Everyone on the planet needs clean water. But 783 million people worldwide don’t have it. People in the developing world—particularly in low-income and indigenous communities—are at heightened risk of having their water supply polluted by corporations that are constructing dams, mining for natural resources, or undertaking other megaprojects. As companies proceed with these projects, they …
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Indigenous peoples, estimated to be between 350-400 million worldwide, literally sit on the majority of the world’s natural resources—whether water, forests, land, or minerals—on the nearly 20 percent of the world’s lands that they inhabit.
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Leading Jewish human rights organization praises report’s focus on protecting the Karen community’s right to determine how their land should be used NEW YORK, NY – American Jewish World Service (AJWS) lauds Human Rights Watch’s latest report, “The Farmer Becomes Criminal,” which focuses on the endemic land confiscation in Burma’s Karen State and the impact …
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A narrow window is quickly drawing shut for Liberia to enact a landmark law that would guarantee millions of its people the right to formally own the land they have long lived on and farmed. If the Liberian legislature fails to pass the bill by a deadline currently set for the end of this month, …
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Many rural Liberians— like the Jogbahn clan of Grand Bassa County— depend on their land to survive. When a British-owned palm oil company attempted to grab and develop their ancestral territory, AJWS grantee Sustainable Development Institute (SDI) successfully pushed back and won.
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Although the majority of Burma’s people live off the land, few Burmese laws give them any control over it. In most cases, the government owns the land, and it’s not difficult for government officials and agencies to take it back—or let a major corporation step in to develop it for their own profit. It’s particularly …
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The rapid growth of mineral mining across Mexico has ravaged local communities. Poverty and disease have soared for workers and people who live near mines and other development projects. The digging has stripped local land—ruining it for farming—and polluted sources of drinking water, multiplying health problems and miscarriages.
Read MoreParashat Beha’alotcha contains one of the many episodes of grumbling during the Israelites’ journey through the desert. Lamenting their limited diet of manna, they nostalgically remember the variety of food they ate in Egypt. A close look at their complaint, and the symbolism of the foods they crave, can shed light on the contemporary issue of global hunger and the current debate over how international food aid from the United States should be delivered.
Read MoreParashat Vayikra catalogues the slicing, pinching, quartering, flaying, scooping, sprinkling and burning that comprised ancient Israel’s practice of korbanot—sacrifices offered in expiation, celebration or thanksgiving to God. Ritual sacrifice was a thoroughly hands-on affair, with both offeror and priest physically participating in the labor. Such gritty involvement in the process must have channeled primal drives …
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