Saturday, March 07, 2009

Now, It's "The Independent" That's Full of Sh*t

A while ago, I blogged about Johann Hari of The Independent and claimed that he was "full of sh*t".

His claim there was that it was Jewish "settlements" that are responsible for the contaminating of the underground water of Judea and Samaria.

CAMERA counters:

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.


There's much more there.

1 comment:

Peter Drubetskoy said...

To treat the occupying power that controls all the aspects of lives of the Palestinians and the occupied people themselves on the same footing is ridiculous. It is like throwing a person into a prison and then complaining that he doesn't clean his own shit well enough despite giving him the shovel, all while the guards keep shitting into his prison cell.
You still never supplied an adequate answer as to why the Palestinians should make do with 5 times less water per capita than you the settlers (this being 70% the minimum quantity of water per person per day for basic consumption, according to World Health Organization).
Oh, sorry, I think you did say the issue was "complicated".