Burning Forests, Rising Power: Towards a Constitutionality Process in Mount Carmel Biosphere Reserve (2025)

[Review] Irus Braverman. Settling Nature: The Conservation Regime in Palestine-Israel. University of Minnesota Press, 2023. 362 pp, ISBN 978-1-5179-1526-1

Animal Studies Journal, 2024

Irus Braverman's latest book, Settling Nature, brings together her recently published essays on the topic of environmental conservation in Palestine-Israel with updated material. Braverman is a well-known scholar in Environmental Studies. I first came across her work many years ago, through her book Planted Flags (2009) that looked at the politics of tree-planting in Israel and

Love of Land: Nature Protection, Nationalism, and the Struggle over the Establishment of New Communities in Israel.

Rural Sociology, 2019

Although there is burgeoning research on environmental activism, few studies have examined the interrelationship between nationalism and nature protection in detail. This article examines how groups manage the tension between national commitment and caring for the environment. It focuses on two opposing Israeli activist groups: a settler movement that aims to establish new communities in the fast‐dwindling Israeli open expanses and a “green” movement intent on preserving open spaces. Our observations, interviews, and textual analysis show that both groups believe themselves to be committed to the protection of nature, and that both groups see environmental responsibility as an integral aspect of their Zionist identity. However, the Israeli green movement sees abstaining from interventions in nature and adhering to sustainable development as Zionist because it preserves Israel for future generations. Conversely, the settler movement sees active intervention in nature—by building new communities, planting trees, and hiking—as the proper way to protect Israeli natural expanses and to maintain the livelihood of Israeli society. Our case study demonstrates that, although environmental movements often aspire to universalism, local movements also interlace environmentalism and nationalism in ways that generate multiple (and even contradictory) interpretations of the appropriate way to care for nature.

BALFOUR COMMUNITY FOREST: LINKING FOREST USE AND MANAGEMENT THROUGH PUBLIC PARTICIPATION IN ISRAEL

Community Forests play an important role within the urban green space. Such forests represent nature close to where people live, offer unique recreational settings, and provide special educational environments, e.g. for children and people with special needs. The objective of this article is to link recreational forest use and management by elaborating a sustainable development concept for a peri-urban forest and by showing approaches of how local communities can participate in the processes of planning, designing, establishing, and managing their forest. This article contributes the example of the participatory development concept for Balfour Forest. The area is located in northern Israel, and it is part of a replanted forest network around Nazareth. It constitutes a cultural landscape that origins from the 20th century, representing the unique legacy of forestation efforts in Israel, with some plantings dating back as far as the British Mandate Period. The case of the Balfour Community Forest is presented and approaches to shaping peri-urban forests according to the (ever changing) preferences and needs of local urban societies are discussed. Such approaches imply that peri-urban forests are managed on the basis of differing local needs and use preferences in order to become sustainable cultural landscapes.

Preface and Introduction to Settling Nature: The Conservation Regime in Palestine-Israel

like to thank my children, River and Tamar, who joined my many fieldwork trips to Palestine-Israel and who endured my absence on so many other occasions. At its core, this book contests binaries. Binaries between nature and culture, human and nonhuman, settler and native, 1948 and 1967, domestic and wild, and mobility and immobility emerge throughout, demonstrating the violence inherent in this juxtaposed way of thinking. I dedicate this book to my son, River, who has been working through binaries himself, with courage that I can only wish upon the rest of the world. The right half of a larger poster entitled "Wild Animals of the Bible" displays an imaginary biblical menagerie in the Holy Land. The griffon vulture features at the center of this image, the Asiatic wild asses are situated behind the vulture, and the gray wolf is on her left; the gazelle is at the bottom left corner and the golden eagle appears on the top left, with camels, cows, sheep, and even a human shepherd in the distant background. Settling Nature relays the contemporary conservation management stories of many of these animals. Courtesy of D. Kalderon, www.holylandguides.com.

Oppressive Pines: Uprooting Israeli Green Colonialism and Implanting Palestinian A'wna

Politics, 2023

This article provides a comprehensive overview of Israeli green colonialism, denoting the apartheid state's misappropriation of environmentalism to eliminate the Indigenous people of Palestine and usurp its resources. I focus on the violence of 'protected areas', encompassing national parks, forests, and nature reserves. This article argues that Israel primarily establishes them to (1) justify land grab; (2) prevent the return of Palestinian refugees; (3) dehistoricise, Judaise, and Europeanise Palestine, erasing Palestinian identity and suppressing resistance to Israeli oppression; and (4) greenwash its apartheid image. I situate Israeli green colonialism within the broader histories of Western environmentalism-particularly its perpetuation of the human-nature binary-and Zionism. Furthermore, I identify various means through which Palestinians and their land resist this phenomenon. I also explore Palestinian environmentalism, which is influenced by the concepts of a'wna (collaboration), sumud (steadfastness), and a'wda (return), in addition to the Islamic concept of tawhid (unity). I offer it as an alternative environmentalism, which is holistic, anti-racist, feminist, socialist, and nonlinear, while rejecting the trope of the ecological savage. Overall, the intrinsic link between all humans, and them and the environment must be recognised, to realise a just and sustainable society, in Palestine and beyond.

Planting the Promised Landscape: Zionism, Nature, and Resistance in Israel/Palestine

This article reveals the complex historical and cultural processes that have led to the symbiotic identification between pine trees and Jewish people in Israel/Palestine. It introduces three tree donation techniques used by Israel, then proceeds to discuss the meaning of nature in Israel, as well as the meaning of planting and rooting in the context of the Zionist project. The article concludes by reflecting on the ways that pine trees absent Palestinian presence and memory from the landscape, and explains how Palestinian acts of aggression toward these pine landscapes relate to the Israel/Palestine relationship.

To populate or preserve? Evolving political-demographic and environmental paradigms in Israeli land-use policy

Land Use Policy, 2009

There has been a recent proliferation of national land-use policies that emphasize protecting open space and ecosystem integrity. However, countries grappling with internal political conflict, or that are engaged in military conflicts with neighboring countries, have priorities that focus on control of land in areas where state sovereignty is perceived to be threatened. These two concerns, political-demographic control and environmental protection, create very different paradigms for how to think about open space policy. The objective of this paper is to consider the impact of competing paradigms in land-use policy formulation and implementation-one that encourages sprawl and the other that encourages compact development and the preservation of open space. We use Israel as a case study where both political demography and environmental land-use paradigms are currently influencing policy and planning. We explore the historical evolution of both land-use paradigms and consider how they are currently competing in the formulation and execution of land-use policy decisions. We consider how these distinct priorities are playing out in current discourse and policy implementation, and characterize the past, current and prospective future physical outcomes of policies on the landscape. Our goal is to alert policy makers and land-use scholars of the subtle and contradictory influence of political-demographic land-use priorities with regard to their potential impact on the successful implementation of environmental policies. The Israeli case study is indicative of a diversity of countries that have a history of political-demographic land-use policies, but have also begun to adopt environmentally motivated policies.

From Sacred Grove to National Park: The Tale of Hurshat Tal in Israel

Landscape Journal, 2013

This paper presents Hurshat Tal (literally Dew Grove) in the Upper Galilee as a case study for one of the fiercest disputes in the history of landscape conservation in Israel. A proposal to convert this ancient grove, a sacred site for Muslims and the sole remnant of an ancient forest of Tabor oak that once extended over the country's northern region, into a recreation resort highlights the profound differences between the desire to "beautify" and "improve" the landscape and the commitment to preserve natural and cultural remnants of the past. This paper underlines the conflict between the scientific interest of naturalists and the interests of the planning and tourism bodies, and describes the central role played by landscape architects Lipa Yahalom and Dan Zur, who endowed the ancient grove with a new visual image and cultural identity.

Beyond the Natural Scenes of Palestinian Nature Reserves

Israel's New Bible of Forestry and the Pursuit of Sustainable Dryland Afforestation (2012)

After several decades of dramatic reform in forestry practices, the Keren Kayemeth L'Yisrael (KKL) compiled the new orientation and specific management changes in a comprehensive policy entitled the Forestry Bible. While Israel's foresters origi-nally planted monoculture "pioneer" pine plantations, the new orientation calls for diverse, indigenous, naturally regenerating woodlands and their rich suite of ecosystem services. Timber production has been downgraded and is not to be a priority for Israel's dryland forests. Rather, a suite of maximization of ecosystem services with a particular emphasis on recreation and conservation drives much of the present strategy. The article highlights the evolution of Israel's forestry policies and details the new approach to afforestation and forestry maintenance and its rationale. Restoring the vast natural woodlands destroyed during the past century con-stitutes one of the primary challenges for the world's environ...

Zionism and agricultural land: National narratives, environmental objectives, and land policy in Israel

Land Use Policy, 2010

The 1990s saw two different and even contradictory trends in Israel. On the one hand, there was a substantial increase in environmental awareness, on the part of both the general public and decision-makers, that led to a change in the land use planning policy at the national level. On the other hand, the Israel Lands Council (ILC), the body empowered by law to shape the national land policy, made a series of decisions that severely violated the principle of preserving agricultural land and led to massive conversion of agricultural land and open space for commercial, industrial, and residential development. Thus the national land policy became incompatible with the land use planning policy and the rise in environmental awareness it reflected. The purpose of this paper is to examine the changes in the ILC members' attitudes toward the principle of preserving agricultural land. The findings point to a complex and ambivalent relationship, in Israel's national land policy, between Zionist-nationalist considerations and the principle of preserving agricultural land. They also point to fundamental changes in this relationship over time. The analysis that follows can explain the incompatibility between the land use planning policy and the national land policy.

'Planted over the past': Ideology and Ecology in Israel's National Eco-Imaginary, Green Letters (2012)

2012

"Conserve Not Protect”? Competing Environmental Imaginaries in Jordan’s Conservation Thinking and Practice

Arab Studies Journal, 2024

This article explores the way competing transnational imaginaries of conservation and protection of nature have shaped the history of institutionalised conservation efforts in Jordan, highlighting the intersection between international conservation agencies, international funding bodies and national organizations and elites, and contrasts this with contemporary perspectives of communities living around the countries’ protected areas (particularly Dana, Azraq and Wadi Rum). In doing so, it reinforces calls for conceptualising the coloniality of conservation as heterogeneous and specific. The article shows that that while early British proposals for protection through multi-purpose national parks would have led to a relatively inclusive form of conservation, they did not materialise on the ground. What instead became dominant during the subsequent phase of American hegemony in Jordan was a fortress conservation model that excluded local populations from using as well as managing the resources of protected areas. This legacy, it argues, cast a long shadow into the 1990s’ turn towards “integrated conservation and development” as a new model. The success of this model, and the way it shaped organizational dynamics of the RSCN – the agency mandated with protected area management in Jordan - has hindered contemporary efforts to transition to community-led forms of conservation. This points to a need for appreciating deeply engrained institutional dynamics, as well as continued experiences of dispossession by local residents as major factors preventing the establishment of less exclusive forms of conservation.

Nof kdumim: Remaking the ancient landscape in East Jerusalem’s national parks

Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, 2019

This article explores two national parks in East Jerusalem and their legal administration as the focus of contradictory and complementary attempts at preservation, colonization, and normalization. Drawing on in-depth interviews with, and observations of, officials from the Israel Nature and Parks Authority and others, I expose the Judaizing of the landscape in Jerusalem. Nature never stands for itself; it is always an echo of a human presence and, in this case, of a Jewish past and its modern reunion. The project of imagining the natural landscape as one that embodies an ancient past—what Israeli officials have referred to in our interviews as nof kdumim—and the contemporary Jewish people as those who hold the key to its revival as such, is a central aspect of Israel’s colonial dispossession agenda in East Jerusalem and a prerequisite to the land becoming Jewish in practice. Focusing on the perspectives of Israel’s nature officials, this article highlights not only the imaginary but...

Forest management in Israel—The ecological alternative

Israel Journal of Plant Sciences, 2009

Forest management (silviculture) is a long-established applied science, but also a field whose sustainability and ecological implications have been questioned. In this paper, we present the basic features of commercial forestry together with a review of novel approaches for ecologically oriented forestry. The "new forestry" advocates for multiple-species and structurally complex forests, and is directed toward a diverse array of objectives (ecosystem function, biodiversity conservation, wildlife habitats, visual quality, nutrient recycling, water retention, soil productivity, carbon sequestration, and amenity values), in addition to the provision of classic economic forestry commodities.

Losing Diplomatic Ground: Israel's International Desertification Efforts (2007)

Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs, 2007

Nature and Resistance in Palestine

2017

The world faces global catastrophic climate change that impacts our environment. In Palestine, this situation is exacerbated because of an environmental “nakba” linked to Zionist colonization over the past century. Sustainability is thus a priority. Environmental education and stewardship must involve coverage of key principles and certain agreed categories based on scientific principles and in a systematic way. The Palestine Institute of Biodiversity and Sustainability and the Palestine Museum of Natural History and its nascent botanical garden (all at Bethlehem University) provide a model for integrating research, education, and conservation in ways that work to protect the environment even under Israeli occupation. We argue that this is also a form of empowerment and resistance.

Ecology, Environment, Sustainability: The Development of the Environmental Movement in Israel

Journal of Cultural and Religious Studies

The article surveys the development of the environmental movement in Israel from the establishment of the state through the present day. Based on trends and transformations in the institutional planning system, it appears that activism by environmental movement organizations in Israel can be divided into three sub-periods: the establishment period, marked by the Sharon Plan, the founding of the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel and MALRAZ-Council for the Prevention of Noise and Air Pollution in Israel, and the enactment of the Kanovitch Law and the National Parks and Nature Reserves Law (1963). The next phase of institutionalization is characterized by the establishment of designated institutional bodies-the Nature Reserves Authority, the National Parks Authority and the Environmental Protection Service, and their integration into the national planning system. The institutionalization period concludes with the establishment of the Ministry of the Environment (1989) and the transition to the third period, sustainability. Prominent during this period is a trend toward multidimensional proactive environmental planning and policymaking, reaching across many areas and including extensive regulation. As far as environmental organizations are concerned, these three periods comprised a framework of cultural action in which they developed, acted and shaped environmental discourse and practice in Israel. Based on other studies, the article offers a model that illustrates the development of the environmental movement while emphasizing the interaction between individual actors, local organizing and national organizations. Finally, some characteristics and insights regarding activism by environmental organizations in Israel are suggested.

Status of the Environment in Palestine (Book - Editor and Co-Author : Dr. Hilmi S. Salem)

"FOR CITATIONS: SALEM, H.S. (Book's Editor and Co-Author), 2007. "Status of the Environment in the Occupied Palestinian Territories". Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem (ARIJ), Bethlehem, Palestine. This Book is a Product of the "Project funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), 225 pp. (Book). Foreword: The status of the environment in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) has received much less attention in the continuing debate, in regard to the Israeli Occupation. This is despite the fact that the status of environment has a fundamental role in the ability of a Palestinian state to be viable, since it provides the physical context in which society exists and it determines the extent at which society is sustainable. Restrictions on the available resources, poor management and unsustainable practices have resulted in the radical transformation of the Palestinian environment, degradation of its natural ecosystem, and depletion of its resources. When the Palestinian people are struggling for survival, it is difficult for them to think about the environment, but the environmental damages caused by the conflict will require a lot of effort, time and money to be mitigated. Moreover, with the fact that the future of the OPT is uncertain, it is increasingly apparent that the environmental situation will continue to deteriorate placing by that massive restrictions on the capacity for sustainable development, rendering a Palestinian state unviable and highly unstable. Accordingly, it is believed that mutual collaboration from all stakeholders, as well as joint environmental management on the basis of good will should be achieved, since environmental problems do not recognize political borders or geopolitical boundaries and many of them are transboundary.

Environmentalism, Zionism and the Social Framing of Natural Open Spaces

The dominant Israeli discourses on nature and the environment act as elements that contribute to framing the public's conception of their social space. These environmental constructs, which partially stem out of, and partially become reintegrated into the Zionist nationalist discourse, are utilized by different social elements as a legitimation for both the creation of demarcated open 'natural' spaces, and the enforced retention of their 'pristine' state.