Palestinians // Current TV

IDF TORTURER DORON ZAHAVI WANTS TO SODOMIZE ARABS AND GET MEDAL FOR IT

Doron Zahavi, who still can be called only “Captain George” in the Israeli... more

Radical_Centrist
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5 days ago
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4 comments

Israeli scientists/activists bring green power to West Bank village Susya, South Hebron Mountains

Residents of a West Bank village with no electricity have been helped out of the... more

worrg
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14 days ago
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0 comments

Teabaggers Discuss Newt, Romney's Bet, and Perry's Religion (VIDEO)

Our favorite Teabaggers, Jackie and Dunlap, discuss Newt Gingrich’s frontrunner... more

StewSteve
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2 months ago
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0 comments

Israel Proposing Indefinite Detention of Refugees (Video)

Israel has for the past few years been experiencing an influx of refugees, most from... more

belgacem
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3 months ago
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0 comments

Forbidden Roads - Palestine freedom rides- Defying Apartheid and occupation

The six Freedom Riders chose to board a bus that serves Jewish-only settlements in the... more

worrg
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3 months ago
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0 comments

Sarkozy and Obama complain about Netanyahu in 'open mic leak'

Sure, they "didn't know" that the mic was on lol. Now if only more US... more

maasanova
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3 months ago
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12 comments

How to defeat terrorism ... for Dummies!

Do you want to know how we could prevent an Islamic radical such as Bin Laden and his... more

tamer2011
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4 months ago
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2 comments

Swap Prisoners for Soldier

JERUSALEM — Israel and Hamas announced an agreement on Tuesday to exchange more... more

Changes2Pac
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4 months ago
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0 comments

‘Refusing to Die in Silence’ - volunteers with cameras trying to protect Palestinians

Nabi Saleh - a new campaign was launched called ‘Refusing to Die in... more

worrg
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4 months ago
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2 comments

Newstalgia Reference Room - Israel And The U.S. In 1948 | Newstalgia

In 1948 it wasn't a whole lot different, but it was.

Gordonskene
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5 months ago
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0 comments

Palestinians to make statehood bid at UN

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas is due to submit his bid to the UN for recognition of... more

sitsi
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5 months ago
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0 comments

TYT: Obama Wrong About Palestinian State?

The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur breaks down President Obama's speech at the... more

KB723
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5 months ago
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33 comments

Abbas to seek full UN membership

I hope they get it. This crap has been going far too long as it is. Are they supposed... more

lazloman
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5 months ago
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0 comments

Those to whom evil is done, Do evil in return: ‘INSIDE THE ISRAELI & PALESTINIAN CONFLICT ’

http://rtruth.blog.com/2011/09/13/mideastconflict%E2%80%A8/ I am an American who... more

mab001
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5 months ago
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0 comments

Can it get worse? The row between Israel and Turkey is becoming increasingly bitter.

RELATIONS between Israel and Turkey, already rocky, have worsened. On September 2nd... more

Schnookums
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5 months ago
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25 comments

Stéphane Hessel - Time for Outrage! - 'I'm angry with the French government'

Toward the end of 2010, a small book by a 93-year-old man unexpectedly reached the... more

worrg
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6 months ago
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0 comments

Israel pounds Gaza after deadly attacks near Eilat

The Israeli military has carried out air strikes over the Gaza Strip, targeting those... more

cabinettags
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6 months ago
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0 comments

Why Gaza doesn't need Monsanto's "wonder seeds"

Climatewire recently ran a rather tedious article rehashing Monsanto’s familiar talking points, on the occasion of a media conference put on by the GMO seed/agrichemical giant. Here's a sample:

The company's pipeline is teeming with seeds aimed to protect farmers from losses due to pests, heat, drought and nutrient deficiencies. Nitrogen-efficient corn is expected in the next three to 10 years, as are high-yielding soybeans.

These Wonder Seeds of the Future are vital, the company insists, because (as the Climatewire reporter puts it) "The world will need to double its crop output to satisfy 9 billion people on just a sliver more of available land." According to its marketing pitch, Monsanto will solve that problem by conjuring up seeds that allow farmers to "produce more, conserve more, [and] improve lives."

While contemplating the Cilmatewire piece—which was, to be fair, balanced by withering analysis from Union of Concerned of Scientists' Doug Gurian-Sherman—I got to to thinking about a Guardian article I read a while back on how people are scraping by in the Gaza Strip under the twin hardships of occupation and blockade.

Under siege from Israel, Palestinian farmers in Gaza have limited land, little access to water, and face ruinously high fertilizer costs (when they can get fertilizer at all): In other words, the very conditions Monsanto claims its seeds will save the world from. But these farmers don't have access to the wonder seeds, partly because they don't exist yet (Gurian-Sherman is skeptical that they ever will); and partly because Palestinian farmers don't have the resources to buy pricey patented seeds anyway. (How farmers resource-strapped farmers are ever supposed to afford Monsanto's premium-priced super-seeds—if and when they do come into existence—has never really been explained.)

So what are Palestinian farmers doing? According to The Guardian, they're turning to a technology that has been proven to conserve water, recycle crop nutrients, and generate robust yields: diversified organic agriculture. The newspaper quotes an official from the UN's Gaza emergency food program:

In so many other places, this is terribly trendy and green. But in Gaza the resource scarcity is so bad this is actually becoming a necessity.

Where organic ag has taken root, The Guardian reports, food security has been bolstered and dependence on food aid for survival has decreased. The UN is pushing organic ag as a response to resource scarcity, and last year Hamas government rolled out a a 10-year strategy "aimed at skirting the blockade and developing sustainable agriculture," The Guardian reports.

Already, concrete steps are being made. According to The Guardian, Palestinian farmers are barred by the blockade from buying synthetic nitrogen fertilizer, which could be used to make explosives. All they have access from the import market is "fertilisers made from Israeli waste water run-off," which is expensive—$200 per metric ton—and of "uncertain safety." But a local initiative called Palestinian Environmental Friends (PEF) is generating a homegrown fertilizer from manure and crop waste collected from local farms. It costs just $100 per metric ton to make, and profits from it stay within Gaza.

Farms are also solving the fertilizer problem by setting up closed-loop aquaculture/crop systems that recycle nutrients and generate bounties of food:

In a rural area of the central Gaza Strip, Eyad Najjar plucks organic carrots from the sandy soil of his tiny farm. Najjar no longer uses fertilisers or pesticides for his plot, which also grows tomatoes, parsley, rocket, lettuce and spinach. Instead, a fishpond on the field's far edge delivers water rich in nutrients via drip irrigation.

Smiling, Najjar squeezes an almost-ripe fruit hanging from the branch of a lemon tree. "The onions and lemons are bigger and better," he says.

More at the linkClimatewire recently ran a rather tedious article rehashing Monsanto’s familiar... more

JanforGore
added this
6 months ago
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1 comment

Israel concerned about peaceful uprising

Interesting that they would express concern. Relief would seem more appropriate.

lazloman
added this
8 months ago
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3 comments

Video: Activist Flashmob in D.C. Union Station - Singing, Dancing, Oh My!

Activists with a group called Move Over AIPAC protesting the American Israel Public... more

pinkpanther
added this
9 months ago
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1 comment

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