THIRD WORLD RESURGENCE #214 (JUNE 2008)

This issue’s contents:

COVER: 60 years after the Nakba: Zionism, ‘transfer’ and the 1948 Palestinian catastrophe

60 years after the Nakba
By Nur Masalha

1948 was the year of the Nakba, or the 'catastrophe'. The 'catastrophe', the 60th anniversary of which the Palestinians are commemorating this year, was their expulsion from their homeland. Dr Nur Masalha analyses and traces the background to this traumatic event which set into motion a process which eventually resulted in some 70% of the Palestinian people being turned into refugees.

Celebrating the aborted triumph of an amoral nation
By William A Cook

The anniversary of the Day of Independence in Israel is a day of death, not of birth, says William A Cook.

Mahatma Gandhi and the pro-Israeli lobby in the US
By Robi Chakravorti

The recent forced resignation of Gandhi's grandson, Arun Gandhi, from the M K Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence in New York brings to mind the Zionist lobby's bitter criticism of Mahatma Gandhi in the 1980s on account of his strong opposition to the creation of a Jewish homeland in Palestine.

ECOLOGY

Basel Convention members again fail to agree on toxic waste ban
By Hira Jhamtani

Parties to the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal who met in Bali in late June failed to agree to an early implementation of a provision that would ban toxic waste export from developed to developing countries.

HEALTH & SAFETY

Nitrites and cancer
By Oliver Tickell

Research from China suggests that even low levels of nitrites in drinking water can cause cancer. Why is the West ignoring the evidence, asks Oliver Tickell?

ECONOMICS

Rising world prices reinforce need for food security policies
By Martin Khor

The continuing rise in global food prices has served to highlight the need for developing countries to adopt food security policies.

Global economic crisis - Act II
By Michael Lim Mah Hui

As the US subprime crisis intensifies from a financial crisis to one affecting the real economy, the world economy has become the cauldron for a triple witches' brew: a housing crisis, a financial crisis and a commodities crisis.

WORLD AFFAIRS

Artists and assassins in the Land of Promise
By Brad Miller

Mindanao may have long been known as the 'Land of Promise' for poor Filipino settlers and indigenous peoples, but that promise has largely been broken by the predatory activities of wealthy families and multinational corporations.

Agrarian elite foments secession in Bolivia
By Roger Burbach

While the majority of Bolivians are reeling under the impact of rising food prices, a powerful agrarian elite is profiting from the price upsurge. Nurtured by the IMF/World Bank structural adjustment programmes of the 1980s which promoted cash crops such as soy at the expense of domestic food production, this agrarian elite has now become a major political threat to Bolivia's first Indian president, Evo Morales, whom it seeks to topple by fomenting a coup.

WOMEN

The real victims
By TK Rajalakshmi

Attempts by some die-hard groups to force the Indian government to change a penal provision which affords protection to women against dowry harassment have been rebuffed.

VIEWPOINT

Signing 123 Agreement amounts to accepting American hegemony
By MP Veerendra Kumar

India's Congress Party government recently survived a parliamentary vote of no-confidence after its left-wing allies withdrew their support when it became clear that the Manmohan Singh government was determined to press ahead with its civilian nuclear deal with the US. Much of the debate in the parliament focused on the fact that the agreement which would operationalise the deal (the '123 Agreement') would be circumscribed by the Hyde Act which had been passed by the US Congress to enable the US to enter into the deal. The concern is that many of the provisions of the Act would impinge on India's sovereignty - a viewpoint articulated by MP Veerendra Kumar in this piece.

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