Spain's mad rush to destroy all its dams for the sake of the 2030 agenda

 

While spectacular flooding in Spain this fall has been blamed on climate change, how much of it is really the fault of the hapless government's destruction of over a hundred dams? 

So many questions come to mind. Is Spain reducing its capacity to produce electricity? Will that energy have to be replaced by another source? How many farms and ranches will be affected and possibly destroyed by the lack of irrigation? Will forest fires increase by the loss of water available to water bombers? Has Spain actually done a cost/benefit analysis on this policy?

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Is Fluoride in our water making us dumber and dumber?

..

Bombshell Study Confirms This Daily Drink Lowers IQ

BY JOSEPH MERCOLA 

SEPTEMBER 21, 2022 

These study findings were so controversial, they had to undergo additional peer-review and scrutiny before being published. Their publication even warranted a special editor’s note justifying the journal’s decision to publish the story. Will the findings be taken seriously?

STORY AT-A-GLANCE

A U.S. and Canadian government-funded observational study found that drinking fluoridated water during pregnancy lowers children’s IQ; a 2022 study by the same team will assess the neurotoxicity of early-life exposure to fluoride

In the earlier study, a 1 milligram per liter increase in concentration of fluoride in mothers’ urine was associated with a 4.49-point decrease in IQ among boys only, while a 1-mg higher daily intake of fluoride was associated with a 3.66 lower IQ score in both genders between ages 3 and 4

The findings were hotly criticized by pro-fluoride agents, including the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) and the Science Media Centre (SMC), two well-known front groups for the chemical industry

As of January 2022, there are at least 74 studies showing fluoride exposure damages children’s brains and lowers IQ; there are at least 60 that found that fluoride exposure impairs the learning and/or memory capacity of animals

There are also more than 2,000 other studies detailing other health effects

Research published in 2017 found that, compared to a mother who drinks fluoride-free water, a child of a mother who drinks water with 1 part per million of fluoride can be predicted to have an IQ that is 5 to 6 points lower. They also found there was no threshold below which fluoride did not affect IQ

“[Fluoride exposure] during pregnancy will lower the IQ of their children. Only if you think a child’s tooth is more important than a child’s brain would you not be disturbed by that,” Connett says. “You can repair a child’s tooth. You cannot repair a child’s brain once it’s been impacted during fetal development.”

“If you shift the entire population over by 3 or 4 IQ points, you would almost halve the number of geniuses in your society … and you would increase by about 50% the number of mentally handicapped children. So, on a population [basis] such shifts are highly, highly significant.”

My question is, what are the cumulative effects over several generations? Are we getting dumber and dumber?

There is much more on this story at The Epoch Times.

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Hamas Invites Palestinian Authority to Control Gaza 'Unimpeded'

This is a curious step by Hamas and I can't help but wonder what they are up to. It does not seem likely that they are simply doing 'the right thing' for the people of Gaza whom they used as cannon fodder in their war against Israel. I fear something suspicious is going on.

By Ray Downs 

Hamas Chief Ismail Haniyeh flashes the victory gesture upon his arrival on the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing, in the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday. The delegation of the Hamas leadership is returning from Cairo to Gaza after long meetings with the Egyptian government the agreement on reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah. Photo by Ismael Mohamad/ UPI. | License 

UPI -- The chief of Hamas' Political Bureau said Tuesday that the group is ready to receive the Palestinian Unity Government in Gaza.

"To show Hamas' seriousness to bring about reconciliation, we invite the unity government to come and assume its duties in Gaza unimpeded," Ismail Haniyeh told reporters during a press conference in the Gaza Strip, according to the Middle East Monitor.

He added: "We have opened the door wide before [Fatah's] decision-makers to take courageous decisions to unite the Palestinian people as our cause faces huge challenges. We are keen to end the siege on Gaza and we have exerted much effort to do this through the gate of the reconciliation."

The announcement is a reiteration of Hamas' decision on Sunday to dissolve its governing body in the Gaza Strip to give the Palestinian Authority full governmental control in Gaza.

Hamas has controlled the Gaza Strip for more than a decade, but recently agreed to demands set by Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, to hold elections, which haven't occurred since 2007.

Mahdi Abdul Hadi, director of Passia, an East Jerusalem think tank, told the New York Times that Haniyeh and Yehya Sinwar, Gaza's new prime minister, are eager to work with Abbas and Fatah, the controlling party in the Palestinian Authority.

"Lift the siege, let people breathe," Abdul Hadi said. "Electricity, water, salaries, medical -- instead of explosion."

Meet Hameed: 12yo Yemeni Boy is Battling Cholera after Having 23 Surgeries & Losing Arm

This is a disgraceful exercise in man's inhumanity

and just as disgraceful is the lack of concern of western countries

which just keep selling arms to the combatants as though the

blood of those children was not on their hands

May God have mercy on the beautiful people of Yemen

Arhab, Yemen

A 12-year-old Yemeni boy has undergone 23 surgical operations, including the amputation of his left arm, after falling victim to the war in his country that left him with terrible scars. He is now battling cholera.

Hameed has had a rough childhood. In 2014, the boy was electrocuted when a high-voltage cable fell from a transmission tower during armed clashes in Yemen’s Amran governorate. The shock was enormous, but the kid survived.

For the past several years, he has been in and out of the hospital with various health-related problems.

“Even a slight cough affects him badly. He’s very weak. His elbow has been damaged by frequent falls,” Hameed’s father, Faraj Al-Asadi, told RT.

“As you can see, his neck is injured as well. These tragedies come from war. The boy spent a month in intensive care before regaining consciousness. He’s undergone surgery many times and will need more operations. Look at all his injuries.”

Hameed, his face and body awash with heart-stopping scars, is also battling with repeated cholera infections.

More than half a million people in Yemen have been infected with cholera since the outbreak began in spring, the World Health Organization (WHO) said last week. 

"The total number of suspected cholera cases in Yemen this year hit the half a million mark, and nearly 2,000 people have died since the outbreak began to spread rapidly at the end of April," the WHO said in a statement. 

Yemen's cholera epidemic is currently the “largest in the world,” the WHO says. The disease has been spreading like wildfire due to worsening hygiene and sanitation conditions and disruptions to the water supply across the country. Local residents are cut off from clean water.

“Half of the people who are affected by the cholera are children, and a quarter of the people who have died from suspected cholera cases are children," Marie Claire Feghali, regional communications manager with Red Cross, told RT.

A few key reasons contributed to the deadly disease outbreak in Yemen.

“Everything in the country has collapsed. That includes the water system, the health system, it also includes the fact that there’s no garbage collection in the country. Cholera is a water-borne disease. When you don’t have garbage collection, when you don’t have proper treatment of the water, it’s a whole number of factors that cause this cholera outbreak to be as serious as it is and as it was.”

“The situation in Yemen in general is extremely bad. It’s a man-made situation. It’s due to the fact that there’s a war going on in the country and there are people, who are civilians, who are paying the highest price,” Feghali said.

Yemen's ongoing conflict and a “man-made” humanitarian catastrophe has “no end in sight,” the head of the UN Development Program (UNDP) in the war-torn country said in August, warning that nearly 7 million people are at risk of starvation.

Around 70 percent of Yemenis are in urgent need of humanitarian aid. Roughly 60 percent have no prospects of securing their next meal as nearly 7 million “are close to slipping into a state of famine,” Auke Lootsma, UN Development Programme (UNDP) Country Director said earlier this month. 

The Saudi-led coalition launched its aerial bombing campaign in support of the ousted Yemeni president, Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, in March 2015. The campaign targets the remnants of the country’s military loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh and the Houthi rebels. The casualties in the fighting have surpassed 10,000 dead and 40,000 injured by January 2017, according to the UN estimates, with civilians making up a large share of victims. The bombing failed to bring victory to the Saudi-backed side in the conflict, but devastated Yemeni cities and infrastructure.

"Since March 2015, OHCHR has documented 13,609 civilian casualties, including 5,021 killed and 8,588 injured. These numbers are based on the casualties individually verified by the UN human rights office in Yemen," UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) spokesman Rupert Colville said in July. 

Colville, however, noted at the time that the “overall number” of civilians killed could be much higher and estimated it to be over 11,000.

Some two-third of the verified civilian deaths were caused by Saudi-led coalition airstrikes, while the rest of the victims were killed by Houthi rebels and terrorist groups Islamic State and Al-Qaeda, Colville told Anadolu Agency. 

Leading humanitarian organizations have named the aerial bombing the main cause of civilian deaths in the country.

The Saudi-led coalition has struck civilian targets on numerous occasions, but acknowledged only few of the attacks, calling them “mistakes” caused by “bad intelligence.”

The military campaign is supported by a tight air and naval blockade on Yemen, backed by the US. The situation has effectively led to healthcare collapse, according to Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Stephen O'Brien.

A UN report, leaked last week, indicates that Riyadh-led coalition strikes have resulted in hundreds of Yemeni children being killed or maimed. The confidential draft was to be presented by the UN Secretary-General, but it was first seen and published by Reuters and Foreign Policy (FP) magazine. The report alleges, that Saudi forces and their Gulf allies were complicit in over half of the deaths and injuries of children in Yemen last year.

“The killing and maiming of children remained the most prevalent violation” of children’s rights in Yemen, the 41-page paper says, as cited by FP. “In the reporting period, attacks carried out by air were the cause of over half of all child casualties, with at least 349 children killed and 333 children injured,” the report added, urging that Riyadh and its allies be added to a black list of countries violating children's rights.

video 2:50

Shocking Images of Starved Kid Show Horrors of Yemen’s Civil War

This civil war has become a proxy war as Iran wants to spread its influence in the Middle East and Saudi Arabia wants to prevent that. The horrors of Yemen, like Nigeria, are largely ignored by the western press because Americans are not involved in either. American narcissism makes such death and destruction mostly irrelevant.


A woman rests on a bed next to her malnourished son at a hospital in the Red Sea port city of Houdieda, Yemen Setember 9, 2016. © Abduljabbar Zeyad / Reuters

The horrors of Yemen’s civil war have been encapsulated by photographs showing a toddler suffering from severe malnutrition. UNICEF estimates that 320,000 children are facing starvation, while over two million youngsters need urgent assistance.

The images, which were captured by a Reuters photographer, show the six-year-old boy Salim Musabih sitting on a bed beside his mother. His bones and ribcage stick out from under his skin as he sits in just his nappy.


A malnourished boy lies on a bed at a hospital in the Red Sea port city of Houdieda, Yemen September 9, 2016. © Abduljabbar Zeyad / Reuters

In another photograph, which was taken in the port city of Al-Hudaydah, the toddler’s arm is so thin that he is able to wrap his lips around it. The size of a fly on his left arm in comparison to the size of the limb itself also portrays just how dire his condition is.

“They came from a destroyed area where there is no food, pure water or infrastructure. They were starving, the only food they had was from the sea,” hospital volunteer Ibrahim Al Kalee told UAE’s 7days newspaper.

The boy is said to have arrived at the Al-Thawra Hospital with his mother, after the village they were living in was struck by severe food shortages due to a lack of imports, caused by the security situation.

“The children are suffering from Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) in Hodeida governorate,” said Rajat Madhok, Chief of Communication and Advocacy at UNICEF Yemen told the daily.

Salim is just one of 320,000 youngsters who are suffering from severe malnutrition, according to a UNICEF report published in August. The UN children’s agency added that 2.2 million kids are in need of urgent humanitarian assistance.

Poor sanitation and lack of access to clean water are widespread in the country, which has increased health risks for children. Shortages of fuel have also made it hard to deliver water to one of the most water-scarce countries on the planet, according to UNICEF.

On September 10, 30 people were killed after several airstrikes on a water well in a village in Sana’a governorate, which was condemned by the UN’s top humanitarian official in Yemen.

“I remain deeply disturbed by the unrelenting attacks on civilians and on civilian infrastructure throughout Yemen by all parties to the conflict, which are further destroying Yemen’s social fabric and increasing humanitarian needs, particularly for medical attention at a time when the health sector is collapsing,” the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Yemen, Jamie McGoldrick said on Tuesday.

The conflict has been raging for 18 months and has been worsened by often indiscriminate airstrikes conducted by the Saudi-led coalition against Houthi rebel forces.

“We have seen for example attacks against schools rendering them unusable so that children have not been able to start the academic year,” Lama Fakih, a senior crisis adviser at Amnesty International told RT in August.

“We’ve seen the Saudis also use a banned cluster munitions which act as landmines when they are left in civilian areas and are particularly problematic for children, who mistake them for toys and move them around and end up being causalities of this weapons,” she added.

Yemen’s civil war has cost the country $14 billion so far, according to a confidential joint report compiled by the World Bank, UN, the Islamic Development Bank, and the European Union.

Luxury – Not Poverty – in the Palestinian Authority

Luxurious living on the West Bank

House of a Palestinian businessman. Looks like he's doing alright.

Alongside the slums of the old refugee camps, which the Palestinian government has done little to rehabilitate, a parallel wealthy Palestinian society is emerging.

In communities throughout the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, a surprising degree of luxury exists alongside the poverty. This study includes “A Photo Album of Palestinian Luxury in the West Bank,” offering a more complete picture of living standards there. The truth is that alongside the slums of the old refugee camps, which the Palestinian government has done little to rehabilitate, a parallel Palestinian society is emerging.

When we think of the Palestinian areas of the West Bank, we think of refugee camps like these:


Balata refugee camp near Nablus


 Balata refugee camp near Nablus


Beit Jibrin refugee camp in Bethlehem


Jenin refugee camp


Deheishe refugee camp in Bethlehem

Palestinian Refugees
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) defines a refugee as someone who, “owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to, or owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country.”

The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) defines Palestinians as “persons whose normal place of residence was Palestine during the period 1 June 1946 to 15 May 1948, and who lost both home and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 conflict.” The descendants of male Palestinian refugees, including adopted children, are also eligible for registration. When the Agency began operations in 1950, it was responding to the needs of about 750,000 Palestine refugees. Today, some 5 million Palestine refugees are eligible for UNRWA services.

This unorthodox UNRWA definition of “refugee” eternalizes the Palestinian refugee problem. Sixty-three years is time enough for three, perhaps four, generations. Imagine the grandchildren or great-grandchildren of Jewish refugees who came to the U.S. after the Holocaust referring to themselves as refugees.

Moreover, given the UN definition of a refugee is someone “outside the country of his nationality,” how can there be refugees living within the Palestinian Authority?

As of July 1, 2014, 762,288 refugees were said to be living in 19 camps spread out in the West Bank. Over the past 67 years the UN and the U.S. have poured billions into the camps to upgrade living conditions. What Palestinian advocates like to call “camp shelters” are typically 4-5 story concrete apartment buildings with electricity, kitchens, satellite television and municipal garbage collection.  According to the UN, 99.8% of camp shelters are “connected to water networks” and 87% are “connected to sewerage networks.”

The Economist reported that by 2013 almost 70 percent of West Bank Palestinian refugees lived outside the refugee camps. However, the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) seeks to maintain the camps and opposes and prevents refugee resettlement. As the PLO slogan goes, A Palestinian refugee never moves out of his camp except to return home (i.e., to Israel).

Unlike all other refugees in previous centuries who were absorbed in their countries of residence, the issue of Palestinian refugees remains on the world agenda due to a political decision by the Arab states to keep them as “refugees.”

After the 1948 war, Jordan and Egypt could have absorbed the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, which they controlled as part of their own countries. Yet the political motivations of the Arabs for keeping the Palestinian refugee issue alive are clear. Both Arab governments and the Arab League opposed granting citizenship to Palestinian refugees in their countries because it would undermine the use of the right of return to eliminate the Jewish state. The end result was that the Palestinian refugees became political pawns.

This fact was stated succinctly by the former head of UNRWA, Ralph Galloway: “The Arab states do not want to solve the refugee problem. They want to keep it as an open sore, as an affront to the UN, and as a weapon against Israel. Arab leaders do not give a damn whether Arab refugees live or die.”

Moreover, calling these people refugees makes no sense. Few if any live in tent camps or temporary residences. Most own their homes and live in areas of towns that can be classified as working class neighborhoods. Rather than refugees, they are simply the recipients of assistance, mainly for education and health.

The Other Side of the West Bank Palestinian Story
There is more to this story, a side often overlooked. In communities throughout the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, a surprising degree of luxury exists alongside the poverty. After receiving billions of dollars in Western aid over many decades, major improvements are visible in the standard of living in the West Bank, as seen in newly-constructed buildings, late-model cars, and luxury items.

This study offers an often overlooked window into life in the Palestinian Authority. The empirical data, together with the photographic evidence sourced here, provide a more complete picture of living standards in the West Bank.  The truth is that alongside the slums of the old refugee camps, which the Palestinian government has done little to rehabilitate, a parallel Palestinian society is emerging.

Marwan Asmar, a Jordan-based journalist with a PhD in political science from Leeds University in the UK, described this phenomenon upon returning to the West Bank after 30 years:

There has been a total transformation since I was last in Howara in the West Bank in 1985. One can see a buzz of activity at the shops, restaurants, offices and cafes. This wasn’t the sleepy village I saw long ago. Buildings, villas, mosques and rest areas have been constructed everywhere. There is even a swimming pool.

This was certainly not the picture I had in mind. This was not the picture the media presents – of Palestinians surviving on daily wages of $2 as pointed out by the World Bank, of high unemployment and pockets of poverty. The people I spoke to here said many worked as laborers in Israel and were paid high daily wages. This is how they could build their houses, they told me.

As speculation continues about renewing the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, it is important to understand how the quality of life in the West Bank has improved and how a new Palestinian society is emerging – one that requires a changed perception of the reality of Palestinian life.

While the Arab world is in the throes of a major melt-down – with widespread violence and destruction in Syria and Iraq, together with serious instability in Lebanon and Egypt – daily life for Arabs in the West Bank offers a stark contrast to those scenes of violence and decline.

Palestinian Quality of Life in the West Bank – Indicators

Foreign Aid
Since the establishment of Palestinian self-rule in the West Bank and Gaza in the mid-1990s, the U.S. government has committed approximately $5 billion in bilateral assistance to the Palestinians, who are among the world’s largest per capita recipients of international foreign aid. Overall, Palestinians receive approximately $2 billion in aid each year. Palestinian economic analysts estimate that the PA has received a total of $25 billion in financial aid during the past two decades.

Poverty
The CIA World Factbook reported the poverty rate in the West Bank as 18% in 2011, in contrast to Israel’s poverty rate in 2012 of 21%.

Life Expectancy
In 2015, life expectancy in the West Bank was 76 years.  This was notably higher than the life expectancy in Arab states of 71 years (in 2012), and the average life expectancy around the world of 70 years.

Infant Mortality
In 2015, the infant mortality rate in the West Bank and Gaza was 13 per 1,000 live births, compared with 27 per 1,000 live births in the Arab states in 2013 and 36.58 per 1,000 live births in the world in 2014.

Literacy
In 2015 the literacy rate for people aged 15 and above in the West Bank and Gaza was 96.5%.

Education
In 2011, when Palestinians were asked “Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with the education system?” 63.5% answered “satisfied”, a higher percentage than the U.S. (62.8), Netherlands (60.3), Sweden (61.6) or Japan (54.6).  The overall percentage in Arab states was 50.0%.

Water Resources
Palestinians insist that they suffer from water shortages due to Israeli policies. However, data shows that Israel has fulfilled all of its obligations according to the signed water agreements with the PA. The development of water supply systems for Palestinian communities has been carried out on an extensive scale, much larger than that called for in the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement.

From 1967-1995 (prior to the signing of the Interim Agreement), the total amount of water supplied to the Palestinians in Judea and Samaria increased from 66 to 120 million cubic meters per year. This additional water was mainly used for domestic consumption. During this period, the number of towns and villages connected to running water through modern supply systems increased from four to 309 communities. In March 2010, 641 of 708 Palestinian communities, which include more than 96 percent of the Palestinian population, were found to be connected to a running water network. Water supply networks for an additional 16 villages (encompassing an additional 2.5 percent of the population) were under construction.

Palestinians claim that the water consumption of the average Israeli is four times greater than that of the average Palestinian. However, this claim is not factually supported. In 1967, there was indeed a large gap in the per capita consumption of water between Israelis and Palestinians due to the ancient water supply systems that existed in the West Bank under British and then Jordanian rule, which needed upgrading. This gap, however, was reduced during the Israeli administration period and the difference is now negligible. The per capita consumption of natural, fresh water in Israel is 150 m3/c/y and in the PA 140 m3/c/y.

In Jordan and Syria, most towns and villages are still not connected to running water. In Amman and Damascus, water distribution takes place only once or twice each week. According to the PA, roughly 33.6 percent of their water leaks from internal pipelines, compared with 11 percent in Israel. Moreover, the Palestinians have violated their part of the water agreements by refusing to build sewage treatment plants (despite available international financing). Thus, raw sewage discharged from Palestinian communities flows freely in many streams in the West Bank.

Palestinian Employment in Israel
In 2014, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, the official newspaper of the Palestinian Authority, published an article lauding Israeli employers for their treatment of Palestinian workers in Israel. The article stated, “Whenever Palestinian workers have the opportunity to work for Israeli employers, they are quick to quit their jobs with their Palestinian employers – for reasons having to do with salaries and other rights….The salaries of workers employed by Palestinians amount to less than half the salaries of those who work for Israeli employers.”

“The [Israeli] work conditions are very good, and include transportation, medical insurance and pensions. These things do not exist with Palestinian employers….Muhammad Al-Hinnawi, a construction worker, says: ‘I receive a daily salary of 70 shekels, without pension, and I have no other choice.’ By contrast, Thaer Al-Louzi, who used to work for an Israeli concrete factory, notes: ‘I received a salary of 140 shekels a day. Now, after I was injured, I receive a salary through the insurance.’”

According to Bassem Eid, founder of the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group, 92,000 Arabs from the West Bank work in Israel each day.

Happiness
According to the 2012 Happy Planet Index – a survey conducted by the New Economics Forum to measure happiness around the world – the Palestinian Authority was the third happiest Arab country and the 30th happiest in the world, making the PA happier than many developed countries like the US, UK, Sweden, Australia and Canada.

Algeria – 52.2
Jordan – 51.7
Palestinian Authority – 51.2
Iraq – 49.2
Tunisia – 48.3
Morocco – 47.9
Syria – 47.1
Saudi Arabia – 46.0
Yemen – 43.0
Lebanon – 42.9
Libya – 40.8
Egypt – 39.6
Sudan – 37.6
Djibouti – 37.2
Comoros – 36.5
Mauritania – 32.3
UAE – 31.8
Kuwait – 27.1
Bahrain – 26.6
Qatar – 25.2

A Photo Album of Palestinian Luxury in the West Bank

Completing the Picture of Palestinian Life in the West Bank
Ramallah’s landscape is undergoing a transformation. Multi-story villas fronted by ornamental porticos and columns are rising on Ramallah’s hilltops along with glass and marble office buildings. There are newly paved roads. Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts opened Ramallah’s first five-star hotel. The 172-room, $40 million hotel boasts a head chef imported from Florence, a pastry chef from Paris, and a lobby bedecked in marble and Italian suede.

Across the West Bank, similar scenes are unfolding. Building cranes pierce the sky. Outside Nablus, new car dealerships sell everything from BMWs to Hyundais. In Ramallah, the Mercedes dealership does a brisk business selling luxury-class sports cars and sport-utility vehicles to wealthy Palestinians with sticker prices ranging from $100,000 to $200,000. The Hirbawi Home Center opened just outside Jenin. The five-story shopping mall cost $5 million. Fireworks marked the opening. On the fifth floor in-demand electric gadgets may be found: enormous TV screens, vacuum cleaners, espresso machines. The prices are not much cheaper than in Israel, perhaps except for the furniture. One can find china plates, crystal, and classical furniture. The chain’s CEO, Ziad Turabi, says, “We believe we can make a very handsome profit. Many people in the…territories have money but they have nowhere to spend it if they’re after quality. We offer them the best quality there is.”

This may not sound like the familiar description of the West Bank – the impoverished Palestinian village or the overcrowded refugee camp, a population sustaining itself on international aid. But it turns out that quite a few Palestinians consider a plasma screen, a surround sound stereo and comfortable chairs to be fairly essential items.


The West Bank: Cities and Towns Featured in the Photos


Ramallah


Palestinian Trade Tower, Ramallah

“In Ramallah it is difficult to get a table in a good restaurant. There are new apartment buildings, banks, brokerage firms, luxury car dealerships and health clubs.”34


Bank of Palestine, Ramallah


Padico House, Ramallah

There are a couple dozen more photos of modern office buildings, luxury resort hotels, and fabulous villas that should more properly be called palaces, here. Who is using all these hotels? It's mind-boggling.

'Save Us from ISIS or Bomb Us with Chemical Weapons,' Pleads Iraqi Woman

A woman presumably from Fallujah, Iraq, has made an emotional appeal in a Facebook video that can’t be independently verified. She says her city is starving and called on the world to save them from jihadists or just bomb the town with chemical weapons.

The video appeared on Facebook on Thursday. Though the description under the footage says the video was shot in Fallujah, it isn’t possible to independently verify the location and the date the video was recorded.

In the footage the woman claims that she and her family are starving. She is seen pointing to a tiny casserole dish, apparently containing what’s left of the food for her family.

“We are dying of hunger. The Arab states, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, think of us, think of the people of Fallujah,” she says, as translated by the Jerusalem Post.

She says that the four entrances to Fallujah “are blocked” and that the local residents have no “access to food, drinks or medicine.”

“I invite you to come to Fallujah, go to the hospital and see the distress the people have been living in,” she said, apparently addressing the international community.

“Save us from Islamic State or bomb us with chemical weapons

so we will immediately die and not have a slow, agonizing death,”

She shouts emotionally.

US history in Fallujah

Fallujah was heavily affected by the 2003 US-led invasion in Iraq, according to reports from Human Rights Watch. In the report dubbed ‘Violent Response: The US Army in al-Falluja’, the group said US authorities should investigate the apparent use of excessive force against Iraqi protesters there in April 2003. 

HRW cited local witnesses who said that US soldiers fired without provocation, killing civilians.

In 2004, the Washington Post released an exclusive report, claiming US deployed phosphorous weapons in the city. 

“Insurgents reported being attacked with a substance that melted their skin, a reaction consistent with white phosphorous burns,” the paper stated.

The city of Fallujah in Anbar province was once a prosperous place called “a city of mosques.” However, it now appears to be completely deserted since IS militants took control of it back in January 2014. Since then scores of local residents have been killed, many of them starved to death.

RT visited the besieged city in February and saw areas ravaged in the battle against IS in Iraq. Cars caught in shelling and dilapidated buildings where people once lived and prayed now look like scenes from a post-apocalyptic movie.

The main battles between Iraqi forces and IS extremists have been taking place to the northwest of Fallujah.

IS emerged in Iraq in 2013 as an Al-Qaeda affiliate. In 2014, the terror cell attacked Kurdish-held territory in the northern part of Iraq and seized territories in Iraq’s Sunni heartland, including the cities of Mosul and Tikrit. By August of 2014, IS controlled nearly a third of Iraq.