By Miri -
Growing up in a middle class home in
Germany in the 1980s and 1990s, I was privileged enough to learn
quite a bit and grow aware of environmental problems. I remember
having to drink UHT milk and my father trying to explain me what had
happened in Chernobyl, which immediately turned me into an opponent of
nuclear energy. I remember watching a puppet play in school about the
depletion of the ozone layer and coming home terrified, urging my
mother to start recycling. When I started travelling and living in
other countries I soon realised that environmental consciousness was
not a universal attitude, and definitely not a Western or a
European one.
In Israeli politics the attitude
towards environmentalism is best summarised by a quote from Pinchas
Sapir, a legendary politician, then Israel's Minister of Finance, who
once asked a parliament member: "what is that ecology
shmecology you are constantly talking about?". This question does not only reflect Sapir's ignorance, but also his disdain and alienation from
environmental trends.
A lot has changed since Sapir's times, and
throughout the years Israel, like many other countries also saw the emergence of two
green parties. However, as opposed to other industrialised countries,
Israel's preoccupation with security and territorial issues has always
overshadowed a deeper interest in the protection of the environment and therefore the state of Israel's ecological
system looks rather grim.
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Sewage pipe at the Jordan River |
Due to industrial and municipal sewage
almost all of the country's rivers and streams, including the Jordan
River, are polluted. This in turn has grave effects on the
biodiversity surrounding those areas, and in the case of the Jordan
River, on the Dead Sea, one of Israel's top tourist sites. Due to
over-exploitation and almost total diversion of the Lower Jordan
River, in addition to the activities of the Dead Sea mineral
extraction industry the Dead Sea has been harmed severely.
Similarly, Israel's marine environment, which is hardly protected at
all, shows signs of significant damage caused by expanding sea-based
infrastructure programs, including natural gas and oil drilling,
desalinisation plants, port expansion etc.
Due to population growth and
urbanisation and a steep rise in automobile use air pollution in
Israel has increased sharply, and the vast majority of solid waste
generated in the country is buried in primitive landfills.
Considering how little attention is
paid to the environment west of the Green Line, the neglect of the
ecological system in the occupied West Bank by Israel is hardly
surprising.
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Sewage water from a settlement on Kfur Thulth land, West Bank |
Time and again, human rights
organisations have criticised the Israeli government for its failure
to construct advanced regional wastewater treatment plants in the
West Bank settlements and an estimated quarter of settlement sewage
is released without treatment. Since settlements are usually located
at higher altitudes, their untreated wastewater flows down to nearby
Palestinian communities and pollute the ground, as well as natural
water sources, such as springs and wells. Sewage water flows not only from the settlements; an
estimated 11 million cubic metres of untreated sewage water are
pumped by the Jerusalem municipality down the Kidron Valley and into
the West Bank.
In addition to that an estimated 96% of
the wastewater stemming from Palestinian communities is not treated
at all. While the Israeli human rights group B'tselem also criticises
the Palestinian Authority (PA) for this neglect, they emphasise
that "the Israeli authorities have delayed approving plans for
building treatment plants, in some cases more than a decade", and
that they further attempted "to force the Palestinian Authority
to connect settlements to the planned treatment plants, and the PA
rejects this demand for political reasons".
In addition to that, Israeli companies
have been accused of dumping often hazardous and toxic waste near
Palestinian communities in the West Bank, rather than spending more
money and processing it properly at hazardous waste management sites
in Israel.
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The lands of Battir |
Although it seems that „security“
issues are always prioritised by the Israeli government, a recent case showed that environmental issues can trump territorial ones.
Friends of the Earth Middle
East (FoEME), a rare joint endeavour by Israelis, Palestinians and
Jordanians to save the environment of the region from further
deterioration, have petitioned the Israeli High Court to halt the
construction of the Separation Barrier around the West Bank village
of Battir. According to FoEME the barrier which would cross through a
valley of naturally irrigated terrace agriculture dating back
thousands of years, would "prevent Battir residents from
continuing their ancient cultivation practices" and "as a
result destroy the integrity of the site". Arguing with
environmental concerns and cultural heritage values, rather than with
political ones, FoEME managed to garner the support of the Israeli
Nature and Parks Authority which backed their petition, which in turn led to a
rare intervention by the Supreme Court which ordered Israeli defense
officials to consider other means to monitor the area.
A lot of the above described threats to
the ecological system would actually require regional cooperation
between otherwise not so friendly parties. Whether these groups will
be capable to join forces for the sake of environmental protection and disregard
political and diplomatic problems is however highly questionable. How anyone in the region is supposed to survive if the environment continues to be destroyed is apparently a different question.
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