أكتب هذة الأسطر وزوبعة قانون النكبة في أوجها، وأخطر ما في هذا القانون انه قد يحيد بخطاب الأقلية الفلسطينية الدمقراطي عن طريقه ويشده الى متاهات العنصرية، فنهمل خطاب التحدي ونغوص في وحل الدفاع عن الدمقراطية وكأننا نحن من طالما تغنى بديمقراطيته المميزة أسوة بالجيران وكأن فقدان الديمقراطية هي نكبتنا ويتحول الخطاب الى خطاب سطحي أجوف فارغ من كل مضمون ويعود ليتمحور حول شرعية وجودنا وحول المفهوم ضمنا ليعود بنا عشرات السنين الى الوراء.
لقد ابتدأت العمل على هذة الورقة منذ عدة اسابيع حينها لم يطرح "قانون النكبة" بعد، وان لم يبث القضاء في الموضوع بعد، ولكن فليكن ولنزج في السجون والمعتقلات وفي غرف التحقيق ولتبقى دمقراطيتهم ملقاة على جانب الطريق وليسخر العالم مما صنعت يداه.
كُتِبت وتنشر بالأنجليزية في سياق برنامج دولي حول الديمقراطية في الشرق الأوسط!!
Preface
I write these lines while in Israel blow the wind of racisms and fascism. Beyond the fact that the Nakba bill that prevent mentioning the Palestinian catastrophe Al Nakba related to the independent day of Israel is violating the right of freedom of speech and other fundamental human rights, this law is dangerous because It divagate the democratic dialog and regress it by decades.
I started working on this paper weeks ago at that time the idea of this law didn’t appear yet, if this law pass, for this lines I will find myself in jail for no less than three years. And the big challenge is to resist going maze after Liberman’s friends and to keep stick to democratic progressive dialog.
Environmental Perspective on Al-Nakba
And its effects on
The Environmental Rights of the Palestinian Minority in Israel
In 1948 the Palestinian people lost the land, those who stay in the newly becoming state of Israel, turn from productive peasants in an agricultural society to economically dependent cheap labor in service of the Israeli economy. During 17 years of military regime the Palestinians avoided from accessing the land and their natural environment. Just in one day during the year they could move freely without permission, the independent day of Israel, most of them use it to visit their destroyed Houses and villages, and they keep do it till today.
Later the newly becoming state of Israel used the environmental tools to prevent the Palestinians from accessing the land and their own houses. Replacing the military regime, the environmental tools turn to be the way to prevent the Palestinians access to their belonging places. Natural reserves, forestry area, green area and National Parks, in some cases like Safforiya for example that turn to be National Park Zippori, the destroyed houses turned to be “Historical Stones” and “evidence” of the Roman Province and the Kingdom of Judah.
In 1948 most of the Palestinian people forced to exile their homes, their cities and their lands. The urban society was destroyed and most of those who remained were rural people whose livelihood was dependent on the land and nature. Plants like Zaatar which is part of the Palestinian’s daily food, classify as planet in danger of extinction and turn to be protected by law. On one hand the state of Israel claims protecting the nature and on the other hand it develops it in massive way and covers it with “dress of cement and malt” according to the vision of its founders.
The environmental rights of the Palestinian minority in Israel have been violated by the country and by its authorities since 1948. While ignoring the historical and cultural heritage that has accumulated throughout centuries, the new born country uses the modern technical and environmental tools to manage the newly occupied nature.
Regularization of pasturing, planting and water-use exclude the Palestinian agricultures. Urban and general planning use to siege and oppress the Palestinians and never give a real answer to the needs of the population. More than 100,000 Palestinian citizens live in areas that classify as nature reserve, they live in what became to be known as the unrecognized villages and they are treated by the state authorities as intruders.
Each day more and more children are born to be unrecognized in unrecognized villages with the destiny to live without running water, without electricity, without roads, without schools or any kind of available health care centers. They never know when the Bulldozers are coming to demolish houses and they never know when they will be spray by chemicals that target their parent’s crops. Each day more and more children are born with the “blessing” to be exposed to daily house accidents triple more than the average, to infectious diseases, to water pollution as well as air pollution and radioactive one.
Suffocating the Palestinian society by the environmental tools create alienation and huge gap between the Palestinians and the “environment” in its modern concept. Throughout the years the Palestinian living areas have turned to be the backyard of the Israeli society. Moreover, violating the Palestinian environment in Israel particularly affects the Palestinian women citizens of Israel. Due to the differences in gender roles, the Palestinian women find themselves carrying the largest burden of being the backyard’s society.
Beyond that, losing both the urban and the agricultural spheres affects the status of the Palestinian women till today. In the Palestinian society before Al-Nakba the Palestinian women used to take an active part in the urban life and in the productive agriculture process. However, after Al-Nakba both the urban and the rural women lost their productive contributed status, they turn back to the private sphere hardly having a chance to affect the public life neither the economic nor the social one.
Lack of suitable urban planning confronts a big challenge in front the Palestinian society. Mixing traditional and modern industrial lifestyle all together in the same living area create lots of conflicts and challenges in the daily life.
Being abandoned and confronted in the same time by the state authorities demand from the Palestinian citizens to arrange to manage their life socially economically and environmentally!!
The main environmental rights that need to be concerned about are:
1) The right of safe, healthy and productive place to live in.
2) The right of freedom from pollution.
3) The right to have available healthy and not polluted food and water.
4) The right to work in safe and healthy places.
5) The right to get emergency aid and assistance in case of natural disaster.
6) The right of sharing the environmental resources in equal and sustainable way.
7) The right of sharing information and taking part on decision making related to the environment and nature.
8) The right of the natives to keep their culture and their identity that related to the nature and the environment.
What should be done?
The main environmental needs of the Palestinian minority:
1) To promote urban plans that take into consideration the real needs of the Palestinian population.
2) To develop industrial area and get the small factories and workshops out of living area.
3) To develop playgrounds and public open parks in the Palestinian villages.
4) To develop Public Transportation in the Palestinian living area and between it and the big cities.
5) To allocate resources for Palestinian agricultures.
6) To protect the Palestinian population from pollution and radioactive waste and to claim minimizing the pollution and sharing it in a just way.
7) To develop water supply system to all the population in the rural area.
8) To stop the suffering of 100,000 citizens living in the becoming known unrecognized villages and to give them legal status immediately.
9) To promote environmental comities in the Palestinian local councils and to raise awareness among them to the necessity of environmental programs.
10) To create a network between the organizations of the civil society the local councils and the state authorities that can support coming over the environmental failures.
11) To support researches, monitoring and academic studies that focus on the environmental issues in the Palestinian areas in Israel.
12) To highlight the ecological environmental traditional culture of the Palestinians.
13) To establish environmental follow up committee that put an environmental vision and move on with sustainable environmental agenda for the Palestinian minority and support it by developing strategic plan through cooperating with all the interested parties.
Environmental sustainable development, based on the principles of environmental justice and the respect of the environmental rights for individuals and minorities, is a fundamental base in democracy. The environmental rights are human rights and it should be respected by all democratic regimes.
The Palestinian citizens of Israel suffer for years from neglecting their environment and violating their environmental rights and they face daily risk as a result of this. There is lack of reports or studies that put the finger on all the relevant cases and focuses on it systematically and discusses it from environmental sustainable perspective.
Sustainable development should ensure sharing the natural and environmental resources in an equal, safe and just way between all the citizens of the globe and between them and its citizens in the future.
Sustainable development should be the interest of minorities and majorities as well, of both individuals and groups, because at the end we all share the same and the only supporting life planet.
Understanding the history of the Environmental culture of the different ethnic groups, recognizing the environmental rights as basic human rights, respecting it and promoting environmental justice is a basic need for sustainable development that will promote welfare stability and sustainability of all local and global societies.
Living under flaming ethnic conflict, dictate different priorities that do not necessarily meet with any of the welfare, stability and sustainability needs of any of the involved groups. Keep neglecting the issue of environmental justice, environmental rights and environmental sustainable development in the case of the Palestinian minority in Israel is the worst. There is an instant need to put a special effort on this issue from different aspects, and there is an instant need to overcome the tensions and lead for a social-environmental-political change.
© Nisreen Mazzawi – Feminist activist, for peace and Environmental-social Justice.
