Uranium mine troubles Native American groups
Mounds of radioactive waste dot the eastern portion of the Navajo Nation in the US state of New Mexico. The earthen monoliths contain contaminated material from the more than 250 abandoned uranium minesthat once provided the raw materials for the US nuclear complex. As the Cold War ended, so did the demand for uranium.
Rights violations exposed in LA prison sting
The FBI’s arrest of 18 current and former Los Angeles prison staff in a sting operation earlier this month casts light on alleged “brutality” and civil rights violations in some parts of the US judicial system, analysts have said. Cases brought against the troubled LA Sheriff’s department include allegations of assaults on inmates and visitors, writing false reports to cover up assaults, conspiracy to obstruct justice and lying to federal agents.
Israeli land claims: Archaeology and ideology
Jerusalem – The Holy Basin – containing Jerusalem’s Old City and its surrounding territories – may be the most contested piece of property in the world.
Sacred to Jewish, Christian and Islamic faiths, it is both the centre of Jerusalem and the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Palestine’s fast and furious females
Ramallah, Occupied West Bank – Hundreds of people have gathered along a closed-off street on a Friday morning to watch a street racing event.
Among the drivers are four women representing the “Speed Sisters”, the first all-female racing team in the Middle East who have helped propel the nascent Palestinian racing scene into the international spotlight while breaking stereotypes.
Access denied: Phone politics in Palestine
He was greeted with posters saying, “Dear Barack Obama: Don’t bring your smartphone to Ramallah. You won’t have mobile access to the Internet.
make sure to only do as instructed, not more.
Day of rage’ over Bedouin displacement plan
At least four protesters were arrested on Thursday near East Jerusalem’s Old City at a demonstration against plans to displace tens of thousands of Bedouin from their ancestral lands in Israel’s Negev desert.
Controversy as Palestinian prisoners freed
Ramallah, Occupied West Bank – Twenty-six Palestinian prisoners, some held in Israeli jails for more than two decades, were released to their families in a “gesture of good faith” by Israel’s government.
But critics say Tuesday’s move should have been made decades ago under the Oslo Accords, and that the Palestinian Authority (PA) is milking the release for its own political gain.
Calls to boycott Israel grow on US campuses
On December 4, the council of the American Studies Association (ASA) voted unanimously to endorse the call from Palestinian civil society for an academic boycott of Israeli academic institutions (USACBI), becoming only the second academic association in the US to do so.
The decision was described by the ASA as an “ethical stance”, which “represents a principle of solidarity with scholars and students deprived of their academic freedom and an aspiration to enlarge that freedom for all, including Palestinians”.