August 21, 2000


Features

What's in Your Green Tea?
BY FRANCES CERRA WHITTELSEY
An In These Times special investigation.

Why I'm Voting for Nader ...
BY ROBERT McCHESNEY

... And Why I'm Not
BY JAMES WEINSTEIN

Fox Shocks the World
BY RICK ROCKWELL
Now comes the hard part for Mexico's new president.

Tijuana Troubles
BY DAVID BACON
NAFTA is failing workers.

Unions Get Religion
BY DAVID MOBERG


News

Safety Last
BY DAVE LINDORFF
As oil prices soar, so do the number of deadly accidents.

Sale of the Century
BY GEOFF SCHUMACHER
An unusual government auction helps preserve the Nevada wilderness.

Water Wars
BY CHARMAINE SEITZ

A botched deal leaves Palestinians high and dry.

Profile
BY BEN WINTERS

Lowell Thompson, a.k.a Raceman.


Views

Editorial
BY JOEL BLEIFUSS
Toxic shock.

Viewpoint
BY KIP SULLIVAN
HMO's invasion of privacy.

Appall-O-Meter
BY DAVID FUTRELLE

A Terry Laban Cartoon


Culture

Give It Away
BY DAVID GRAEBER
The Maussians are coming.

Good Fela
BY HILLARY FREY
The music, politics and legend of Nigeria's Fela Kuti.

Time's Arrow
BY CARL BROMLEY
A Chilean dissident finds the cinema in Proust.

Mission: Impossible 3
BY BILL BOISVERT
Goodbye, Mr. Secret Agent ...

 

Water Wars

By Charmaine Seitz

Jerusalem

As temperatures in the West Bank hover just above 100 degrees, water is on everyone's mind. Three years of scant rain have dried out the area and now a previously scarce resource has become paltry.

But reports of the drought's severity pale in comparison with preliminary studies showing that crucial Palestinian water resources, as accorded by
Ali Raba draws water from his well on the village of Tawanah in the West Bank. Raba is fortunate. Tousands of Palestinians have no fresh water in their villages and are dependent on Israeli authorities to sell it to them. Credit: Uzi Keren/Newsmakers.

Israeli-Palestinian agreements, are already overexploited. The United States, in an overzealous effort to provide Palestinians with water and improve the climate for peacemaking, may be partly at fault.

When Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967, all control of local water resources was turned over to the Israeli military administration. By the time Palestinians and Israel signed an initial peace agreement in 1993, the Israeli water carrier was pumping 80 percent of underground reserves to Israeli citizens in Israel and the West Bank settlements. The rest of the water resources were channeled to Palestinians, allotting them only one third of Israeli per capita use.

 

 


In These Times © 2000
Vol. 24, No. 19