Since the beginning of the settlement enterprise, Israel has not constructed advanced regional wastewater treatment plants in the West Bank settlements as it has done inside Israel. Only 81 of the 121 settlements are connected to wastewater treatment facilities, and even these are outdated, frequently malfunction and shut down, and are not able to treat the necessary amount of sewage. Of the 17.5 million cubic meters of wastewater created annually by the settlements, 5.5 mcm flow as raw sewage into West Bank streams and riverbeds. The Israeli Ministry of Environmental Protection has failed to take serious enforcement actions against settlements.

[…]

The first victims of the neglect of wastewater treatment are Palestinians, primarily residents of small towns and villages, who depend on water from natural sources - springs and wells - whose pollution causes disease and harms crops. Because settlements are generally at higher altitudes, their untreated wastewater flows down to nearby Palestinian communities.

B’Tselem

Photograph: A Palestinian farmer checks his destroyed crop as raw sewage from the illegal Jewish settlement of Elon Moreh flows through his olive grove, close to the Palestinian village of Deir al-Hatab in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, October 26, 2010. The Israeli army regular denies residents access to the grove for ‘security reasons’, despite the land and all surrounding areas belonging to Palestinians. The residents discovered thousands of destroyed olive trees on this rare occasion that they were allowed to enter their own farmland. (Getty Images)

(Source: israelfacts)

(Reblogged from irishmexi)

Media Consolidation: the illusion of choice.

Support independent media projects like: Democracy Now, TruthOut, TruthDig, The People’s Record (shameless plug), Media Matters, all the innumerable great blogs you come across, LinkTV, Free Speech TV, Occupy.com, AdBusters, WeAreMany, SocialistWorker, Lee Camp’s Moment of Clarity, All Things Harlem, just to name a few (literally there are so MANY more).

(Source: thinksquad)

(Reblogged from absurdlakefront)

thekhaleesiofhotdogs:

ozzyosborntodie:

dovahqueene:

higgsbr0son:

Actual 4th Grade science test in South Carolina

if you decide you want to secede again you go for it okay?

this makes me so angry 

Reblogging so Rich can remember where he moved to study science.

(Reblogged from thekhaleesiofhotdogs)

pyrosickfires:

themovieneverends:

the16thmeteorshower:

This is so beautiful.

“Abandoned by straight people.” Something homophobic people tend to over look

this is the greatest thing ever

(Source: highonkaboom)

(Reblogged from avettbidenlemoncreggalmasy)

Marcia is Amused.: It upsets me that “terrorism” is code for “brown people.”Whoever did...

irishmexi:

mar-see-ah:

It upsets me that “terrorism” is code for “brown people.”

Whoever did this in Boston meant to hurt, kill, and terrorize people. He or she meant to cause terror. And they did.

That is terrorism.

It doesn’t matter if they’re part of a larger organization or working alone. It doesn’t matter if…

But that’s how the media and government have conditioned people to think. Brown and a terrorist until it’s a convicted white person, then they’ll have a mental illness and call it a senseless tragedy and silently drop the word terrorism for a softer look at a troubled person and broader conversation. If it’s a person of color? Well there’s another war.
I hate that this is now a conversation about race but when you’re a person of color all you can do is pray for the victims and wait until the national media start blaming your culture.

(Reblogged from irishmexi)
“
White privilege is knowing that even if the [Boston] bomber turns out to be white, no one will call for your group to be profiled as terrorists as a result, subjected to special screening or threatened with deportation. White privilege is knowing that if this bomber turns out to be white, the United States government will not bomb whatever corn field or mountain town or stale suburb from which said bomber came, just to ensure that others like him or her don’t get any ideas. And if he turns out to be a member of the Irish Republican Army we won’t bomb Dublin. And if he’s an Italian-American Catholic we won’t bomb the Vatican.
Tim Wise (via jheath)
(Reblogged from jheath)
chrismohney: And now for TINY BLOG VENGEANCE! This is beyond trivial but it always annoyed the hell out of me. We ran a story on the divorce segment produced by Sesame Street that the Today show followed up on. But for some reason they thought it was neat to thieve our interview footage for their own broadcast piece on the story. The above screencap comes from about 1:55 in the Today clip, or from about 1:06 in the Storyboard original. You can see they just overlayed their own titling over ours. Weird! Why would you think this was cool, TV people! All we wanted was a “courtesy of” credit, but nobody on the show ever responded when contacted. Sins, revealed. View high resolution

chrismohney:

And now for TINY BLOG VENGEANCE! This is beyond trivial but it always annoyed the hell out of me. We ran a story on the divorce segment produced by Sesame Street that the Today show followed up on. But for some reason they thought it was neat to thieve our interview footage for their own broadcast piece on the story.

The above screencap comes from about 1:55 in the Today clip, or from about 1:06 in the Storyboard original. You can see they just overlayed their own titling over ours. Weird! Why would you think this was cool, TV people! All we wanted was a “courtesy of” credit, but nobody on the show ever responded when contacted. Sins, revealed.

(Reblogged from theawl)
tastefullyoffensive: [via]

tastefullyoffensive:

[via]

(Reblogged from tastefullyoffensive)
imanihenry: Actor, Lupe Ontivero  snubbed from the Oscar memorial. She deserves recognition View high resolution

imanihenry:

Actor, Lupe Ontivero  snubbed from the Oscar memorial. She deserves recognition

(Reblogged from irishmexi)
womaninterrupted: This.

womaninterrupted:

This.

(Source: bg5000)

(Reblogged from apsies)