The Case for Returning U.S. #PublicLands to #IndigenousPeople

by Joe Whittle, Mar 6, 2025

"Since the start of Trump’s second term, his administration has fired thousands of federal workers across multiple public lands agencies, including the National Park Service, the Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The effects of this are vast: It’s going to have a profoundly negative impact on the environment and the way millions of Americans enjoy public lands, cause immeasurable harm to America’s wildest places, and devastate the economies built around them.

"After serving 12 years as a backcountry wilderness ranger for the U.S. Forest Service, I'm convinced there is an alternative: the U.S. needs to return its public lands to Native Americans. In fact, I believe that might be the only way to save our parks and forests from corporate privatization and destruction, as well as preserve public access to them. If the U.S. won’t properly care for its public lands, why not return them to their original caretakers?

"This isn’t a new idea. #NativeAmericans argued that treaty law required
'abandoned' federal land to be returned to tribes during the occupation of #Alcatraz Island by the #AmericanIndianMovement in the 1960s. In more recent years, the #LandbackMovement has given rise to increased calls for the return of territorial land to #IndigenousNations, and the return of land management based in #TraditionalEcologicalKnowledge—expertise gathered from thousands of years of having deep relationships with specific environments. There’s a strong legal argument that land return is constitutionally required as damages due for hundreds of treaty violations. However, there’s also a lot of data showing Indigenous land management is more ecologically sound than government or industrially managed land. For instance, #ProjectDrawdown, a global leader in science-based #ClimateChange solutions, estimates that returning 1,000 million hectares of land to Indigenous tenureship by 2050 would sequester over 12 gigatons of carbon dioxide."

Read more:
https://time.com/7262838/us-public-lands-return-indigenous-people/

Archived version:
https://archive.ph/QnF32

#LandBack #AIM #StolenLand #StolenLands #NationalParks #TEK #ClimateCrisis #ClimateSolutions #IndigenousPeoples #IndigenousPeoplesMonth #GiveItBack #Stewardship #LandIsLife #WaterIsLife #AlcatrazIsland #Resistance #USPol #TrumpSucks #RespectTheTreaties

Today in Labor History November 20, 1969: Indigenous activists seized control of Alcatraz Island, in San Francisco Bay, and occupied it until the U.S. Government ousted them 19 months later. The protest group called themselves Indians of All Tribes. They took the island because, according to the Treaty of Fort Laramie, all retired, abandoned or out-of-use federal land was to be returned to the Indians who once occupied it. Since Alcatraz had been closed for over 6 years, and the island had been declared surplus federal property, indigenous activists believed that the island was theirs to reclaim. One of the organizers of the Occupation, Richard Oakes, was shot to death in 1972 by a white supremacist YMCA counselor in Sonoma, CA. And the American Indian Movement (AIM) was targeted by the FBI’s COINTELLPRO. Other organizers of the Alcatraz Occupation included LaNada Means, head of the Native American Student Organization at the University of California, Berkeley, and poet, musician and songwriter John Trudell. At the height of the movement, there were 400 people occupying the island. They set up a school, daycare center, and health clinic. Trudell began making daily radio broadcasts from the island. The longshore union rented space on Pier 40 to coordinate the delivery of supplies. Grace Thorpe, daughter of Olympic champion and multisport indigenous superstar, Jim Thorpe, helped convince celebrities like Jane Fonda, Anthony Quinn, Marlon Brando, Jonathan Winters, Buffy Sainte-Marie and Dick Gregory, to visit the island and show their support, bringing national and international attention to the cause. AIM also formed coalitions with the Black Panthers and the Brown Berets, who help run security on the island.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #alcatraz #occupation #nativeamerican #indigenous #aim #StolenLand #solidarity #blackpanthers #brownberets #americanindianmovement #jimthorpe #johntrudell #landback

Geen raketten maar bulldozers: Israël sloopt gebouwen in Gaza tijdens staakt-het-vuren: https://www.rtl.nl/nieuws/buitenland/artikel/5538508/graafmachines-verwoesten-gebouwen-gaza

#stopgenocide #onderdrukking #apartheid #stolenland #freepalestine

Native Language #duet #america #native #nativeamerican #nativelanguage #stolenland #racist #OK - YouTube

https://m.youtube.com/shorts/8QN6lPYVBCE

With the #ICE center in #Dallas getting whacked, I am reminded of #anarchist #FolkHero #WillemVanSpronsen now. We don't know who did it this time, but they were apparently targeting detainees, not officers, and the writing on the bullets looks really fake. No #sympathy for #fascist jackboots. Be ready for it to be used to justify a #crackdown, just like with #CharlieKirk. #NoBorders on #StolenLand.

#FuckICE #FreeThemAll #ChingaLaMigra

Israeli Parliament Votes for Making #Apartheid Official. #Fetterman: “I Haven’t Been Following It.”

Israel’s Parliament voted in favor of annexing the #WestBank. Other Democrats interviewed by The Intercept condemned the move.

Jessica Washington, July 26 2025

Excerpt: "The nonbinding resolution, which was advanced by Prime Minister Benjamin #Netanyahu’s coalition and passed 71-13 in the Knesset, won’t legally change the reality in the West Bank — but it marks an escalation in the Israeli government’s efforts to annex the territory.

"Four Democrats in the Senate and House who spoke to The Intercept condemned the Israeli government’s vote. Others said they hadn’t been following the issue. Fetterman was one of three senators who told The Intercept on Thursday they were unaware of the Knesset vote. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, declined to comment.

"The resolution in the Knesset, or Parliament, called to apply 'Israeli sovereignty, law, judgment and administration to all the areas of Jewish settlement of all kinds in Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley' — which is how most Israelis refer to the West Bank.
Currently, 3 million Palestinians reside in the West Bank, alongside over 500,000 Israeli settlers, who’ve established settlements in the occupied territory in violation of international law.

"Annexation of the West Bank would be at odds with the U.S. official policy goal for two states — one for Palestinians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, and one state for Israel comprising its pre-1967 borders.

"The two-state solution has won official backing from successive presidents dating back to the late 1990s — except for Donald #Trump — to assuage concerns over Israel having permanent control over millions of Palestinians without full civil rights.

"Though the conditions already exist — there is a growing consensus that Israel in an apartheid state — making this control officially permanent would make apartheid indisputable.

"Both Democratic and Republican administrations have repeatedly undermined the possibility of a two-state solution by arming Israel as it continues to attack Palestinian people and seize their territory, which lawmakers in Congress have made excuses for.
As public sentiment turns against Israel, however, with voters increasingly opposing the Netanyahu government’s genocide in Gaza, some members of Congress have been more willing to criticize the Israeli regime."

Full article:
https://theintercept.com/2025/07/26/fetterman-israel-annex-vote-apartheid/

Archived version:
https://archive.ph/LgGMf

#TwoState #FreePalestine #FreeGaza #OccupiedPalestine #WorldPol #EndTheBlockade #GazaGenocide #IsraeliWarCrimes #BibiIsAWarCriminal #Starvation #WarCrimes #StolenLand #USPol #JohnFetterman

From 2021: #Palestine’s forgotten oil and gas resources

A fair distribution of #Oil and gas resources in the Levant Basin will be needed to achieve a lasting political and economic settlement between Israel and Palestine.

by Mahmoud Elkhafif
Published On 21 Jun 2021

Excerpt: "The prolonged closure and recurrent military operations in Gaza have left more than half the territory’s population living below the poverty line and cost $16.7bn in lost GDP annually. This figure does not account for the huge opportunity cost of preventing the Palestinian people from using their natural gas field off the shores of Gaza.

"The 1995 Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement on the #WestBank and #GazaStrip, known as the #OsloII Accord, gave the #PalestinianAuthority (PA) maritime jurisdiction over its waters up to 20 nautical miles from the coast. The PA signed a 25-year contract for gas exploration with the#BritishGas Group in 1999, and a large gas field, #GazaMarine, was discovered at 17 to 21 nautical miles off the coast of Gaza the same year. However, despite initial discussions between the Israeli government, the PA and British Gas on the sale of gas from this field and the provision of much-needed revenue to the occupied Palestinian territories, the Palestinians have not realised any benefits.

"Since the blockade of Gaza in 2007, the Israeli government has established de facto control over Gaza’s offshore natural gas reserves. The contractor, British Gas, has since been dealing with the Israeli government, effectively bypassing the Palestinian government regarding exploration and development rights.

"Israel has also taken control of the #Meged oil and natural gas field, located inside the occupied #WestBank. Israel states that the field lies west of the armistice line of 1948, yet most of the reservoir is situated beneath the #PalestinianTerritory occupied since 1967.

"More recently, Israel has begun to develop new oil and gas finds in the Eastern Mediterranean, solely for its own benefit.

"In commandeering and exploiting Palestinian oil and gas resources, Israel is acting in violation of the letter and the spirit of #TheHague Regulations, the Fourth #GenevaConvention and a body of international #humanitarian and #HumanRights law that addresses the exploitation of common resources by an occupying power, without regard for the interest, rights and shares of the #occupied population."

https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2021/6/21/palestines-forgotten-oil-and-gas-resources

#OccupiedPalestine #FreePalestine #WorldPol #FreeGaza #FreePalestine #EndTheBlockade #GazaGenocide #RoyalDutchShell #IsraeliWarCrimes #BibiIsAWarCriminal #IsraeliIsAPetroState #BritishGas #PetroCriminals #ShellOil #BigOilAndGas #Oiligarchy #LevantBasin #Starvation #WarCrimes #StolenLand

Behind #Israel’s ‘#EndGame’ for #Gaza: Theft of #OffshoreGas reserves

By Betsey Piette
November 14, 2023

"In 1999, #BritishGas (BG) discovered the existence of natural gas in the Gaza Marine fields, 20 nautical miles off the coast of Gaza, at a depth of 610 meters below the surface. Further exploration by BG through two successful wells — Gaza Marine 1 and Gaza Marine 2 — determined the field could contain up to 1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. (EgyptOil-Gas.com, April 5, 2018)

"The Palestinian Authority was 'granted' the right to exercise sovereignty over its own maritime territory by the Oslo Accords in 1995. Four years later, following the findings of the offshore natural gas, the PA gave the international consortium BG a 25-year, 90% stake in a license to explore, develop any discovered fields, and install the required infrastructure. Since that time Israel has consistently blocked this development.

"In 2002, the PA approved BG’s proposals to construct a pipeline to a processing facility in Gaza. However, the Israeli state delayed this development, arguing that the pipeline should run to an Israeli-controlled port, and that Palestinians would have to supply Gaza Marine surplus fuel to Israel at far below market price.

"When Hamas won the Palestinian legislative elections in Gaza in 2007, Israel established a militarized naval blockade, prohibiting further offshore development. Around the same time, #YamThetis, an Israeli gas consortium, challenged the awarding of the contract to BG, further delaying the process.

"In December 2008, in total contravention of international laws, Israel declared sovereignty over the Gaza Marine area, and BG closed its offices in Tel Aviv.

"#RoyalDutchShell bought out BG’s interests in the #GazaMarineFields for $52 million in 2016. By March 2018, Royal Dutch Shell backed out of their investment, leaving the PA to search for a replacement company to develop the field. (EgyptOil-Gas.com, April 5, 2018)."

Read more:
https://iacenter.org/2023/11/15/behind-israels-end-game-for-gaza-theft-of-offshore-gas-reserves/

#WorldPol #FreeGaza #FreePalestine #EndTheBlockade #GazaGenocide
#IsraeliWarCrimes #BibiIsAWarCriminal #IsraeliIsAPetroState #BritishGas #PetroCriminals #ShellOil #BigOilAndGas #Oiligarchy #LevantBasin #Starvation #WarCrimes #StolenLand