Firestorm Over Steven Salaita's Sacking

by Stephen Lendman

Criticizing Israel publicly entails huge risks. Becoming persona non grata in politics, the media, business and academia may follow. It's a career ender for most who try.

At most, short-term protests follow. They're usually or entirely local. Salaita's University of Illinois at Urban-Champaign (ULUC) sacking elevated public anger to a new level.

Thousands of scholars, students, colleagues, friends, Israeli critics and others rallied to his defense. They're steadfast. They continue.

They want Salaita reinstated. They want him given full pay and benefits. They want damages paid for all he endured. He deserves it and much more.

Salaita broke weeks of silence. On September 9, he went public for the first time.

He defended his noteworthy academic/scholarly bona fides. He did so eloquently and effectively. He criticized UIUC's academic lynching.

He explained his passion for equality, fairness and justice. He expressed gratitude for around 18,000 supporters. They signed a petition demanding his reinstatement.

He called the firestorm over his viewpoints on Palestinian human rights and academic freedom "a teaching moment."

He urged his supporters "to make the most of it."

Major/influential donor complaints got him sacked. The Los Angeles Times discussed how big monied interests control academia.

Especially at state universities and prominent private ones. Salaita's firing wasn't the first time they "manipulate(d) university administrations into doing their bidding," said the Times."

It won't be the last. (I)t's certainly one of the most disturbing examples of a bad trend."

"For any university, but especially a public institution such as Illinois, the encroachment of donor pressure on the administration is a harbinger of the destruction of academic freedom."

"Wealthy donors are able to step in and exert strong influence because public funding sources, such as the state legislature, have systematically withdrawn support for public universities."

They "seldom have an interest in independent, objective academic study; they're interested in advancing their own notions of how the world works or should work - in ideology, not ideas."

Incidents like Salaita's sacking happen when "questions of academic principle get reduced to dollars and cents - the university comes to believe it can trample (on) any principle, as long as there's money to make it go away," said the Times.

Israeli Lobby power works the same way and then some. It's influence is broad and deep. It's tactics include pressure, bullying and threats.

It's relentless. It's ruthless. It demands unconditional support for Israel. It does so at the expense of right over wrong.

It's a cancer infecting America. It influences Western policy. It's a blight on humanity.

It operates destructively. It promotes war. It deplores peace. It ignores popular interests. AIPAC is its best known entity.

The late Edward Said once called it "the most powerful and feared lobby in Washington."

In a matter of hours, it can mobilize virtually unanimous Senate support for Israel. And at least most of the House.

US politicians deferentially bow to its will. They do so disgracefully. They betray their constituents in the process. Their personal beliefs don't matter.

Last week, UIUC trustees upheld Salaita's firing. They voted 8 - 1 against him. James Montgomery alone supported him.

Other board members backed Chancellor Phyllis Wise's so-called "philosophy of academic freedom and free speech tempered in respect for human rights."

So-called "tempered" rights denies them. Wise and UIUC trustees gave chutzpah new meaning. They raised it to a new level.

They support what demands denunciation. They oppose what deserves high honor and praise.

In an open letter, the board of trustees disgracefully equated Salaita's forthright criticism with "disrespectful and demeaning speech."

They called it "malice." It's "not an acceptable form of argument if we wish to ensure that students, faculty and staff are comfortable in a place of scholarship and education," they said.

"If we educate a generation of students to believe otherwise, we will have jeopardized the very system that so many have made great sacrifices to defend."

"There can be no place for that in our democracy, and therefore, there will be no place for it in our university."

Democracies assure academic and speech freedoms. They defend them at all costs. Without them all other rights are threatened.

Voltaire once said he might "disapprove of what you say, but (he'd) defend to the death your right to say it."

Western universities are hotbeds of conformism. Howard Zinn once said they teach students to be good citizens. They sacrifice important truths in the process.

America right or wrong is policy. It works the same way from pre-school through doctoral studies. UIUC is the latest example.

It's been a battleground for weeks. It's ground zero in the struggle for academic freedom.

The Center for Constitutional Rights represents Salaita. Its senior attorney Maria Lahood was clear and unequivocal saying:

What's clearly "uncivil is the killing of more than 500 children Professor Salaita reacted to."

It's "terminating a tenured professor because he dared to speak out publicly and passionately about Israel's actions."

It's lawlessness. Its ruthlessness. Its democracy in name only. Its contempt for Palestinian rights.

What's uncivil "is yielding to donor pressure in making faculty decisions," said LaHood.

"(T)he most uncivil action in this whole episode has been the university's resistance and refusal to right the wrong (it committed) and reinstate Professor Salaita."

He was victimized for truth-telling. He was academically lynched.

Chancellor Wise, UIUC's trustees, big monied donors, and Israeli Lobby power falsely equate "legitimate challenges to Israeli government actions with anti-Semitism," said Lahood.

"On campuses across the country, over the last year and half alone, there have been approximately 200 incidents (where) students and faculty (as well as) activists have been intimidated, maligned, investigated, and even prosecuted for speaking out in support of Palestinian human rights."

It's longstanding practice. It violates rule of law principles, standards and norms. It shows Israeli Lobby power works.

It reveals how Israel influences US policy. It works the same way from congressional halls to the media, to academia to grassroots groups and members.

Salaita's sacking opened a new debate on Israel/Palestine. Various faculty groups formed "camps." They faced off for or against Salaita.

Various organizations, their members, and academics intend refusing invitations to lecture on campus.

They condemned last week's board of trustees vote. The American Association of University Professors said:

(A)borting Salaita's appointment "without having demonstrated cause has consistently been seen by the AAUP as tantamount to summary dismissal, an action categorically inimical to academic freedom and due process."

Modern Language Association council members called on UIUC trustees to "redress (an) unjustified situation."

The Organizing Collective of the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI) expressed outrage over his firing.

It called doing so "a blatant violation of (his) academic freedom and an insidious assault upon him and those who uphold the right of honest and ethical critique in the academy."

It demanded his reinstatement. UIUC's American Studies Program faculty voted no confidence in Chancellor Wise. So did 10 other UIUC departments.

Her action trashed First Amendment rights and academic freedom, they said.

Hundreds of UIUC students protested on behalf of Salaita. Scores boycotted classes.

The University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) Department of Asian American Studies, Art History, and Gender and Women's Studies released statements condemning Saliati's firing.

On September 11, hundreds gathered on UIUC's campus supporting him.

They included Campus Faculty Association members, others from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), University of Illinois Chicago faculty, as well as various other groups.

The American Studies Association (ASA) is the nation's oldest and largest organization involved in the interdisciplinary study of US culture and history.

In 1951, it was chartered. It has 5,000 members. It's affiliated with 2,200 libraries and other institutional subscribers.

Members include academics, researchers, librarians, and public officials and administrators. They represent many academic disciplines.

They include history, literature, religion, art, architecture, philosophy, music, science, ethnic studies, anthropology, sociology, political science, education, and gender studies among others.

Last December, they voted more than two to one for academically boycotting Israel.

They called doing so "an ethical stance, a form of material and symbolic action."

They justified doing so for the following reasons:

US military and other support for Israel.

Israel's violations of international laws and resolutions.

Longstanding occupation harshness.

"The extent to which Israeli institutions of higher education are a party to state policies that violate human rights."

Strong ASA member support.

Their vote is symbolic. It's binding "until Israel ceases to violate human rights and international law," said ASA. It bars official collaboration with Israeli institutions.

It doesn't apply to individual Israeli scholars engaged in "ordinary forms of academic exchange, including conference presentations, public lectures at campuses, or collaboration on research and publication."

ASA issued a statement on behalf of Salaita. It called his sacking "a de facto assault against the Program in American Indian Studies at UIUC.

It sets a "dangerous precedent." Its statement in part said:

ASA "protests the decision of University of Illinois Chancellor Phyllis Wise to rescind the offer of a tenured faculty position in American Indian Studies to highly regarded ASA member Professor Steven Salaita."

"This last minute top down decision with no faculty consultation and no reason provided violates the tenets of faculty governance."

"Alarmingly, these actions constitute as well a de facto assault against the Program in American Indian Studies at UIUC despite its carefully earned status as one of the leading intellectual programs nationally in its field."

"This decision if not overturned is sure to erode the confidence of scholars and students of American Indian and Indigenous Studies that UIUC is an open and welcoming institution that values equally their social, cultural and intellectual contributions."

Salait's "offer was rescinded based on (his) twitter feed and opposition to the Israeli invasion of Gaza…"

"(T)he university’s actions constitute a clear violation of the principles of academic freedom, contravene the University’s self-proclaimed valuing of diversity, and suggest an intolerable anti-Arab bias.

"We call upon you to restore faculty governance, to respect the Department of American Indian Studies and the faculty peer review process in evaluating faculty for tenured positions, and to begin to rebuild the UIUC’s reputation as an institution of academic excellence by restoring Professor Steven Salaita as a tenured associate professor of American Indian Studies at UIUC."

In early September, Ohio University Student Senate president Megan Marzec endured death threats and other vicious harassment for supporting Palestinian rights.

Yale University chaplain Father Bruce Shipman was pressured to resign because of his brief NYT letter to the editor.

He discussed "the carnage in Gaza over the last five years, not to mention the perpetually stalled peace talks and the continuing occupation of the West Bank."

He urged "Israel's patrons abroad to press the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for final-status resolution to the Palestinian question."

Chicago area Rabbi Brant Rosen resigned on his own initiative. He did so because he "gradually became a Palestine solidarity activist rather than liberal Zionist."

Yale chaplain/longtime peace activist William Sloane Coffin Jr. (1924 - 2006) engaged in anti-Vietnam war civil disobedience protests. He encouraged young men to burn their draft cards.

He founded the Clergy and Laity Concerned About Vietnam. He led resistance against Lyndon Johnson's escalation.

He challenged segregation. He organized freedom rides. He led The Committee for a SANE Nuclear Policy.

He used pulpit power as a platform for likeminded activists. In October 1967, he signed an open letter titled "A Call to Resist Illegitimate Authority."

Yale established the '56 Award for Peace and Justice in his name. It called him one of the 20th century's most significant religious leaders.

He supported right over wrong. He refused to be silenced. On April 1, 1982, he co-signed a letter supporting Arab/Israeli citizen Elias Ayoub.

He faced deportation for supporting human rights. He was active in the Palestine Human Rights Campaign.

He was wrongfully called "subversive." He lost his student status. He did so despite maintaining an excellent academic record.

Coffin "shudder(ed) to contemplate the implications of such arbitrary deportation given the present political leadership of our country and specifically of Israel."

Salaita supporters demand he be reinstated. UIUC officials remain hardline.

Principle, honor and justice don't matter. They're sacrificed on the alter of supporting Israel right or wrong.

Doing so makes universities like UIUC complicit in its crimes. They're longstanding. They're horrific. They're too egregious to ignore.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.

It airs three times weekly: live on Sundays at 1PM Central time plus two prerecorded archived programs.

While Steven G. Salaita's inflammatory, anti-Israel, anti-Semitic Twitter posts and atrocious academic record may have cost him a tenured professorship at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), they did nothing to lessen his support from the field of Middle East studies. The former Virginia Tech University English professor – whose published work focuses on the Arab-Israeli conflict – was offered a position in UIUC's American Indian Studies Program that was later rescinded by Chancellor Phyllis Wise. Salaita's academic apologists immediately sprang into action, with antagonism to Israel's recent military action against Hamas only adding to the frenzy.

A number of petitions, open letters, and statements calling to reinstate or show solidarity with Salaita made the rounds, all displaying similar characteristics.

Among them was a statement issued by the executive committee for the Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (CSAMES) at UIUC. After declaring that "there is nothing anti-Semitic in Dr. Salaita's comments on Twitter" because his targets were merely (emphasis added) "the illegal and unethical assault on Gaza, and those who support it," the statement goes on to assert, without evidence, that "ardent supporters of Israel have engaged in malicious and unethical actions in order to suppress criticism of Israel." The scholars urge the university to "resist political pressures to silence voices of legitimate outrage" or, in other words, to oppose the dastardly "Israel lobby" fighting for a scholarly, unbiased education.

Then there was a "Letter from scholars to Chancellor Wise" signed by a number of notoriously anti-Israel Middle East studies academics.* Tellingly, the letter describes the "content of Salaita's Tweets" as being "consistent with the sentiments of leading experts on the Israel-Palestine conflict" before dismissing public opinion by adding condescendingly:

It seems that popular knowledge about the Israel-Palestine conflict in the US public space has overwhelmed what is well known by academic experts. This cannot be allowed to happen in a serious university.

It concludes by dredging up the oft-repeated fantasy of post-9/11 academic persecution: "Illinois [sic] decision is taking us back to the post-9/11 hysteria, which victimized so many people, and sacrificed academic freedom." The legions of Israel-bashing tenured academics across the country prove the opposite.

The U.S. Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI), hardly an impartial source, issued a statement vociferously defending Salaita, who, not coincidentally and along with a number of Middle East studies academics, is a member of its "organizing committee." The statement claims that this, along with Salaita's Arab-American heritage, help explain the "politically-motivated firing," ignoring the fact that rescinding a job offer and firing an employee are two different things.

In addition, USACBI produced a petition "organized by scholars of conscience and USACBI's Organizing Collective" by which "signatories ... refused to speak or lecture at UIUC until Dr. Steven Salaita is reinstated in his position."** No word on how long these professors of agitprop will forgo UIUC speaking engagements now that Salaita's fate is sealed.

The Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA) sent a letter to Chancellor Wise on behalf of its "Committee on Academic Freedom" and signed by MESA president Nathan Brown that employed measured language to advance an unsupported claim:

The revocation of an academic appointment because of the appointee's political views or because of the venue in which those views are expressed constitutes not only an assault on constitutionally protected free speech rights but an infringement of the principles of academic freedom as well.

MESA failed to grasp that Salaita did not lose his free speech rights, that there is no constitutionally guaranteed right to a tenure track position, and, most importantly, that free speech is not immune from consequences. Only in the insulated, rarified world of academia would one believe that a public figure whose salary is financed in part by taxpayers has no obligation to uphold a professional and at least somewhat collegial image.

Individuals chimed in, including Hatem Bazian – a senior lecturer in the department of Near Eastern studies and director of the Islamophobia Research & Documentation Project at the University of California, Berkeley – who asserted that the "margin of what you can say and you can't say is very narrow, and it is the easiest way to torpedo somebody's career." This from one who called for an "intifada in this country" and later equated Israeli policy with slavery – both at rallies in San Francisco – and who retains full-time employment at a public university.

Characteristically, University of Michigan history professor Juan Cole invoked anti-Semitic conspiracy theories to explain Salaita's woes:

I strongly suspect that Zionist organizations pressured the university to fire Professor Salaita. ... This behavior is undemocratic and cult-like, and it is unacceptable in a Liberal society. We also see Jewish nationalists on the bench, in public office, and in high administrative positions who misuse their public position to engage in a sectarian vendetta so as to protect Israel from criticism or to punish its critics.

Meanwhile, University of California, Irvine history professor Mark LeVine blamed Salaita's "dehiring" on the "wrath of pro-Israel conservatives in the United States" and warned that it would have "a devastating effect on scholars working in highly politicized fields such as Middle Eastern studies and climate science, where critical and untampered public debate is most crucial." This claim is risible, since his own field of Middle East studies is among the least welcoming of "critical and untampered debate" thanks to the dominance of professors like LeVine and Salaita.

In a welcome departure, University of California, Los Angeles history department chair David N. Myers condemned Salaita's offensive rhetoric and immature behavior, as well as the apologetics of his academic supporters:

It is stunning to behold the near-total silence of Salaita's supporters about the content of his speech. ... What is objectionable here is not criticism of Israel's policies toward Palestinians. ... It is the sophomoric, intemperate and, dare I say, hateful quality of Salaita's speech. Even if one shares Salaita's passionate commitment to the Palestinian cause and believes fervently in his right to free speech, it is imperative to call out his irresponsible words.

Would that more Middle East studies scholars shared Myers's principled approach to the Salaita affair. Instead, we are left with academics who would seemingly defend anyone who demonizes Israel and its supporters. Rather than acknowledge the grave responsibility of educating the next generation, they blame others and romanticize themselves as victims of persecution. Mired in self-importance and moral relativism, and incapable of introspection, these are the ranks from which future Salaitas will emerge. One can only hope they meet the same fate.

*Middle East studies signatories to the "Letter from scholars to Chancellor Wise" include As'ad Abukhalil, California State University, Stanislaus; Hamid Dabashi and Joseph Massad, Columbia University; and Samera Esmeir, University of California, Berkeley.

**Among the many Middle East studies signatories to the U.S. Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI) petition are Rabab Abdulhadi, San Francisco State University; Paola Bacchetta, University of California, Berkeley; and Rashid Khalidi, Columbia University.

this sure proves the hyper sensitivity of the Israeli cult of psychotic paranoid weasels.
One professor tweets any truth about the Israeli massacre of Palestinians, even outside his class and it results in a fist of suppression.

Yikes! Donors!

As reported by Inside Higher Ed, Assistant Professor Steve Cicala, an economist at the University of Chicago, has decided to boycott the University of Illinois over the trustees’ recent decision against hiring Prof. Steven Salaita. In a letter to Chancellor Phyllis Wise, Cicala explained that he would not be presenting a previously scheduled talk at the university’s Chicago campus because she had failed to resist the “influence of donors on faculty speech.”

Perhaps because he is an economist, Cicala seems fixated on the presumed impact of money on Wise’s (and the trustees’) decision. He made nine references to donors, donations, contributions, or funds in his eight paragraph letter, although with no actual specifics. In support of his assumption that Wise had simply caved in to financial pressure, Cicala linked to a packet of Wise’s emails that had been released pursuant to the Illinois FOIA.

Being a law professor rather than an economist, I thought I would take a look at the empirical evidence, instead of relying on a model.
Here is what I discovered by reading all 361 pages. The disclosure contained approximately 90 emails addressed to Wise, mostly from students and alumni. (I may have missed or double counted a few, as there were many duplicates in the packet.) Their content was as follows:

72 made no mention of donations whatsoever;

8 identified the writers as past donors, but did not threaten to withhold future gifts;

5 said that hiring Salaita might affect future donations;

4 said that they would definitely withhold future donations if Salaita were hired (of which only one mentioned a significant figure);

1 was pro-Salaita.

In other words, Wise received lots of correspondence from university constituents, the overwhelming majority of which said nothing about money. Virtually all of the emails were reasoned and calm; none resorted to the frequent obscenities found in Salaita’s own tweets.

Cicala, however, apparently believes that no administrators could possibly disagree with him about Salaita, unless they had been bribed or extorted by, you know, donors. There is a certain intellectual arrogance to that assumption, which refuses to recognize that the trustees might have had principled reasons for their decision (even if it was wrong). One of the trustees is Patrick Fitzgerald, the former United States attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and a person of absolutely unquestioned integrity. Isn’t it possible that Fitzgerald was simply outraged by Salaita’s celebration of murder and reinvention of ancient blood libels, and that he paid no meaningful attention to the various emails? Frankly, it is deeply insulting for Cicala to suggest otherwise.

As it happens, I agree with Cicala the Illinois trustees made the wrong decision. As a matter of academic policy and shared governance (though probably not law), it seems to me that the hiring process had gone too far for it to be vetoed at the last minute.

But unlike Cicala, I always try to see the other side. I feel no need to impugn the motives of those who disagree with me, or to attribute their decisions to filthy lucre. The great irony, of course, is that Cicala himself is now attempting to exert outside influence, just as did the Illinois students and alumni – and in a far snarkier fashion, by accusing Chancellor Wise of operating an “intellectual etiquette reeducation camp.” Indeed, Cicala’s letter, which he evidently released to the press, includes its own implicit threat of “long-term damage” to the University of Illinois.

I am not trying to get Cicala to call off his boycott. As far as I am concerned, he can lecture or not wherever he chooses. He should realize, however, that it is possible to argue that the Salaita decision was deplorable, or even disastrous, without claiming that the trustees were bought off. Not all of your adversaries are mercenaries. Thus, Cicala and his co-boycotters ought to refrain from making accusations in the absence of proof, which constitutes bad practice in every department.

"Not all of your adversaries are mercenaries."
I wonder just how many are ideologues programmed to respond to the Israeli megaphone / harassment complex.
Who cares?
Israel sticks its unwanted nose into everything that threatens the brutal, criminal, Israeli enterprise.

"Israel sticks its unwanted nose into everything that threatens the brutal, criminal, Israeli enterprise."

That was posted by an East German who lives off of your dime. How can anyone tolerate such a hater?

Obsessed, maybe?
About nessie, about being a psychopath liar and about just about anything.
Kinda like Israel and that criminal Israeli genocide project in Palestine.

Dear Sheepdog:

Aren't you the imbecile who was crying about all the "starving Gazans" while everyone else was posting pictures of Gazans riding Ferris Wheels?

When you lived in East Berlin, did you rat on your family to the Stasi?

Sincerely,

just wondering

Israeli jets destroying Gaza water and sewerage systems: officials

A boy takes a drink from emergency water supplies being distributed by the UN

Young boys in Gaza collect water

Even before the current genocide campaign, water was a rare commodity in Gaza

vital water and sewerage systems destroyed by Israeli air strikes

Dispossession and Exploitation: Israel's Policy in the Jordan Valley and Northern Dead Sea

Israel has taken control of most of the water sources in the area and has earmarked them for the almost exclusive use of the settlers.

Most Israeli water drillings in the West Bank – 28 of the 42 drillings – are located in the Jordan Valley. These drillings provide Israel with some 32 million m3 a year, most of which is allocated to the settlements. The annual allocation of water to the area’s 9,400 settlers from the drillings, the Jordan River, treated wastewater, and artificial water reservoirs is 45 million m3. The water allocated to the settlements has enabled them to develop intensive-farming methods and to work the land year round, with most of the produce being exported. The water allocation to the settlements is almost one-third the quantity of water that is accessible to the 2.5 million Palestinians living in the West Bank.

Israel’s control of the water sources in the area has caused some Palestinian wells drying up and has led to a drop in the quantity of water that can be produced from other wells and from springs. In comparison, in 2008, Palestinians pumped 31 million m3, which is 44 percent less than Palestinians produced in the area prior to the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement of 1995. Due to the water shortage, Palestinians were forced to neglect farmland that had been in cultivation and switch to growing less profitable crops. In the Jericho governorate, the amount of land used for agriculture is the lowest among the Palestinian governorates in the West Bank – 4.7 percent compared to an average of 25 percent in the other governorates.

Israel’s control of most of the land area also prevents equal distribution of water resources to the Palestinian communities in the area; it also prevents the movement of water to Palestinian communities outside the area. Water consumption in Beduin communities is equivalent to the quantity that the UN has set as the minimal quantity needed to survive in humanitarian-disaster areas.

All that invented propaganda, and not one picture of Ferris Wheels or candy vendors in Gaza.

"A boy takes a drink from emergency water supplies being distributed by the UN"

Where's the pictures of where he was molested afterwards by the United Nations rape gangs?

Looking for some Starving Gazans? Look no further than the bread lines at the Almat'haf Hotel & Cultural House.

Only in Gaza do people have to wait in line for food.

Looking for some Starving Gazans? Look no further than the bread lines at the Almat'haf Hotel & Cultural House.

he all you can eat Gaza breakfast brunch: horrors not seen since the Warsaw ghetto

Looking for some Starving Gazans? Look no further than the the Almat'haf Hotel & Cultural House.

The all you can eat Gaza breakfast brunch: horrors not seen since the Warsaw ghetto. Look at all those refined carbohydrates. Its a war crime

Looking for some Starving Gazans? Look no further than the Almat'haf Hotel & Cultural House.

The all you can eat Gaza breakfast brunch: horrors not seen since the Warsaw ghetto. Look at all those refined carbohydrates. Its a war crime

a failbook page of some catered food at a hotel one day, feeds millions of people in all the illegally occupied territories all the time

while the UN reports and them declaring a water emergency and having to truck water in, while btselem's findings over the whole of illegally occupied territories of israel systematicly stealing water for yesrs, and now bombing what's left of the waterworks too, means nothing

- because a hasbara agent says so


I know you hated nessie but you seem rather obsessed with his dead corpse

..go back to writing some more vulnerable crippled drupal code and get a life

Gaza and the whole area is a f**ing desert. They've exceeded the carrying capacity of that strip of land. Maybe its time for them to stop reproducing like rabbits and stop squandering resources

While the people of Gaza suffer, the ruling elite build playgrounds for themselves. Waterpark in Gaza

While the people suffer, the Hamas ruling elite build playgrounds for themselevs

While the people of Gaza suffer, the ruling elite build playgrounds for themselves. Hotel with lavish swimming pool in Gaza

Let's do the math

"The annual allocation of water to the area’s 9,400 settlers.. ..is 45 million m3. ..almost one-third the quantity of water that is accessible to the 2.5 million Palestinians living in the West Bank." (which doesn't even include the millions more living in the open prison called Gaza)

45 million cubic meters divided by 9,400 illegal invaders = 4,784 cubic meters per illegal invader

45 million cubic meters times 3, (135 million cubic meters) divided by 2.5 million oppressed indigenous illegal war victims = 54 cubic meters per oppressed indigenous illegal war victim.

4,784 divided by 54 = 88.6 times more water

thank you for playing

“reproducing like rabbits “
Well, I guess that's slightly less obviously racist than “breeding like rats”” which is what asshole#2 wanted to say.
Maybe if you let them free from their cages behind the wire walls and sniper towers, they would feel their very existence slightly less threatened by the Israeli genocide program directed towards them.

You've pulled fake water figures from where the sun don't shine. no wonder you didn't list a source.

Its called the water libel.

http://www.btselem.org/publications/summaries/dispossession-and-exploitation-israels-policy-jordan-valley-northern-dead-sea

Amcha


Amcha is supported with funds from the Claims Conference.

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"AIPAC evolved from the American Zionist Council, which was established by I.L. Kenen in 1951. It was registered as a foreign agent for Israel. However, three years later (1954) the Council started operating as a domestic group and was given a new name, American Zionist Committee for Public Affairs."

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A pro-Likud group founded shortly after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in order to support the "war on terror."

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"Blueprint for PNAC" and home to study group led by Perle, A New Israeli Strategy Towards 2000.


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Magshimey Herut


Manhattan Institute


MERCAZ USA, Zionist Organization of the Conservative Movement


Middle East Forum


Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI)


Moishe House Boston: Kavod Jewish Social Justice House


Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies


NA'AMAT USA


National Center for Jewish Film


National Council of Jewish Women


National Council of Young Israel


NCSJ, Advocates on behalf of Jews in Russia, Ukraine, the Baltic States & Eurasia


North American Federation of Temple Youth


One Jerusalem


Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS)


Project for the New American Century (PNAC)



Rabbinical Assembly (RA)


Rabbinical Council of America (RCA)


Religious Zionists of America (RZA or Mizrahi)


Set America Free
A new coalition of neo-con, Jewish, and green groups to reduce U.S. reliance on oil imports


Shalem Center


Shalom Center


Simon Wiesenthal Center


State of Israel Bonds/Development Corporation for Israel


Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance, and Research

"... consists of representatives of government, as well as governmental and non-governmental organizations. Its purpose is to place political and social leaders’ support behind the need for Holocaust education, remembrance, and research both nationally and internationally."

Tehilla: The Union for Religious Aliyah


Union for Reform Judaism (URJ)


Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America (Orthodox Union or OU)


United Jewish Communities (UJC)

The UJC was formed from the 1999 merger of United Jewish Appeal (UJA), Council of Jewish Federations (CJF), and United Israel Appeal (UIA).

United Jewish Peoples' Order


United States Institute of Peace (USIP)

The United States Institute of Peace is an independent, nonpartisan institution established and funded by Congress.

United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism (USCJ)


USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education


Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP)


Women's International Zionist Organization (WIZO)


Women's League for Conservative Judaism (WLCJ)


Women of Reform Judaism (WRJ)


Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars


Workmen's Circle (Arbeter Ring)


World Council of Jewish Communal Service (WCJCS)


World Federation of Jewish Child Survivors of the Holocaust (WFJCSH)


World ORT


World Union of Jewish Students


World Zionist Executive, US

World Zionist Organization


Yad Vashem: The Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority


Yavneh Olami


Zionist Organization of America (ZOA)


comments:
Lets kick these people out of the USA????

And all these organizations has a tax exempt status in the the USA??? It would be advisable for all US citizens to write their congressperson to disallow their tax exempt status, especially if any member of the organization has dual citizenship with israel


Looks like the 'sources tell us' list is out. The list that the bbc uses for it "truth".

My source is listed on the image. Always was

You left out something vital that even your source lists. Israeli water does not get pumped out of shared resources with the Palestinians- it also includes "treated wastewater, and artificial water reservoirs". You are effectively counting the same water at least twice.

Israel used water efficiently. Israel recycles waste water. The Palestinians squander and waste water .

Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies (BESA)

"Menachem Begin

leader of the Zionist militant group Irgun

he targeted the British in Palestine

Begin’s government promoted the construction of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Begin authorized the bombing of the Osirak nuclear plant in Iraq and the invasion of Lebanon in 1982 to fight PLO strongholds there, igniting the 1982 Lebanon War. As Israeli military involvement in Lebanon deepened, and the Sabra and Shatila massacre, carried out by Christian Phalangist militia allies of the Israelis, shocked world public opinion,[2] Begin grew increasingly isolated.

"Begin quickly made a name for himself as a fierce critic of the dominant Zionist leadership for being too cooperative with [the] British"

Begin ordered the bombing of the British administrative and military headquarters at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, in 1946."

derived from a war criminal and terrorist that was too extreme even for the zionists, and WHO STARTED THE ILLEGAL INVADER COLONIES you euphemisticly call 'settlers'..

so, your 'source' are the illegal invaders themselves, in other words..

he was right

“reproducing like rabbits “
Well, I guess that's slightly less obviously racist than “breeding like rats”” which is what asshole#2 wanted to say.
Maybe if you let them free from their cages behind the wire walls and sniper towers, they would feel their very existence slightly less threatened by the Israeli genocide program directed towards them.

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

When all else fails, the astroturfers resort to grade school sloganeering. "racist" was oh-so years ago.

Imbecile.

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

I'm not dead, but that doesn't mean it's not true, and if you don't believe me then you're not who I'm talking to.

Look, Martha! A mental defective posts a picture of the California drought and tries to throw peer pressure from a documented dumbass onto someone who doesn't fellate terrorists.

nessie was never right about anything.

Only nessie would chase Smashy around the world for years and lie about "amplifiering happiness reflectors" being a COINTELPRO invention posted over two years in advance. nessie's "journalism" was rejected by every landfill in California.

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

"Israel steals 80 percent of the Palestinian's water in the West Bank, and sells the remaining 20 percent back to Palestinians at 15 times the price.

Furthermore, Israel prevents Palestinians from digging wells or even building water-collecting facilities, including rainwater cisterns."

http://www.ifamericansknew.org/cur_sit/water.html

"Israeli settlers have no restrictions on water use.

When supplies of water are low in the summer months, the Israeli water company Mekorot closes the valves which supply Palestinian towns and villages so as not to affect Israeli supplies. This means that illegal Israeli settlers can have their swimming pools topped up and lawns watered while Palestinians living next to them, on whose land the settlements are situated, do not have enough water for drinking and cooking.

The Gaza strip relies predominately on wells that are being increasingly infiltrated by salty sea water because Israel is over-pumping the groundwater. UN scientists estimate that Gaza will have no drinkable water within fifteen years."

http://itisapartheid.org/water.html

[picture]

"Israeli settlers enjoy the swimming pool in the Maaleh Adumim settlement, West Bank (OPT), September 2009. "

This settlement was unlawfully established in the West Bank (OPT) in violation of international law; while nearby Palestinian communities struggle to access even minimal quantities of water for their basic needs."

"Israeli settlements [in the West Bank] have a continuous s supply of fresh water. They have community swimming pools, flower gardens and broad expanses of green lawn.
Meanwhile, approximately 140 Palestinian communities, have no running water at all."

Gehrig: Zionist mole at UC-IMC

"nessie's dead" is just another one of nessie's pathetic grasps at publicity.

Speaking of corpses, do you still think of the missed opportunities to suck Arafat's weinie and start mutilating yourself?

obviously you haven't been paying attention but just dropped in for some troll lovin'

- only no one loves you

Some times things never change.
like stink on shit.
psychosis and zionism, obsession and compulsion.
you all get the picture.

Until now much of the literature about the Palestinian Israeli water conflict followed either the Palestinian discourse (vast majority) or the Israeli discourse (small minority).

A thesis titled ‘The politicization of the Oslo water agreement’ written by Lauro Burkart a Swiss graduate of the Institute of International and Development studies in Geneva gives a more accurate and impartial picture of the topic of the scarcity of water in the Palestinian Authority.

Burkart interviewed many key players in the water conflict, Palestinians and Israelis as well as representatives of NGOs and the donor countries. He also examined many original documents such as the minutes of the meetings of the joint Israeli Palestinian Water Committee (JWC).

Conclusions
Here are some of the most important conclusions in Burkart’s thesis.

The goals of the Oslo 2 water agreement have been reached regarding the quantities of water provided to the Palestinian population (178 mcm/year in 2006). The Oslo water agreement estimated that the needs would eventually be 200 mcm a year. The Joint Water Committee functioned well in the first years following signature of the agreement, but since 2008 cooperation has come to a halt

The facts disseminated by the Palestinians, international organizations and donors about the root causes of the water scarcity in the West Bank are incorrect.

Burkart writes: ‘It is not the Israeli occupation policy but the Palestinian political resistance against joint management and cooperation that is responsible for the relatively slow development of the Palestinian water sector and the deteriorating human rights situation in the Palestinian Territories’ and ‘There is convincing evidence of mismanagement within the Palestinian Water Authority (PWA).’

He cites the pro-Palestinian NGO AMAN who concluded that there is ‘no clear legal separation between the political and executive levels within the Palestinian water institutions. To date there is no real functioning water law. Furthermore the National Water Council is not meeting and not functioning well’.

Although the PWA embarked on an institutional reform process in reaction to international critics such as the World Bank this did not solve the issue of mismanagement within the institution. The head of the Palestinian Hydrology Group called the reform a ‘fundraising mechanism’. The PWA also did not manage to gain control over many municipalities (where Israel has no control) due to the autocratic and undemocratic manner in which they are managed. These power holders did not want to lose control of the water systems since it was one of the main services provided by the municipalities. As a result the water supply is not centralized and illegal drilling is rampant.

The fact that the PA pays for most of the water bills of the Palestinian population gives no incentive for saving and leads to an unreasonable use of water in the domestic sphere as well as in the agricultural sector.

Shadad Attili
Burkart also interviewed Dr. Shaddad Attili, head of the PWA who was appointed in 2008. Attili, a Fatah member, is responsible for the de facto ending of the cooperation with Israel in order to bolster the Palestinian water rights claims. He did this to strengthen the position of Fatah after the Hamas victory in the Palestinian elections.

This policy is conducted at the expense of the marginalized and peripheral Palestinian population which is suffering from water shortages. Burkart writes that the abundance of donor money allowed Atilli to continue the non-cooperation strategy which has lead to a complete stagnation of the water negotiations during the last five years

Wastewater

One of the results of the refusal to cooperate with Israel is that almost all of the 52 mcm waste water generated by the Palestinian population flows untreated into Israel and the West Bank where it contaminates shared groundwater resources. Nevertheless, the Palestinians claim that Israel is blocking their waste water infrastructure. The facts are that most of the Palestinian waste water treatment and reuse projects have already received foreign funding and were supported by Israel.

The PA however has not taken sufficient action in order to execute those projects. Instead the PA claims that Israel is demanding an unreasonably high level of treatment (BOD 10/10) A JWC memorandum of understanding from 2003 however, which was signed by both parties agreed on a gradual process to achieve this standard (starting with BOD 20/30).

Following a meeting in November 2011 between Colonel Avi Shalev of the Civil Administration and PWA officials about the implementation of Palestinian water projects, Israel offered to finance water and waste water projects that would serve Palestinian communities in the West Bank. The Palestinians didn’t respond.

Desalination
Another solution that could solve the water crisis in the PA is seawater desalination. In fact Israel made an offer to the Palestinians to build a desalination plant in Hadera south of Haifa and pump the desalinated water to the northern West Bank. The Palestinians rejected this solution since it would put Israel in an upstream position to the West Bank. Another reason for this rejection has to do with water rights since the Palestinians claim the Mountain Aquifers.

Attili even withdrew a PWA expert team from an Israeli desalination program using the argument that Israel unilaterally destroyed a number of illegal wells on the West Bank. This proved to be another example of Attili’s propaganda campaign.

Israel responded after Attili complained about the wells in a letter to the international community. The decision to shut down these wells was taken by the Joint Water Committee. After that several reminders were sent to the PWA who reiterated its intention to execute the JWC decision. Nothing happened however. Four years after the decision was taken Israel decided to execute the decision since illegal drilling diminishes the amount of water produced by legal wells and damages the main aquifers.

Some times things never change.
like stink on shit.
psychosis and zionism, obsession and compulsion.
rags on terrorists heads. Fat Stasi's lips on terrorists weenies.
Rachel Corrie Day at Ihop. Arafat is still a cockroach.

And nessie's dead.
That's what I said.



you all get the picture.

a cluster of extremist right-wing hate sites

christenenvoorisrael.nl
dagelijksestandaard.nl
Islamofobie.nl
Hetvrijevolk.com
Veurne-spreekt.be
Nageltjes.be
Gestaltis.nl
Tcgp.nl
Praktijkmercurius.nl


credibility is yours !

nessie always said that Smashy was the whole Government Skunk Works. The drama queen could never accept that one person was slapping her around, and anyway, to portray herself with a bullseye was a starving artists' back alley theater.

The idea of listing so much nonsense is the noise and confusion the unbathed asswipes said was the hallmark of COINTELPRO. In other words, I'm stomping your ass as well as I did nessie's.

See you around, shitferbrains.

they're not around to defend themselves

it doesn't matter

- what does it say about the character of those who do?

Do these 'academic' nose pickers even know what education entails?
An institution of learning should not be lead by the money ring in their nose.
Or noise from radical, extremest cults.

Someone who sucks terrorist dick has the nerve to chide others about speaking ill of dead terrorist fellators.

My last bowel movement had more I.Q. than a leftist.

"those who have the facts pound them.

.. those who don't have the facts pound the table"

and you fear what you don't understand

I sense a great butthurt with the Arafat groupies.

Genesis with Phil Collins 1976 - 1991 [SACD DSF][2007]

1980 - Genesis - Duke [SACD DSF][2007]

01 - Behind The Lines

02 - Duchess

03 - Guide Vocal

04 - Man Of Our Times

05 - Misunderstanding

06 - Heathaze

07 - Turn It On Again

08 - Alone Tonight

09 - Cul-de-sac

10 - Please Don't Ask

11 - 12 - Duke's Travels - Duke's End

So what does ISIS fear? Women and children?

You are such a mental defective. Thank God you're saving the Internet.

..reduced war profits, cancelled war contracts and restricted access to other nation's oil

oh what the billionaires never tell you

You're so fucking stupid that you're reduced to saying anything, absolutely anything.

Muslim "men" are terrified of women. They're bigger pussies than a woman ever dared be.

I'm laughing at you, pussy.

sure glad reality doesn't clog your corporate media propaganda feeding tube

well it resembles a feeding tube anyway

The Real Pussies here....
Sacking a tenured professor through a wank campaign of megaphone weenies for an off campus remark on the obvious psychopathic Israeli genocide, is pretty pussy whipped.
Not a great endorsement for a university.
Unless you like being a drone, head nodding, meat puppet.

blind billionaire directed hate is so much easier than thinking for yourself

So do you have any mindless school drawings with a pile of dead babies on it?

You think too small, imbecile.

useless angry while male troll post !