#community land ownership
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hot take
everyone should have a free website, just like we should have free land. just one reliable URL, a space, a voice, no strings attached. i think we should do that
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disappointed I might not be able to take the real estate finance class in my program <- insane sentences. what have I become
#ive recently become serious about the thought of trying to start a community land trust im like daydreaming about community ownership of my#building#we’ll have a childcare co-op and a community kitchen….we’ll pay land rent to the manahatta project and have a mutual aid fund#for people who get in a bind#like I know all the details together are impossible without serious money behind it but life could be a dream…#personal#anyway I’m thinking through the steps and they’re like. step one get a job in housing operations (im fucking trying dude) while getting more#into mutual aid communities in my actual neighborhood#step two uh get good at finance. or find someone who is. work at a land trust maybe.#step three: ??
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Do people have the right to own property?
Legally? Yeah you can own land. Morally? That’s a bit more grey. I tend to think land stewardship is a more ethical concept. I often look to my indigenous friends for guidance on this.
#property#property rights#land ownership#owning land#land back#steward of the land#land stewardship#indigenous people#indigenous land#colonialism#colonists#stolen land#leftist#leftblr#communist#socialist#communism#socialism#anti capitalist#anti capitalism#leftist politics#human rights#anon#leftist answers#questions
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If saving nature via a conservation park makes refugees/IDPs out of indigenous people, it isn't real conservation: it some sort of unrealistic fantasy ideal of nature free of human touch. Humans are an important keystone species regardless of how much we like to demonize ourselves as some sort of plague killing the planet.
#why are so many wildlife conservationists enviormental conservationists animal rights activities and climate activists#so fucking anti indigenous#without evene fucking realizing it sometimes#and straight up not caring at others#like the adult who FB bullied an alaskan native teen for helping hunt a whale for his (remote) community#fuck spelling in tags#ive been made aboug this ever since i learned about it#humans are not inherently bad for earth#wild life#conservation#nature#indigenous#refugees#land ownership#wildlife#ecosystem
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any music-related hot takes?
Mate, I started off as a radio tower illegally broadcasting music that was censored by the BBC. I only have music-related hot takes!
Our take of the day is that anyone who thinks punk must stick to a specific aesthetic is not punk, and it's almost always trying to censor even if they might say it's "preserving" it. (Spoiler: their ideas of "aesthetics" are mostly just, you know... it's saying something awful without saying it because you know how bad it sounds? What's that word again? Is it dogwhistling, or is that something else?)
Mind you, it's not as common now as it was in the 2000s, in part because people were gatekeeping against pop punk (which is a different subgenre, chrise, leave them be) and then reached even further to target actual punk groups, but there was a good chunk of time where geezers who were into the early punk scene would mock any new group for being posers, and most of the time, the people they were pitching a fit about were women, minorities, or young people (ah, yeah, hating on the youth: the most punk thing of all, apparently!) As if British punk would be what it is today without people like Poly Styrene, who basically invented the subgenre of Riot Grrl over a decade before it was recognized and fits into all the groups that are now apparently posers. She'd go on stage with a cute bow in her hair and pastel jumper and skirt and braces like she just left school picture day, then scream her head off about identity and oppression so hard that venues had to pause shows to fix the sound systems!
And - And as if punk at the time wasn't constantly toying with how people dress or sound or look, and pushing revolution, all the stuff that people get weird about nowadays. "Oi, these young wannabes don't look like The Clash!" The Clash are great, and also they would have kicked your skull in for being an elitist bigoted prick. Multiple groups can be great! Just admit you became old and boring and Tory-fied just like the parents you used to rebel against, and can't handle a genre that's - that's based on anarchy unless you can look at it through nostalgia.
#ic#I love how most of the micronations are like “I threw molotov cocktails at the Royal Navy and fought government censorship!”#“My leader got arrested for replacing street signs to say we lived at 'Antifascist Circle' and I'm based in anti-elitist art”#“Land ownership deciding one's nationality is STUPID and the internet will bring about a global reassessment of community and values!”#“If the government won't let me pave a fucking DRIVEWAY on my land then they don't get my money!”#“I was recognized CENTURIES before Italy even unified so why is my government less valid than them?!”#and then there's Molossia and Slowjamastan like “I like trains B)” “Slow jams are fun :)”#THANK YOU FOR THIS ALSO PLEASE LISTEN TO POLY STYRENE AND HER BAND X RAY SPECS. Music history that's SO often brushed over#Also recommend the song I didn't link: “I am a poseur”
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Deghele Community writes Chevron, stating that the plaintiffs' claim before the Warri FHC has nothing to do with land ownership or compensation.
Leaders of Deghele Community, under the auspices of Iye Descendants’ Union Council of Elders in Warri Kingdom, have written the Managing Director of Chevron Nigeria Limited, saying the Plaintiffs’ (Benikrukru) claim before the Federal High Court, Warri, “has nothing to do with ownership or title to land, nor compensation.” In the letter titled ‘RE: SETTING THE RECORDS STRAIGHT TO CORRECT THE…
#Deghele Community writes Chevron#stating that the plaintiffs&039; claim before the Warri FHC has nothing to do with land ownership or compensation.
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"In a historic “first-of-its-kind” agreement the government of British Colombia has acknowledged the aboriginal ownership of 200 islands off the west coast of Canada.
The owners are the Haida nation, and rather than the Canadian government giving something to a First Nation, the agreement admits that the “Xhaaidlagha Gwaayaai” or the “islands at the end of world,” always belonged to them, a subtle yet powerful difference in the wording of First Nations negotiating.
BC Premier David Eby called the treaty “long overdue” and once signed, will clear the way for half a million hectares (1.3 million acres) of land to be managed by the Haida.
Postal service, shipping lanes, school and community services, private property rights, and local government jurisdiction, will all be unaffected by the agreement, which will essentially outline that the Haida decide what to do with the 200 or so islands and islets.
“We could be facing each other in a courtroom, we could have been fighting each other for years and years, but we chose a different path,” said Minister of Indigenous Relations of BC, Murray Rankin at the signing ceremony, who added that it took creativity and courage to “create a better world for our children.”
Indeed, making the agreement outside the courts of the formal treaty process reflects a vastly different way of negotiating than has been the norm for Canada.
“This agreement won’t only raise all boats here on Haida Gwaii – increase opportunity and prosperity for the Haida people and for the whole community and for the whole province – but it will also be an example and another way for nations – not just in British Columbia, but right across Canada – to have their title recognized,” said Eby.
In other words, by deciding this outside court, Eby and the province of BC hope to set a new standard for how such land title agreements are struck."
-via Good News Network, April 18, 2024
#canada#indigenous#first nations#haida#british columbia#canadian politics#land back#indigenous peoples#indigenous rights#indigenous land
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Discover how the nation's #1 brewer, Anheuser-Busch, is championing American farmers with the US Farmed Certification! Learn how this initiative supports local agriculture, ensures high-quality ingredients, and boosts sustainability. Check out the full story on how these efforts are shaping the future of US agriculture.
#BEER GROWN HERE: ANHEUSER-BUSCH ADOPTS US FARMED CERTIFICATION (Courtesy Anheuser-Busch) The nation’s 1 brewer#Anheuser-Busch#is making it easier for beer-lovers to “Buy American” with this new certification. Here’s the deal… On March#19#the American Farmland Trust#a national nonprofit that helps to keep American farmers on their land#launched a new US Farmed certification and packaging seal for products that derive at least 95 percent of their agricultural ingredients fr#the nation’s leading brewer#announced that it is the first-mover in adopting the U.S. Farmed certification and seal for several of its industry-leading beer brands. Ai#the seal will first appear on Anheuser-Busch’s Busch Light this May#and Budweiser#Bud Light and Michelob ULTRA have also obtained U.S. Farmed certification. This industry-wide effort will be supported by an Anheuser-Busch#“Choose Beer Grown Here#” to encourage consumers to seek the U.S. Farmed certification and seal when shopping for products. “American farmers are the backbone of th#and Anheuser-Busch has been deeply connected to the U.S. agricultural community and committed to sourcing high-quality ingredients from U.S#” said Anheuser-Busch CEO Brendan Whitworth. “We source nearly all the ingredients in our iconic American beers from hard-working US farmers#and we are proud to lead the industry in rallying behind American farmers to ensure the future of US agriculture#which is crucial to our country’s economy. The US Farmed certification comes at a critical moment for American agriculture. According to AF#within the next 15 years#ownership of over 30 percent of our nation’s agricultural land could be in transition as the current generation of farmers prepares to reti#farmland loss threatens the very foundation of our agricultural capacity#and new and beginning farmers are often challenged to secure the capital needed to enter agriculture. The US Farmed certification hopes to#as well as innovative strategies for transitioning their land to the next generation of farmers. We look forward to other companies joining#” added Whitworth#“so that together we can make an even greater impact and show our support for American farmers.”#certification#American farmers#sustainability
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I want Land
My Grandfather is a Landlord (and he's better than about 99% of them, charging a decent price & even letting me get behind on rent when I lost my job. I obviously paid him back when I was able, but that was me). My Parents bought their house from him
My In-laws own their own house, and and each of their parents own houses
But what do I want to have on my land. Well, I want to grow my own food. My wife's grandfather was a master grafter, and had an orchard he tended every day. My mother (like her grandfather) has an awesome garden, and plans to expand it now that she knows she can do it. Also, my mother can can preserves, and my wife's family cans venison every year they get a hunting license, so we'd have a cellar with our food storage
Also, I want to have my own animals. My In-laws have chickens, and they lay a good half dozen a day (and that's in the slow season). Obviously, my cats, for companionship and pest control. I'm unsure if I want to get Sheep or Goats. Sheep give Wool, which would let us make Clothes. But goats give milk (although I'm lactose intolerant). I don't wanna get cows, because they're high maintenance, lactose intolerant, and my family buys fresh beef every spring
And what is life without a social net. I want to have a big house, with rooms for each kid (4 is the plan), and guest rooms. I also want to have a Casita as a guest house (maybe have my siblings come over for a few weeks, and stay in there)
And with the stuff I grow, I'd have to sell some of it (since you can't tithe a bucket of apples anymore. I don't even know how you'd put that on the slip). Aside from offerings, I'd probably want to sell more to build up extra savings (because I still wanna be a teacher. At least I think I do. Anthropology is also cool, but I'd need extra schooling to get an Anth Job), and to expand everything
So, that's my ambition. I want my own place, where I can form it in my image, where I can spend time with my family, where I can do what I want. Basically, I want to get as close to Exaltation as I can in life
#goals#life goals#ambition#land ownership#home ownership#home garden#garden#honestly I wouldn't be opposed to making it a Mormon Commune#it worked once#until it didn't...#just need to get a bunch of people to pitch in on land#and then we can start our United Order
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Housing is one of the many many issues where it's like. Once you are fully playing magic wand fiat Sim city godking there are some fascinating hard questions and tradeoffs you could spend your whole life digging into. and you would probably get a lot of them wrong and leave the next generation cursing your name. But you could also pass like two national laws and lop like 20% of the cruelty is the point shit right off the top
#many such cases#its also like. well probably never in my lifetime is anyone going to stop the existence of private land ownership#so while its fun to play in that space. lets talk about harm reduction#this is why i love community land trusts btw
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“CITY LOT GARDENER PICKS PRIVATE PLOT,” Toronto Star. April 30, 1942. Page 2. ---- Permit Says "Don Valley," But He Goes Astray --- A stray community gardener, with a permit in his pocket, selected a choice bit of land for his garden the other day. Immediately Parks Commissioner C. E. Chambers started receiving complaints.
The gardener had been given a permit to cultivate a plot in seven acres of land taken over by the city at a tax sale last year, in the Don Valley, just north of the Bloor St. viaduct. The description in the permit was just "Don Valley."
Without benefit of a map, astronomical instruments or a compass, the gardener kept on going until he found suitable port.
Investigating, Mr. Chambers found that the gardener had settled on private property, a part of the E. B. Osler estate. The city had been given considerable property nearby for park purposes, but part of the area, although left open and used by the public for picnics, is still in the estate.
"I understand he has been ordered to move," Mr. Chambers said.
#toronto#don valley#tax sale#community garden#victory garden#public park#land ownership#land transfer#canada during world war 2
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can't stop thinking like this when i see posts
"three types of animals defined by utility and simplified transactional relationship to humans. including categories of productivity, domestic companionship, or passive/threat/disgust/pest":
British and colonial American institutional and folk taxonomy of "the natural world" in the eighteenth century. The unofficial-but-still-influential way of imagining animals in "utilitarian" ways that support material accumulation and colonial "productive land" and "land improvement." Like a secularization of previously explicitly-religious "great chain of being" schema but adapted for Englightenment-era scientific cosmology that reifies racialized imaginaries of environmental space and reinforces class/racial/species hierarchies with technical expertise.

"we have to do something about the distances":
Britain and the United States in the nineteenth century trying to control the globe and conquer "frontiers" and obsessively trying to more quickly and efficiently move trade, industrial products, information, communications, administrators, indentured laborers, and imperial military across seas and vast distances to cement hegemony by utilizing technical expertise with railroad networks, sailing ships, steamships, investments in cartographic surveying, latitude/longitude establishment, canals, and elaborate systems of telegraph lines.
"they should make a big heavy machine beast that can pull tons of black iron across grasslands and such":
British Empire technicians, Canadian administrators, and their US advisers from 1900-1930-ish when the Canadian "federal government also established breeding programs designed to cross cattle with bison or yak to create a new [ultimate] range animal" with "a reserve stock of pure blood bison of the highest potency" and an "enthusiasm for stocking northern [boreal and northern Great Plains] environments with exploitable game populations" when "nothing, in fact, captured the imagination of bureaucrats and private promoters in the early twentieth century more than the idea of importing domesticated reindeer from northern Europe as a the vanguard of a settled and prosperous agricultural civilization in northern Canada." And they partially pursued the project as "a response to the success of Americans" in "assimilating" the Inuit by importing 82,000 European reindeer to Alaska by 1916: "[A]n Alaskan Bureau of Education Report proudly proclaimed [...]: 'within less than a generation, the [slur] throughout northern and western Alaska have been advanced through one entire stage of civilization.'"
And in the same decade with British administrators in Southeast Asia, when they pursued the "purchase of elephants whose labour made possible the logging and transport of this harder-to-reach teak [in Burma]. By the period between 1919 and 1924, elephants represented the largest assets owned by the biggest timber firm operating in the colony […]. This animal capital, of around three thousand creatures, represented [...] the equivalent of roughly a third of the corporation's liabilities [...]. And these elephants must have been busy. This five-year period saw half a million tons of teak exported out of the colony, the overwhelming majority of which was exported by a handful of large British-owned firms. Their ownership of these beasts of burden gave imperial trading firms a considerable advantage."

"america will be a manufacturing nation once more , We're going to build great and terrible machines, so great and terrible they carve the land they walk on, the sun will set and it will rise and the forge will still burn and the hammer will still ring true folks"
Without comment:
[Quote.] [O]n the morning of February 20, 1915, [...] Franklin K. Lane, the secretary of the Interior […] intoned to the crowd, “The seas are now but a highway before the doors of the nations […]. The greatest adventure is before us, the gigantic adventure of an advancing democracy, strong, virile, kindly, and in that advance we shall be true to the indestructible spirit of the American Pioneer.” The fair did not officially commence, however, until President Wilson […] pressed a golden key linked to an aerial tower […], whose radio waves sparked the top of the Tower of Jewels, tripped a galvanometer, and closed a relay, swinging open the doors of the Palace of Machinery, where a massive diesel engine started to rotate. […] [T]he PPIE was organized to commemorate the completion of the Panama Canal […]. As one of the many promotional pamphlets declared, "California marks the limit of the geographical progress of civilization. For unnumbered centuries the course of empire has been steadily to the west." […] One subject that received an enormous amount of time and space was […] the areas of race betterment and tropical medicine. Indeed, the fair's official poster, the "Thirteenth Labor of Hercules," [the construction of the Panama Canal] symbolized the intertwined significance of these two concerns […] that crowned San Francisco as the Jewel of the Pacific. […] The construction of the Panama Canal unfolded against the backdrop of […] the installation of American colonial rule in Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, Guam, and Hawai’i. […] In San Francisco, […] this meant the presence of artifacts such as Fountain of Energy, a strong male mounted on horseback […] crowned by figurines of “Fame” and “Valor.” Referred to by its creator as the Victor of the Canal, this sculpture symbolized “the vigor and daring of our mighty nation […].” In his address titled "The Physician as Pioneer," the president-elect of the American Academy of Medicine, Dr. [W.H.], credited the colonization of the Mississippi Valley to the discovery of quinine […]. [A]t the Pan-American Medical Congress, where its president, Dr. [C.R.] delivered a lengthy address praising the hemispheric security ensured by the 1823 Monroe Doctrine and "the combined genius of American medical scientists […]" in the Canal Zone. […] [A]s [CR]'s lecture ultimately disclosed, his understanding of Pan-American medical progress was based […] on the enlightened effects of "Aryan blood" in American lands. […] [End quote.]
Source: Alexandra Minna Stern. "Race Betterment and Tropical Medicine in Imperial San Francisco." Eugenic Nation: Faults and Frontiers of Better Breeding in Modern America. Second Edition. 2016.
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This is a salient argument for returning land stolen from indigenous people, written by a Caddo/Delaware writer who has spent over a decade as a ranger for the U.S. Forest Service. Our current situation with public lands at risk is yet another example where "we the people" have shown that we cannot be responsible for something so precious, and so the status quo cannot continue. The Landback movement--returning land to indigenous ownership--is one viable solution that has multiple potential benefits.
It's not just the land that has been grossly mishandled, but the rights and lives of indigenous people, too. The article states "It’s been argued that the United States violated every Indian treaty it signed. When a treaty is broken, much like when a home is repossessed, the property exchanged should be returned to its original owner for breach of contract." Landback is one way in which indigenous people are trying to get back at least a little of what has been violently stolen from them over the past few centuries.
Does it mean giving up control? Of course. But with current trends, we don't exactly have a lot of control when state or federal governments decide to allow clearcutting or strip mining on public lands. Will some places be closed off to the public if they end up back in indigenous hands? Perhaps, but at least they wouldn't be forcing the rest of us onto reservations, from which we were not allowed to stray. That's a more merciful treatment than they received.
Even if the general public were no longer allowed on a given piece of land, we would still benefit from its restoration and sustainable stewardship, through cleaner air and water, better biodiversity, and ecosystems allowed to return to more complex states over time. Moreover, indigenous communities would stand to benefit financially from the substantial tourism and other recreational activities on current public lands. Responsible management could balance access to popular sites with minimizing wear and tear, while ecologically fragile or culturally sensitive places could be off-limits.
Why not let something old become something new again, and see if we all fare better for it?
#Landback#Land Back#Indigenous people#Indigenous rights#Native Americans#United States#public lands#National Parks#National Forests#sustainability#habitat restoration#restoration ecology#land stewardship#articles#food for thought
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Miniature dog and khait effigies for a Wardi funeral. These are clay figurines that have been painted and decorated with great care by a skilled artist. Both include real hairs from the individual animals they have been modeled after. The dog is collared, showing that it is a loyal pet rather than a lowly feral scrounger. The khait is fully bridled and ready to carry the deceased in their journey.
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It is believed that the souls of the deceased, once freed of their bodies, undergo a month-long journey to reach rebirth in the lunar lands. This journey is full of perils. It begins in the realm of the earth where the soul is naked and vulnerable and traveling through complete darkness. Evil spirits dwell within this realm and may try to capture the soul or lead them astray, and the way is twisting and obscured in shadows. Even after escaping this darkness, the soul still must travel an arduous and winding path through the realm of the sky in order to reach their destination.
A khait and a dog are traditionally offered as funerary goods (in addition to food, water, wine, clothing, weapons, and other needs) to assist the soul in their travels- the khait will ease their passage in their long journey and carry them swiftly, and the dog will navigate through earthly darkness and dense cloud by scent, and protect the soul from harm.
Ideally, one of the deceased's own living khait and hunting/guard dogs will be killed at the funeral (typically the most beloved of their animals, as who would be better company than that?) so that they can have familiar and loyal helpers in their lonely journey. However, there are tremendous class barriers to ownership and disposability of a khait, and well-bred working dogs (while significantly more accessible) aren't ubiquitously available, and many people do not consider captured feral dogs to be a worthy replacement. As such, funerals with full animal offerings tend to be limited to higher status individuals.
Everyday people still need protection on their journeys, and animal effigies can be appropriate replacements for the real thing. These effigies are usually designed with great specificity to represent known individual animals that have already died (often including the animal's actual hair, as seen here). The soul of the represented animal will recognize the effigy as its body, and can be called into the icon so that it may accompany the deceased. These effigies (along with any other necessary grave goods) will be placed onto the pyre and burned along with the body so that the traveling soul will be sent off with everything they need.
Some folk traditions have semi-legendary local animal spirits who will be represented instead of a personally familiar animal. This often develops around a small community 'sharing' one historically extant animal for their funeral effigies as a matter of practicality, developing a sense of attachment to this animal as an aspect of shared identity, and adding layers of legend to the animal's story with the passage of time.
For example, a very popular legendary guide in the northeastern rural parts of Ephennos is Chisnops-Inreña (which very closely translates to 'Orange Son Of A Bitch'), a legendary livestock guardian dog. The animal was said to have been the biggest, meanest, ugliest motherfucker around, but was an unshakably loyal and fierce guardian, as noble as a dog (not the noblest of animals by any means) can possibly be. He is said to have fought off everything from jackals to lions to cattle thieves in his day, and died protecting his herdsman master from an infamous man-eating king hyena, only succumbing to his own wounds when the great beast lay dead. His spirit was later used as a guide in his master's funeral, and local legend states that the same spirit has been seen following herdsmen and their cattle ever since, as not even death could keep him from his duties. Such a dog would make an excellent guide and protector in the journey to the afterlife, and effigies of him are favored in the funerals of northeastern Ephenni pastoralists.
A lovingly crafted Orange Son Of A Bitch
#Partly a rehash of prev post BUT WITH PICS!!!!!!!#chisnops more literally means 'bitch-born'. The word 'bitch' doesn't have the same breadth of connotations as in english#and pretty directly means 'female dog' but calling someone 'chisnops' is functionally Very close to 'son of a bitch'#Inrenna is a color word for orange. Most of the western Wardi dialects pronounce double N syllables like ñ (in- /rey/ - nya)#while others will enunciate like 'in- /reyn/- nah'. Spelled it inreña here to indicate Ephenni dialect
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JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel has approved the largest seizure of land in the occupied West Bank in over three decades, a settlement tracking group said Wednesday, a move that is likely to worsen already soaring tensions linked to the war in Gaza.
Israel’s aggressive expansion in the West Bank reflects the settler community’s strong influence in the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the most religious and nationalist in the country’s history. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a settler himself, has turbocharged the policy of expansion, seizing new authorities over settlement development and saying he aims to solidify Israel’s hold on the territory and prevent the creation of a Palestinian state.
Authorities recently approved the appropriation of 12.7 square kilometers (nearly 5 square miles) of land in the Jordan Valley, according to a copy of the order obtained by The Associated Press. Data from Peace Now, the tracking group, indicate it was the largest single appropriation approved since the 1993 Oslo accords at the start of the peace process.
Settlement monitors said the land grab connects Israeli settlements along a key corridor bordering Jordan, a move they said undermines the prospect of a contiguous Palestinian state.
U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric called it “a step in the wrong direction,” adding that “the direction we want to be heading is to find a negotiated two-state solution.”
The newly seized land is in an area of the West Bank where, even before the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, settler violence was displacing communities of Palestinians. That violence has only surged since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack ignited the war in Gaza. Settlers have carried out more than 1,000 attacks on Palestinians since October in the West Bank, causing deaths and damaging property, according to the U.N.
The land seizure, which was approved late last month but only publicized on Wednesday, comes after the seizure of 8 square kilometers (roughly 3 square miles) of land in the West Bank in March and 2.6 square kilometers (1 square mile) in February.
That makes 2024 by far the peak year for Israeli land seizure in the West Bank, Peace Now said.
By declaring them state lands, the government opens them up to being leased to Israelis and prohibits private Palestinian ownership.
(continue reading)
#politics#palestine#israel#illegal settlements#west bank#settler violence#settler colonialism#israel is a terrorist state#israel is an apartheid state#land theft#land back#🇵🇸
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For years, the people of the Kitasoo/Xai’xais First Nation watched over their waters and waited. They had spent nearly two decades working with Canada’s federal government to negotiate protections for Kitasu Bay, an area off the coast of British Columbia that was vulnerable to overfishing.
But the discussions never seemed to go anywhere. First, they broke down over pushback from the fishing industry, then over a planned oil tanker route directly through Kitasoo/Xai’xais waters.
“We were getting really frustrated with the federal government. They kept jumping onboard and then pulling out,” says Douglas Neasloss, the chief councillor and resource stewardship director of the Kitasoo/Xai’xais First Nation. “Meanwhile, we’d been involved in marine planning for 20 years – and we still had no protected areas.”
Instead, the nation watched as commercial overfishing decimated the fish populations its people had relied on for thousands of years.
Nestled on the west coast of Swindle Island, approximately 500km north of Vancouver, Kitasu Bay is home to a rich array of marine life: urchins and abalone populate the intertidal pools, salmon swim in the streams and halibut take shelter in the deep waters. In March, herring return to spawn in the eelgrass meadows and kelp forests, nourishing humpback whales, eagles, wolves and bears.
“Kitasu Bay is the most important area for the community – that’s where we get all of our food,” Neasloss says. “It’s one of the last areas where you still get a decent spawn of herring.”
So in December 2021, when the Department of Fisheries and Oceans withdrew from discussions once again, the nation decided to act. “My community basically said, ‘We’re tired of waiting. Let’s take it upon ourselves to do something about it,’” Neasloss says.
What they did was unilaterally declare the creation of a new marine protected area (MPA). In June 2022, the nation set aside 33.5 sq km near Laredo Sound as the new Gitdisdzu Lugyeks (Kitasu Bay) MPA – closing the waters of the bay to commercial and sport fishing.
It is a largely unprecedented move. While other marine protected areas in Canada fall under the protection of the federal government through the Oceans Act, Kitasu Bay is the first to be declared under Indigenous law, under the jurisdiction and authority of the Kitasoo/Xai’xais First Nation.
Pictured: "In some ways, I hope someone challenges us" … the Kitasoo/Xai’xais stewardship authority.
Although they did not wait for government approval, the Kitasoo did consult extensively: the declaration was accompanied by a draft management plan, finalised in October after three months of consultation with industry and community stakeholders. But the government did not provide feedback during that period, according to Neasloss, beyond an acknowledgment that it had received the plan...
Approximately 95% of British Columbia is unceded: most First Nations in the province of British Columbia never signed treaties giving up ownership of their lands and waters to the crown. This puts them in a unique position to assert their rights and title, according to Neasloss, who hopes other First Nations will be inspired to take a similarly proactive approach to conservation...
Collaboration remains the goal, and Neasloss points to a landmark agreement between the Haida nation and the government in 1988 to partner in conserving the Gwaii Haanas archipelago, despite both parties asserting their sovereignty over it. A similar deal was made in 2010 for the region’s 3,400 sq km Gwaii Haanas national marine conservation area.
“They found a way to work together, which is pretty exciting,” says Neasloss. “And I think there may be more Indigenous protected areas that are overlaid with something else.”
-via The Guardian, 5/3/23
#indigenous#indigenous issues#indigenous sovereignty#canada#british columbia#land back#first nations#tribal sovereignty#pacific northwest#marine protected area#conservation#sustainability#overfishing#marine science#canadian government#kitasoo-xai'xais#direct action#good news#hope
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