West Bank is generated by Palestinians who, for the most part, employ no treatment for their waste water. On page four and in its conclusion summary, the report identifies unsanitary cesspits from uphill Palestinian villages as the source of fecal coliforms in water sources. On page five, further detail is provided, calculating that 61 percent of the Palestinian population dispose of their sewage in unlined cesspits amounting to some 46 million cubic meters of waste water. Israeli settlements produce 15 million cubic meters. A table on page six reiterates the figures and contrasts the "partial treatment" of sewage by Israeli settlements to "none or unsatisfactory" treatment by Palestinian locales. An addenda to the report states, "Sewage from most Palestinian cities and villages receives no treatment at all."

The report's conclusion states:
The Palestinian Authority has openly stated that water supply projects should take precedence over sewage projects. While sewage treatment projects are largely on hold, many infrastructure projects (particularly on water supply) have continued to move forward on the West Bank.

The Palestinian Authority has until very recently refused to accept the standards of sewage treatment upon which Israel has insisted.

No honest reading of the FoEME report could conclude that the problem lies predominately with the Jewish settlements.

More recent studies indicate a much higher water treatment rate for Israeli settlements. For example, the 2007 Monitoring Report of the Rivers of Judea and Samaria released by the environmental unit of the Nature and Parks Protection Authority gave precise figures:

94 % of Palestinian waste is untreated or improperly treated, 4.5 % is treated in Israel, 1.5 % is treated on the West Bank.

68.5 % of sewage from Israeli settlements is treated in Israel or the West Bank, 31.5 % is not properly treated.

Palestinians generate 56 million cubic feet of sewage, Jewish settlements 17.5 million cubic feet.
The Authority's September 2008 monitoring report indicates that Jewish settlements are responsible for only five percent of untreated or improperly treated wastewater, in contrast to the Palestinians who generate 95 percent.

CAMERA was able to identify the specific location Hari wrote about. It is a Palestinian town, Salfit, located near the Israeli city of Ariel. A CAMERA representative met with Ariel officials. What he learned and observed firsthand is not consistent with Hari's account. Ariel has sewage lines running southwest and west of the Western Industrial Area of Ariel. In both routes the sewage is regularly filtered and purified according to Israeli standards. CAMERA confirmed the existence of the filtering and purification facilities. The Palestinian town, Salfit, however, continues to dump untreated waste into the Shilo river — a fact confirmed by FoEME. Contrary to the accusations in Hari's story, the continuing source of untreated human waste in the water near Salfit is the Palestinian town itself.

Although the 2008 Nature and Park Authority monitoring report did state that some of Ariel's water is not properly treated, the head of Ariel's water authority emphatically denied the report and filed a letter of protest with the Director of the Environmental Unit of the Israeli government. A representative from the unit later apologized for the error and promised to have the report amended.
In CAMERA's correspondance with Executive Editor Hayman, she denied that there were any errors in Hari's piece and defended his false accusation against CAMERA by citing a CAMERA piece criticizing a prior and unrelated Hari column for "employ[ing] crude anti-Jewish themes."

Despite the persistent refusal of The Independent to adhere to any semblance of fairness, balance or factual accuracy, CAMERA persists in the onerous task of publicizing the newspaper's bias against Israel.

(With research by Tamar Sternthal.)

http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_print=1&x_context=6&x_article=1565

 

[georgephillip]

The Arabs had enough land.

What entitles a Jew from Russia to land in Palestine that an Arab possesses a valid deed to?

How many Arabs had deeds to land controlled by the Turks?

About three times as many as Jews, why?
How many Jews have deeds to land controlled by Russia today?

 

[P F Tinmore]

The Arabs had enough land.

What entitles a Jew from Russia to land in Palestine that an Arab possesses a valid deed to?

How many Arabs had deeds to land controlled by the Turks?

How many Israelis own the land they live on and how many just lease?

 

[georgephillip]

Wow, you post an article on sewage which I have already debunked here:

http://www.usmessageboard.com/israel-and-palestine/304723-the-iron-wall-a-jewish-majority-in-palestine.html#post7591203

with you linking sewage to the Muslim Students' Association, then twist the sewage topic to apartheid.

Golly, you've debunked nothing and now you're in denial about Jewish apartheid.
Why don't you twist some hasbara around Israel limiting the right of return to Jews only at the same time it sets limits on creating any new settlements for Arabs? I suspect you're also confused about political Zionism's dependence upon the ethnic cleansing of unwanted Arab natives in order to bring a Jewish majority state into existence in 1948. Start with explaining why you believe Jews who owned less than 7% of the land and amounted to one-third of the population received over half the land between the River and the sea.

Of course I debunked your article here in post 607 and the other thread in the link I showed you, but obviously I need to post the details of the link for a third time for you.

-------------------------------------------



March 6, 2009 by Steven Stotsky

The Independent Refuses to Correct Flawed Column on West Bank Sewage

The Independent, a British newspaper, has firmly established its reputation over the years as a relentless critic of Israel. It has long featured Robert Fisk, whose lively writings are laced with imaginary Israeli crimes, like his bizarre claim that Israel used "a secret new uranium-based weapon" in Lebanon (later found to be baseless by a UN investigation team), and doctored quotes by Israeli leaders to impugn their motives. In recent years, the newspaper has featured another Israel basher with a similar flair and imagination — Johann Hari. Like Fisk, Hari employs flawed portrayals and doctored quotes to cultivate the theme of Israel abusing Palestinians.

A case in point is Hari's column entitled "Israel is Suppressing a Secret it Must Face" published on April 28, 2008, where he suggested that Israel is deliberately contaminating Palestinian water. He wrote that:

Across the occupied West Bank, raw untreated sewage is pumped every day out of the Jewish settlements, along large metal pipes, straight onto Palestinian land. From there, it can enter the groundwater and the reservoirs and become a poison.

In fact, published studies demonstrate that it is the Palestinians who are mainly responsible for contaminating the water. Palestinian sources are responsible for 95 percent of all untreated waste in the West Bank, yet the remaining five percent from Jewish settlements receives all of Hari's approbation.

It seems rigorous fact-checking is not part of Hari's skill set. Not only did he misrepresent the facts about untreated waste in his column, but in a subsequent article, "The loathsome smearing of Israel's critics" (May 8, 2008), which was spurred by criticisms of his column, he falsely accused CAMERA of calling him "an anti-Jewish bigot akin to Joseph Goebbels and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad....."

When CAMERA wrote a letter to The Independent requesting a correction of both the errors in his column on untreated waste and the subsequent smear, the paper's Executive Editor, Louise Hayman, stonewalled, justifying her refusal to correct factual errors by stating, "there is no legal, regulatory or ethical requirement on The Independent that every article should be balanced, or even fair." Apparently, there is also no requirement to be factually accurate.

She claimed that this was not an isolated incident by citing reports in the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz, which she described as Israel's most distinguished newspaper — a highly subjective opinion — and the BBC.

CAMERA responded to her anecdotal defense by providing unequivocal data showing that the raw sewage problem in the West Bank was overwhelmingly of Palestinian origin. Confronted with these facts, Ms. Hayman fell back upon the primacy of The Independent's political narrative which holds Israel as an illegal occupier.

In her final response to CAMERA, Ms. Hayman stated:
Johann Hari's column chose to focus on the untreated sewage emanating from the settlements he believes "there is a qualitiative difference between Israeli settlements, constructed illegally, pumping untreated sewage towards the occupied population, and a collapsing Palestinian Authority being unable to treat its own sewage partly because it exists under military occupation."

A columnist — who is clearly flagged up to readers as writing an opinionated take on the news — is perfectly within his rights to do this. The facts he offered were accurate; his opinions and choice of emphasis are his own, as any reader can see, and as they should be for an op-ed writer.

According to her logic, only Israeli settlers deserve approbation for polluting the land since, in The Independent's opinion, the settlements are illegal. And Israel's military occupation absolves the Palestinian Authority of any responsibility to provide adequate sewage treatment. Despite the billions in aid provided by foreign donors, the Palestinian Authority has made limited investment in sanitation infrastructure. Nevertheless, the Independent condemns Jewish settlements alone for the problem.

Hari Ignores the Findings of Several Environmental Studies in Order to Blame Israel

Hari's allegation that Jewish settlers are responsible for contaminating West Bank land contradicts not only the statements of Israeli regulators, but the findings of an independent environmental group, Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME), which indicates that Palestinians are the primary culprits in generating raw sewage and contaminating water supplies with untreated waste. Hari's disproportionate focus on Jewish settlements as the problem defies logic, considering the much larger Palestinian population in the West Bank.

In typical fashion, Hari selectively cited a single figure culled from a 2005 study by FoEME claiming that only six percent of Jewish settlements treated their sewage properly. What he neglected to mention, however, is that the figures were based on a survey of only about half of the existing settlements, many of which had already begun to implement treatment processes but were deemed inadequate by FoEME. The other settlements had not been evaluated. Another report by the Israeli Water Commission found 70 percent was adequately treated.

But even the critical FoEME report provides figures showing that more than three quarters of all the waste water in the West Bank is generated by Palestinians who, for the most part, employ no treatment for their waste water. On page four and in its conclusion summary, the report identifies unsanitary cesspits from uphill Palestinian villages as the source of fecal coliforms in water sources. On page five, further detail is provided, calculating that 61 percent of the Palestinian population dispose of their sewage in unlined cesspits amounting to some 46 million cubic meters of waste water. Israeli settlements produce 15 million cubic meters. A table on page six reiterates the figures and contrasts the "partial treatment" of sewage by Israeli settlements to "none or unsatisfactory" treatment by Palestinian locales. An addenda to the report states, "Sewage from most Palestinian cities and villages receives no treatment at all."

The report's conclusion states:
The Palestinian Authority has openly stated that water supply projects should take precedence over sewage projects. While sewage treatment projects are largely on hold, many infrastructure projects (particularly on water supply) have continued to move forward on the West Bank.

The Palestinian Authority has until very recently refused to accept the standards of sewage treatment upon which Israel has insisted.

No honest reading of the FoEME report could conclude that the problem lies predominately with the Jewish settlements.

More recent studies indicate a much higher water treatment rate for Israeli settlements. For example, the 2007 Monitoring Report of the Rivers of Judea and Samaria released by the environmental unit of the Nature and Parks Protection Authority gave precise figures:

94 % of Palestinian waste is untreated or improperly treated, 4.5 % is treated in Israel, 1.5 % is treated on the West Bank.

68.5 % of sewage from Israeli settlements is treated in Israel or the West Bank, 31.5 % is not properly treated.

Palestinians generate 56 million cubic feet of sewage, Jewish settlements 17.5 million cubic feet.
The Authority's September 2008 monitoring report indicates that Jewish settlements are responsible for only five percent of untreated or improperly treated wastewater, in contrast to the Palestinians who generate 95 percent.

CAMERA was able to identify the specific location Hari wrote about. It is a Palestinian town, Salfit, located near the Israeli city of Ariel. A CAMERA representative met with Ariel officials. What he learned and observed firsthand is not consistent with Hari's account. Ariel has sewage lines running southwest and west of the Western Industrial Area of Ariel. In both routes the sewage is regularly filtered and purified according to Israeli standards. CAMERA confirmed the existence of the filtering and purification facilities. The Palestinian town, Salfit, however, continues to dump untreated waste into the Shilo river — a fact confirmed by FoEME. Contrary to the accusations in Hari's story, the continuing source of untreated human waste in the water near Salfit is the Palestinian town itself.

Although the 2008 Nature and Park Authority monitoring report did state that some of Ariel's water is not properly treated, the head of Ariel's water authority emphatically denied the report and filed a letter of protest with the Director of the Environmental Unit of the Israeli government. A representative from the unit later apologized for the error and promised to have the report amended.
In CAMERA's correspondance with Executive Editor Hayman, she denied that there were any errors in Hari's piece and defended his false accusation against CAMERA by citing a CAMERA piece criticizing a prior and unrelated Hari column for "employ[ing] crude anti-Jewish themes."

Despite the persistent refusal of The Independent to adhere to any semblance of fairness, balance or factual accuracy, CAMERA persists in the onerous task of publicizing the newspaper's bias against Israel.

(With research by Tamar Sternthal.)

CAMERA: The Independent Refuses to Correct Flawed Column on West Bank Sewage

"Israeli policies generated 300 pirate dumps for Sewage where truckloads of Shit were poured into the valleys besides towns and villages. Tens of thousands of tonnes of human waste from Tel Aviv has caused a total breakdown of sewerage systems, unpiped sewage runs overground from most valleys..."

"The piles of shit and garbage affirm a common national-territorial imagination that sees the presence of Palestinians as a 'defiled substance' within the 'Israeli' landscape.
By inducing dirt and raw sewage, Israel could go on demanding the further application of its
'hygienic practices of separation and segregation'.

"The politics of segregation are woven together by the flow of Sewage
Shit was used as a tool to dislocate the Bedouin Tribe of Jahalin.
The military civil administration disconnected one of the Ma'Ale Adumin settlements Sewage pipes, flooding large areas within and around the Bedouin camp with streams and ponds of Shit forcing the Bedouin to relocate.

"Only Half of the Residents of the Gaza strip are connected to the central functioning Sewage System.

"Raw Shit flows overground the length of some Palestinian refugee camps pouring out onto the sand dunes on Gaza's beaches.

"In 2005 a Shin Bet officer described to the Knesset;
'from the level of the satellites the rectangular grid of streets in Gaza refugee camp of Jebalia looks like that of Manhattan only when you get near one notices that the large pool at its centre is not the lake in Central Park but a huge pool of Shit.'"
FNOTW: Breaking Israel/Palestine Silence

For your next imaginary refutation...try "skunkwater."

 

[Sweet_Caroline]

Golly, you've debunked nothing and now you're in denial about Jewish apartheid.
Why don't you twist some hasbara around Israel limiting the right of return to Jews only at the same time it sets limits on creating any new settlements for Arabs? I suspect you're also confused about political Zionism's dependence upon the ethnic cleansing of unwanted Arab natives in order to bring a Jewish majority state into existence in 1948. Start with explaining why you believe Jews who owned less than 7% of the land and amounted to one-third of the population received over half the land between the River and the sea.

Of course I debunked your article here in post 607 and the other thread in the link I showed you, but obviously I need to post the details of the link for a third time for you.

-------------------------------------------



March 6, 2009 by Steven Stotsky

The Independent Refuses to Correct Flawed Column on West Bank Sewage

The Independent, a British newspaper, has firmly established its reputation over the years as a relentless critic of Israel. It has long featured Robert Fisk, whose lively writings are laced with imaginary Israeli crimes, like his bizarre claim that Israel used "a secret new uranium-based weapon" in Lebanon (later found to be baseless by a UN investigation team), and doctored quotes by Israeli leaders to impugn their motives. In recent years, the newspaper has featured another Israel basher with a similar flair and imagination — Johann Hari. Like Fisk, Hari employs flawed portrayals and doctored quotes to cultivate the theme of Israel abusing Palestinians.

A case in point is Hari's column entitled "Israel is Suppressing a Secret it Must Face" published on April 28, 2008, where he suggested that Israel is deliberately contaminating Palestinian water. He wrote that:

Across the occupied West Bank, raw untreated sewage is pumped every day out of the Jewish settlements, along large metal pipes, straight onto Palestinian land. From there, it can enter the groundwater and the reservoirs and become a poison.

In fact, published studies demonstrate that it is the Palestinians who are mainly responsible for contaminating the water. Palestinian sources are responsible for 95 percent of all untreated waste in the West Bank, yet the remaining five percent from Jewish settlements receives all of Hari's approbation.

It seems rigorous fact-checking is not part of Hari's skill set. Not only did he misrepresent the facts about untreated waste in his column, but in a subsequent article, "The loathsome smearing of Israel's critics" (May 8, 2008), which was spurred by criticisms of his column, he falsely accused CAMERA of calling him "an anti-Jewish bigot akin to Joseph Goebbels and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad....."

When CAMERA wrote a letter to The Independent requesting a correction of both the errors in his column on untreated waste and the subsequent smear, the paper's Executive Editor, Louise Hayman, stonewalled, justifying her refusal to correct factual errors by stating, "there is no legal, regulatory or ethical requirement on The Independent that every article should be balanced, or even fair." Apparently, there is also no requirement to be factually accurate.

She claimed that this was not an isolated incident by citing reports in the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz, which she described as Israel's most distinguished newspaper — a highly subjective opinion — and the BBC.

CAMERA responded to her anecdotal defense by providing unequivocal data showing that the raw sewage problem in the West Bank was overwhelmingly of Palestinian origin. Confronted with these facts, Ms. Hayman fell back upon the primacy of The Independent's political narrative which holds Israel as an illegal occupier.

In her final response to CAMERA, Ms. Hayman stated:
Johann Hari's column chose to focus on the untreated sewage emanating from the settlements he believes "there is a qualitiative difference between Israeli settlements, constructed illegally, pumping untreated sewage towards the occupied population, and a collapsing Palestinian Authority being unable to treat its own sewage partly because it exists under military occupation."

A columnist — who is clearly flagged up to readers as writing an opinionated take on the news — is perfectly within his rights to do this. The facts he offered were accurate; his opinions and choice of emphasis are his own, as any reader can see, and as they should be for an op-ed writer.

According to her logic, only Israeli settlers deserve approbation for polluting the land since, in The Independent's opinion, the settlements are illegal. And Israel's military occupation absolves the Palestinian Authority of any responsibility to provide adequate sewage treatment. Despite the billions in aid provided by foreign donors, the Palestinian Authority has made limited investment in sanitation infrastructure. Nevertheless, the Independent condemns Jewish settlements alone for the problem.

Hari Ignores the Findings of Several Environmental Studies in Order to Blame Israel

Hari's allegation that Jewish settlers are responsible for contaminating West Bank land contradicts not only the statements of Israeli regulators, but the findings of an independent environmental group, Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME), which indicates that Palestinians are the primary culprits in generating raw sewage and contaminating water supplies with untreated waste. Hari's disproportionate focus on Jewish settlements as the problem defies logic, considering the much larger Palestinian population in the West Bank.

In typical fashion, Hari selectively cited a single figure culled from a 2005 study by FoEME claiming that only six percent of Jewish settlements treated their sewage properly. What he neglected to mention, however, is that the figures were based on a survey of only about half of the existing settlements, many of which had already begun to implement treatment processes but were deemed inadequate by FoEME. The other settlements had not been evaluated. Another report by the Israeli Water Commission found 70 percent was adequately treated.

But even the critical FoEME report provides figures showing that more than three quarters of all the waste water in the West Bank is generated by Palestinians who, for the most part, employ no treatment for their waste water. On page four and in its conclusion summary, the report identifies unsanitary cesspits from uphill Palestinian villages as the source of fecal coliforms in water sources. On page five, further detail is provided, calculating that 61 percent of the Palestinian population dispose of their sewage in unlined cesspits amounting to some 46 million cubic meters of waste water. Israeli settlements produce 15 million cubic meters. A table on page six reiterates the figures and contrasts the "partial treatment" of sewage by Israeli settlements to "none or unsatisfactory" treatment by Palestinian locales. An addenda to the report states, "Sewage from most Palestinian cities and villages receives no treatment at all."

The report's conclusion states:
The Palestinian Authority has openly stated that water supply projects should take precedence over sewage projects. While sewage treatment projects are largely on hold, many infrastructure projects (particularly on water supply) have continued to move forward on the West Bank.

The Palestinian Authority has until very recently refused to accept the standards of sewage treatment upon which Israel has insisted.

No honest reading of the FoEME report could conclude that the problem lies predominately with the Jewish settlements.

More recent studies indicate a much higher water treatment rate for Israeli settlements. For example, the 2007 Monitoring Report of the Rivers of Judea and Samaria released by the environmental unit of the Nature and Parks Protection Authority gave precise figures:

94 % of Palestinian waste is untreated or improperly treated, 4.5 % is treated in Israel, 1.5 % is treated on the West Bank.

68.5 % of sewage from Israeli settlements is treated in Israel or the West Bank, 31.5 % is not properly treated.

Palestinians generate 56 million cubic feet of sewage, Jewish settlements 17.5 million cubic feet.
The Authority's September 2008 monitoring report indicates that Jewish settlements are responsible for only five percent of untreated or improperly treated wastewater, in contrast to the Palestinians who generate 95 percent.

CAMERA was able to identify the specific location Hari wrote about. It is a Palestinian town, Salfit, located near the Israeli city of Ariel. A CAMERA representative met with Ariel officials. What he learned and observed firsthand is not consistent with Hari's account. Ariel has sewage lines running southwest and west of the Western Industrial Area of Ariel. In both routes the sewage is regularly filtered and purified according to Israeli standards. CAMERA confirmed the existence of the filtering and purification facilities. The Palestinian town, Salfit, however, continues to dump untreated waste into the Shilo river — a fact confirmed by FoEME. Contrary to the accusations in Hari's story, the continuing source of untreated human waste in the water near Salfit is the Palestinian town itself.

Although the 2008 Nature and Park Authority monitoring report did state that some of Ariel's water is not properly treated, the head of Ariel's water authority emphatically denied the report and filed a letter of protest with the Director of the Environmental Unit of the Israeli government. A representative from the unit later apologized for the error and promised to have the report amended.
In CAMERA's correspondance with Executive Editor Hayman, she denied that there were any errors in Hari's piece and defended his false accusation against CAMERA by citing a CAMERA piece criticizing a prior and unrelated Hari column for "employ[ing] crude anti-Jewish themes."

Despite the persistent refusal of The Independent to adhere to any semblance of fairness, balance or factual accuracy, CAMERA persists in the onerous task of publicizing the newspaper's bias against Israel.

(With research by Tamar Sternthal.)

CAMERA: The Independent Refuses to Correct Flawed Column on West Bank Sewage

"Israeli policies generated 300 pirate dumps for Sewage where truckloads of Shit were poured into the valleys besides towns and villages. Tens of thousands of tonnes of human waste from Tel Aviv has caused a total breakdown of sewerage systems, unpiped sewage runs overground from most valleys..."

"The piles of shit and garbage affirm a common national-territorial imagination that sees the presence of Palestinians as a 'defiled substance' within the 'Israeli' landscape.
By inducing dirt and raw sewage, Israel could go on demanding the further application of its
'hygienic practices of separation and segregation'.

"The politics of segregation are woven together by the flow of Sewage
Shit was used as a tool to dislocate the Bedouin Tribe of Jahalin.
The military civil administration disconnected one of the Ma'Ale Adumin settlements Sewage pipes, flooding large areas within and around the Bedouin camp with streams and ponds of Shit forcing the Bedouin to relocate.

"Only Half of the Residents of the Gaza strip are connected to the central functioning Sewage System.

"Raw Shit flows overground the length of some Palestinian refugee camps pouring out onto the sand dunes on Gaza's beaches.

"In 2005 a Shin Bet officer described to the Knesset;
'from the level of the satellites the rectangular grid of streets in Gaza refugee camp of Jebalia looks like that of Manhattan only when you get near one notices that the large pool at its centre is not the lake in Central Park but a huge pool of Shit.'"
FNOTW: Breaking Israel/Palestine Silence

For your next imaginary refutation...try "skunkwater."

Your articles about sewage are a load of sewage. Running out of arguments? Tough sewage.

 

[georgephillip]

"On Sunday afternoon, the Israeli settlement of Beitar Illit, west of Bethlehem, pumped thousands of gallons of sewage wastewater onto Palestinian farmland, destroying the crops and rendering the land unusable."

Jews are not running out of colonization arguments...or sewage.

Israeli Settlers dump sewage on Palestinian farmland near Bethlehem - International Middle East Media Center