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Earth Day in Israel: Apartheid Showing Through the Greenwash
On April 22, as part of the global Earth Day celebrations, homes, offices and public buildings in 14 Israeli cities turned out the lights for one hour in an effort to "increase awareness of the vital need to reduce energy consumption." The Earth Day celebrations included scenes of green fields, wind generators and rainbows projected on the walls of the Old City in Jerusalem, the Green Globes Award ceremony recognizing "outstanding contributions to promote the environment" and a concert in Rabin Square in Tel Aviv powered by generators running on vegetable oil as well as volunteers on 48 bikes pedaling away to produce electricity.
The irony was not lost on the 1.5 million residents of Gaza who have been living with daily power outages lasting hours on end for nearly three years due to the Israeli siege on the coastal territory. The Israeli Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) reports that over 100 million liters of fuel were allowed into Gaza in 2009, however as Gisha points out, that amounts to only 57% of the need. As summer approaches bringing peak demands, spare parts and tools for turbine repair are in dire need. There are currently over 50 truckloads of electrical equipment awaiting approval by the Israeli authorities for entry to Gaza.
The constant power outages have led many families in Gaza to rely on low quality generators running on low quality fuels, both brought in through the tunnels from Egypt, causing a sharp increase in accidents resulting in injury and death. According to the UN agency OCHA, in the first three months of 2010, 17 people died in generator related accidents, including fires and carbon monoxide poisoning.
The mayor of the central Israeli city of Ra'anana, of which 48% is reserved for city parks, vowed to plant thousands of trees as part of the city's sustainable agenda. Palestinian farmers from the West Bank village of Qaryut near Nablus had their own tree planting ceremony in honor of Earth Day, only to find the 250 olive tree saplings uprooted by Israeli settlers from Givat Hayovel. Another 300 were uprooted during the night of April 13 outside the Palestinian village of Mihmas by settlers from the nearby Migron outpost. The Palestinian Land Research Center estimates that over 12000 olive trees were uprooted throughout the West Bank in 2009, with Israeli authorities responsible for about 60%, clearing the land for settlements and construction of the wall, and Israeli settlers the rest.
Earth Day in Gaza brought armor plated bulldozers escorted by Israeli tanks that proceeded to rip through fields of winter wheat, rye and lentils at Al Faraheen near Khan Younis in the Israeli imposed buffer zone, destroying the livelihood of a Palestinian family because, as Max Ajl, who filmed the entire shameful episode, explained, "They could."
But that's not all that was being dug up in Gaza. The UN Mine Action Service uncovered and removed 345 unexploded ordnance, including 60 white phosphorus shells, left over from the Israeli assault on Gaza. Approximately half were found under the rubble of destroyed buildings.
As the Israeli Ministry of Environmental Protection was launching its "Clean Coast 2010" program for Earth Day, somewhere in the neighborhood of 60 million liters of raw or partially treated sewage was being pumped into the Mediterranean sea from Gaza's overworked, under funded and seldom repaired sewage treatment plant. Damage from Israeli air strikes and lack of electric power and spare parts due to the siege make it impossible for the plant to meet the demands of Gaza's 1.5 million residents, with the daily overflow creating serious health hazards.
In addition to the Green Globe awards, the Ministry of Environmental Protection had it's own award ceremony last month recognizing Israeli Defense Force units, soldiers and commanders who "exhibited excellence in protecting the environment, environmental resources and the landscape." The theme for this year's annual competition was water and included projects related to the "protection of water sources" and "water savings."
For Palestinians living in the West Bank, this "protection of water sources" was documented in Amnesty International's October 2009 report Troubled Water: "The Israeli army's destruction of Palestinian water facilities - rainwater harvesting and storage cisterns, agricultural pools and spring canals - on the grounds that they were constructed without permits from the army is often accompanied by other measures that aim to restrict or eliminate the presence of Palestinians from specific areas of the West Bank."
The Amnesty International report also notes that for decades, Israeli settlers have instead "been given virtually unlimited access to water supplies to develop and irrigate the large farms which help to support unlawful Israeli settlements." And nowhere is this more evident than the Jordan Valley where 95% of the area is occupied by Israeli settlements, plantations and military bases and where "Israeli water extraction inside the West Bank is highest."
One such company helping to sustain the illegal settlement economy is Carmel Agrexco, Israel's largest fresh produce exporter. By its own admission the company, which is half owned by the State of Israel, exports 70% of the produce grown in the West Bank settlements. Europe is by far its biggest market, though its produce arrives as far as North America and the Far East. Agrexco promotes itself as a green company, with a focus eco-friendly packaging and organic produce, though one could argue that transporting organic bell peppers from Israel to the US is hardly ecological. Even the self-proclaimed "green ships" used to bring fresh produce to Europe are named Bio-Top and EcoFresh. "
But there is nothing green about occupation and colonization, nothing ecological in violating human rights and dignity. And that's why an international coalition supporting the Palestinian call for boycotts of Israeli products has set its sights on removing Carmel Agrexco produce from supermarkets - and ports - across Europe.
The original Earth Day was about grassroots mobilization, public protest for change and political awareness of the issues. In Israel's Earth Day celebrations, its Apartheid system is showing through the greenwash.
Stephanie Westbrook is a U.S. citizen who has been living in Rome, Italy since 1991. She is active in the peace and social justice movements in Italy and traveled to Gaza in June 2009. She can be reached at steph@webfabbrica.com
For more information on the boycott campaigns targeting Carmel Agrexco in Europe, see:
UK - http://www.bigcampaign.org/
33 Comments so far
Show AllThis is not Apartheid. This is Ethnic Cleansing and Genocide. This is Cruelty of Biblical Proportion.
I totally agree with you. Genocide and the US is a party to it.
Humbaba: "This is not Apartheid. This is Ethnic Cleansing and Genocide. This is Cruelty of Biblical Proportion."
What?
Selling electricity at the same level as stated in the contract (even though the client wants more) - is an Ethnic Cleansing and Genocide of a Biblical Proportion?
Thanks for exposing the staggering hypocrisy of Israel society. We must not forget that the lifestyle there is strictly based on the wasteful Western model, and that in order to live this way, they must deprive the indigenous Palestinians of basic subsistence needs. It boggles the mind.
Just watched a commercial promoting Israeli tourism. Another thing we can do: Keep away from that racist country. The fundies and the Jewish Orthodox political conservatives can visit that place and drink the Kool-Aid of their propaganda, but the rest of us should avoid spending a single dime there.
And the Israelis wonder why anti-semitism is on the rise.
At least you have the guts to admit that it IS anti-semitism, ie, hatred of Jews, and not legitimate criticism of Israel.
However, you are mistaken in thinking that it is on the rise. On the contrary, it is on the decline. Global support for Israel has increased dramatically in recent years. Global support for Israel is way up in recent years as people all around the world realize how violent the anti-semites are, how right-wing they are, and what a threat they are to global security and international law. For example, global investment in Israel is way up, with Israel's GDP increasing from aroundn $175 billion just a few years ago to well over $200 billion today (and this during the global recession). And even the Muslim nations such as Egypt strongly support the blockade of Gaza. Note that not a single country, corporation or institutionn in the world supports the anti-semitic BDS campaign (not one), which has been a total farce and failure.
At this point the anti-semites constitute less than 1% of the world's population. The internet makes it seem as there are many of them, but in reality they are just an uneducated, uninformed right-wing extremist group who link to each other but aren't taken seriously by anyone. I don't think they realize just how little support they have or what laughingstocks they are making of themselves.
However, as a strong supporter of Israel, I urge you anti-semites to continue your efforts to kill all Jews. Your BDS campaign is doing an excellent job of making people aware of how insane you are, and, as I previously noted, has directly resulted in a dramatic and documented increase in support for Israel. So you're actually helping Israel a lot. It's unfortunate that you're increasing the suffering of the Palestinians, but then this is about hatred of Jews not support of the Palestinians, who are just being used by you.
Not sure where you are getting your statistics. One percent of the world is anti-semitic. How do you define that term? Later on in your piece you write about anti-semites wanting to kill all Jews. Where did that come from? I haven't heard anything like that even from the Muslim states in the Middle East. All I know is that a hell of a lot of people--many of them children--were killed unnecessarily in the latest Gaza incursion. A hell of a lot of people have been displaced from their homes, their olive orchards ripped out by the roots. A hell of a lot of people have been harassed by Orthodox Jews from the settlements. A hell of a lot of people have suffered because of that wall Israelis are putting up. A hell of a lot of people have no work, no prospect of work due to Israeli policies. A hell of a lot of people have suffered from no water, no electricity because of Israeli casual attitudes towards blowing up infrastructure. Israel insists on acknowledgement of its right to exist. Shouldn't that same recognition be applied to Arab people of the West Bank and Gaza?
All of this has nothing to do with the religion practiced in Israel. Nothing. But it has everything to do with treating a whole population of people as dirt. You need to look critically at what is going on over there and listen to both sides.
I don't know where people get calling Palestinian supporters anti-Semite. The Palestinians are also Semites.
The Palestinians are Semite and many Jewish people are not Semite. They are
Askanazi. (A central or eastern European Jew, generally Yiddish speaking.) The Askanazi converted to Judaism and Yiddish is a Germanic language.
There should be no nation that only allows one racial, religious or ethnic group to have special rights and privileges not allowed to other groups in that nation. The land of Israel/Palestine should be one nation with equal rights and privileges for all who live there. I know of no other nation, besides Israel, who insist that only people of one religion may have full rights to live there.
When in doubt, consult the dictionary.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/anti-semitism
an·ti-Sem·i·tism (ān'tē-sěm'ĭ-tĭz'əm, ān'tī-)
n.
1. Hostility toward or prejudice against Jews or Judaism.
2. Discrimination against Jews.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Letto - you really are annoying, and all this hogwash coming from you in support of the state of Israel is most probably counter productive and a complete waste of time. Go to your corner and please be quite for a while.
And feel free to call me an anti-semite as I have an extreme dislike for Bibi NuttyYahoo, the two Liebermans (the self-serving, whiny weasel here and the viciously rabid nationalist one over in Israel), and now you.
All I did, richsmith2, is helping a dispute on a meaning of a word in the English language by quoting the dictionary.
If you dislike that definition, please add the dictionary to your dislike list. Perhaps the most common dictionaries are also viciously rabid nationalists.
You preach ignorance. Read below perhaps might learn something useful.
Albert Einstein on racist Zionism, 1938: “Just one more personal word on the question of partition. I should much rath-er see reasonable agreement with the Arabs on the basis of living together in peace than the creation of a Jewish state. Apart from practical consideration, my awareness of the essential nature of Judaism resists the idea of a Jewish state with borders, an army, and a measure of temporal power no matter how modest. I am afraid of the inner damage Judaism will sustain--especially from the development of a narrow nationalism within our own ranks, against which we have already had to fight strongly, even without a Jewish state." [1].
[1]. Albert Einstein, “Our Debt to Zionism”, 1938, quoted by David E. Rowe and Robert Schulmann (eds), “Einstein on politics: his private thoughts and public stands on nationalism, Zionism, war, peace, and the bomb”, Princeton University Press, 2007: http://press.princeton.edu/titles/8359.html .
Isaac Asimov on Zionism and nationalist hubris: “As usual, I found myself in the odd position of not being a Zionist and of not particularly valuing my Jewish heritage…. I just think it is more important to be human and to have a human heritage; and I think it is wrong for anyone to feel that there is anything special about any one heritage of whatever kind. It is delightful to have the human heritage exist in a thousand varieties, for it makes for greater interest, but as soon as one variety is thought to be more important than another, the groundwork is laid for destroying them all.” [1].
[1]. Isaac Asimov, “In Joy Still Felt”, quoted by Edward Corrigan in “Is it anti-Semitism to defend Palestinian human rights? Jewish opposition to Zionism”, Dissident Voice, 1 September 2009: http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/09/is-it-anti-semitic-to-defend-palestinian-human-rights/ .
Professor Bertell Ollman on the fight against anti-Semitism: “An all out struggle against Zionism by Jews, therefore, is also the most effective way to fight against real anti-Semitism. Furthermore, if Zionism is indeed a particularly virulent form of nationalism and, increasingly, of racism and if Israel is acting toward its captive minority in ways that resemble more and more how the Nazis treated their Jews, then we must also say so. For obvious reasons, the Zionists are very sensitive about being compared to the Nazis (not so sensitive that it has restrained them in their actions but enough to bellow "unfair" and to charge "anti-Semitism" when it happens). Yet, the facts on the ground, when not obscured by one or another Zionist rationalization, show that the Zionists are the worst anti-Semites in the world today, oppressing a Semitic people as no nation has done since the Nazis.” [1].
[1]. Bertell Ollman, “Letter of Resignation from the Jewish People”, Dialectical Marxism, 2004: http://www.nyu.edu/projects/ollman/docs/resignation.php .
Zionism is a national movement. Opposing nationalism in general (including Zionism, among all others,) as Einstein and Asimov did, is not anti-Semitism.
The problem starts when someone doesn't object to the idea of a nation state - unless it's a Jewish state. (Such as people who support a Palestinian nation state, while oppose Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state.)
The European Monitoring Center on Racism and Xenophobia specifically determined that: "Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor ..." as an example of anti-Semitism.
You are seriously deluded. Over 200 organizations the World over participate in the BDS campaign . Spokespersons for Aipac and the Israeli Government have both epxressed concerns over initiatives to divest from Israel, pressuring world Governments to pass laws which would prohibit such measures.
Indeed so concerned was Israel about the British Government stating that Produce raised by Israelis on the West Bank had to be labled as "Israeli" in origin, they labeled the initiative as "Anti_semitic".
Support for Israeli policies amongst the elecotrate worldwide drops in virtually every country outside the USA.
That Governments of said countries might state the opposite is meaningless. There was strong Government support for the Facists in Germany amongst Western Nations in the 1930s but that hardly meant the Nazis had the same public support in the same. Inevitably , as it has in Turkey, this will elad to changes in Government policies.
You are obviously a shill trying to diminish the impact of the various Boycotts on the Israeli economy. Were things going as well as you claim in Israel, they would not so be so desperate to find new sources of "Jewish Immigrants" form outside their borders.
The number of Israeli Jews LEAVING Israel has spiked dramatically growing exponentially since the year 2000. The number of Jews Migrating from other countries TO Israel has decreased exponentially as well. This has led to the rather ridiculous claims that "Lost tribes" of Jews populate India wherein the Government of Israel depserately tries to encourage the same to migrate to Israel.
Pik Botha claimed in 1984 that the boycotts and sanctions would not weaken the South African economy. He claimed they had little effect and would in fact make the plight of Black Africans worse. He had a vested interest in making these claims as the sanctions were in fact crippling the economy of South Africa and he was hoping to see them dropped.
Boycott against Jews is not a new phenomena. (The Nazis were not the first who boycott Jews.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_boycott_of_Jewish_businesses
The boycott against Jews who lived in Israel has started long before the 1967, and it had nothing to do with CO2 emissions or with cutting olive trees.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_League_boycott_of_Israel
"At least you have the guts to admit that it IS anti-semitism..."
Admit that WHAT is anti-semitism, Mikep?
Why don't you spell out for us just what "it" Chet380 was referring to that IS
anti-semitism? It will be interesting to see what kind of linguistic distortion
you go through to justify your (mis)statement...although I anticipate that, if you
respond at all, it will not be to the question posed, but to some Rumsfeldesque
construct that you set up as a straw-man.
It is amazing (read that as disgusting) the way you people (pay attention Mikep, pay
attention Letto...I am not talking about Jews, I am not talking about Israelis, I am
not even talking about Christian Zionists. I am talking about you people. You know
who you are!)...the way you people torture and abuse language to score your debating
points.
And Mikep...I am awe-struck by your use and command of statistics...the dollar
amounts and percentages...absolutely incredible! Now I have a statistic for you.
99.9% of what you said is pure and palpable bullshit...and known to you to be such.
Here is an excerpt from the website of the Midreshet B'erot Bat Ayin, a school in the Zionist West Bank settlement of Bat Ayin noted for its "new age" thinking, which is proud of the "green" values imparted to its students:
Recycling is part of the basic Jewish way of Tikkun Olam--(Betterment of the World) through the way we live. By recycling, we elevate even the "lowest" materials by reconnecting them to a purposeful role in the cycle. This connects the sparks of holiness and purpose in each thing that we work with to its higher capacity.
Composting is a form of recycling, in which kitchen scraps and yard waste are turned into a rich earthy fertilizer over the course of several months. This is accomplished by making a pile, alternating layers of food scraps and yard waste with thin layers of earth, finished compost, or manure. Any kind of plant material can be composted. The finished product looks like dark brown earth and is rich in nutrients essential to healthy plant growth.
A former member of this settlement is serving time in jail for plotting to bomb an Arab girls' school in central Jerusalem at the busiest time of the morning:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/israel/view/
The Nazis were also staunch lovers of the land and animals living on it (as opposed to the sub-humans occupying the land). As Herman Göring, Hitler's right hand man, put it, 'those who "still think they can continue to treat animals as inanimate property" will be sent to concentration camps.':
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_welfare_in_Nazi_Germany
Man, what are you talking about?
No amount of marketing tricks by Israel to deflect the world's attention on its ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians can cover up the evidence being accumulated in videos, recordings, and photos as they are being posted more and more on the internet. Ethnic cleansing apologists cannot justify the ethnic cleansing policies so they attack the messenger or try to deflect attention away from the ethnic cleansing acts that effectively converting West Bank towns into mini-prisons, which Israel has already done to all of Gaza.
This article has nothing to do with Earth day or the Environment.
Stephanie is a paid shill (Oil Money) who wants to boycott electric cars and renuable innovations only because they are Made in Israel.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_in_Israel
http://www.betterplace.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saeky9I5T9c
Try using a dictionary before you post.
Thank you, Ukiyoe, for pointing out how to spell 'renewable'.
In this article, the author is basically saying: "Today is Earth Day, Israel is causing the Palestinians to increase pollution (a stupid argument, since diesel is less polluting than coal) - lets boycott Israel, and only Israel."
Stephanie doesn't care about the environment or CO2 emission levels. Her only goal is to vilify Israel.
In her Earth Day article, she doesn't propose to boycott the biggest polluters on the planet (China and the USA) or the biggest polluter per capita - Qatar, (The average Qatarian emits 250% more CO2 than the average American.) No - Stephanie suggests to boycott Israel and only Israel. (The most active country, per capita, in oil alternatives research.)
I don't know what are the motives behind her double standards. I assume she is not a racist or an ignorant, therefore, I speculate that she was paid in oil money to published this anti-Israel "Earth Day" article.
Letto, give it a rest. Your deflection statistics etc. are going to convince hardly anyone on this site.
Don't waste your time telling me I am anti-semitic. That one isn't going to wash either.
The biggest deflection here is Stephanie Westbrook's article, which turns Earth Day to an anti-Israel hate fest.
Today is Earth Day –> Let’s vilify Israel on items which has nothing to do with Earth Day-> Let’s apply double standards and boycott only Israel.
By the way, Sanctuary, when did I called you (or anyone else in this thread) an anti-Semitic?
Boycotting Israel is not an act of anti-Semitism.
There are a growing number of Jews, including those in Israel, who know that the only way to bring an end to Israeli apartheid and the brutal treatment of the Palestinians is through boycott, divestment and sanctions.
If Jews are truly concerned about anti-Semitism then they should look no further than the policies of the Israeli government. Israel says that it is the country of all the Jews and as such their evil actions reflect on Jews.
I am grateful for those of us in the unorganized Jewish community who stand up to Israel and say Not in Our Name! Not in Our Name shall you steal the lands and resources of another people, a people who bore no responsibility for the European anti-Semitism that drove a small group of Ashkenazi Jews to push for a Jewish state. Not in Our Name do you bulldoze Palestinian homes and uproot centuries old olive trees. Not in Our Name do you create an apartheid country. Not in Our Name!!!
If you say: "I boycott any country who does XYZ without discrimination," and then provide a list which includes, among others, Israel - that's not anti-Semitism.
If, however, you say: "I boycott only the Jewish state because it does XYZ," (while ignoring everyone else who do XYZ or worse) - than it is a clear case of double standard which may be derived from anti-Semitism. (There could be other reasons though, such as ignorance, or bribery.)
Most people who publically boycott Israel belong to the 2nd group. You can identify them by asking the following two questions:
1. What criteria will bring a country to be worthy of a boycott?
2. Among all 192 UN members - list all the countries that meet that criteria.
(In our case, XYZ = cutting trees and allegedly causing other people to increase CO2 emission. And according to Stephanie Westbrook, only Israel should be boycott for these reasons.)
No, absolutely wrong (at least you are being consistent in being wrong, though). One does not have to make an exhaustive list every time one makes a statement.
Have you ever noticed that you hear less and less of the "anti-Semite" charge these days? That's because people like yourself have used it so often in so many ridiculous situations that have nothing to do with Antisemitism that is just met with laughter. If you want to help Israel, you are going to have to completely re-tool your approach. Start by throwing out the tired, old playbook of rhetoric.
Apologists' tactics in regards to the US/Israel policy of ethnic cleansing of Palestinians:
1 – Attack the messenger (CD poster or whoever criticizes the US/Israel's ethnic cleansing)
2 – If the critic is a Jew, call the Jew anti-semetic or a self-hating Jew
3 – Make it sound like Israel is the victim although Israel is the aggressor and occupier
4 – Quantify attacks by Palestinians and quantify Israeli dead and wounded while, not quantifying Israeli attacks on Palestinians nor mention Palestinian dead and wounded.
5 – Justify all Israeli attacks as justifiable retaliations while calling all Palestinian attacks unprovoked although the West Bank is illegally occupied and Gaza is illegally blockaded (act of war) and regularly subject to invasions and air-raids..
6 – Point to other injustices in the world to deflect attention of Israel's illegal acts.
7 – State that Jews and Palestinians have a long history of conflict therefore the situation is unresolvable (ignoring Israel's illegal occupation) in order to maintain status quo and further Israel's expansion of illegal settlements
8 – Claim Israel has biblical rights to Palestinian land (thus God supports the ethnic cleansing)
9 – Claim the occupied territory was either no man's land or another countries land to justify Israel's illegal confiscation of the land and the people on it.
10 – Defend the occupation and ethnic cleansing without mentioning the illegal acts: land confiscation, house demolitions and evictions, burning and razing of Palestinian farmland, illegal land annexations, specific apartheid policies in the West Bank, shooting and arrests of non-violent demonstrators on occupied land, restriction of movement, land and sea blockade, restrictions of imports of medicine, food, school supplies and building materials, illegal shooting of Gazan farmers and fishermen...
11 – Make so many illegitimate arguments or use so many inaccurate/misleading facts to justify Israel's illegal occupation and ethnic cleansing policy that it is impossible to respond to them all because every time you try, another illegitimate argument is made. (The Bush administration was a master of this in the buildup to the Iraq war. It seemed every week, another piece of unsupported evidence was made to support attacking Iraq. And every time you challenged one illegitimate argument, the arguer (usually a Fox News viewer) would abandon that argument and jump to the next illegitimate argument and this would continue to the point of exhaustion.)
12 – Rewrite history with your comments.
13 – Switch between tactics 1-12 above in your non-stop argument whenever one of the tactics runs out of steam.
14 – In regards to blogging, create discussion fights and go off topic.
15 – In regards to blogging, apologist is either ignorant or feigns ignorance and attempts to attack the credibility of the comment by asking for a link to the source (effort to waste time of blogger when information is readily available on the internet and the apologist doesn't provide support for his own misinformation). If you don't respond, e.g., because you don't monitor the site all day, apologist discounts your argument, and if you respond, the apologist changes the subject, makes a new attack, or ignores the response.
Apologists use tools such as Megaphone Desktop (www.giyus.org) to alert themselves when articles about Israel's destructive policies appear on the internet so they can use tactics like the above to try and win public opinion.
I think Gabriel Ash, who grew up in Israel, summarized Zionist talking points nicely:
1. We rock
2. They suck
3. You suck
4. Everything sucks
http://jewssansfrontieres.blogspot.com/2008/07/how-to-make-case-for-israel-and-win.html
Excellent, comprehensive explanation! Thank you.