Environmental destruction and racism

The JNF destroys natural environments and ways of life

Greenwashing

Greenwashing is the use of greenery to cover up evidence of violent displacement and destruction.  The pretense of environmentalism is used to disguise other, much less noble aims.

Far from the JNF claim of concern for the environment, the State of Israel and the JNF destroy the natural habitat and way of life of the indigenous Palestinian people who have lived there for thousands of years. The JNF partners with the State of Israel in destroying villages, bulldozing agricultural land, uprooting olive trees – some of which are hundreds of years old – and stealing land with water sources that have resourced indigenous Palestinian communities for hundreds and in some cases thousands of years.

Its founding mission and current day constitution explicitly state its colonial purpose: the acquiring of the land and property of indigenous Palestinians held in reserve for exclusive settlement and use by Jews. As journalist Max Bluthenthal describes,  

"The pine trees themselves were instruments of concealment, strategically planted by the Jewish National Fund (JNF) on the sites of the hundreds of Palestinian villages the Zionist militias evacuated and destroyed in 1948. With forests sprouting up where towns once stood, those who had been expelled would have nothing to come back to. Meanwhile, to outsiders beholding the strangely Alpine landscape of northern Israel for the first time, it seemed as though the Palestinians had never existed. And that was exactly the impression the JNF intended to create. The practice that David Ben Gurion and other prominent Zionists referred to as “redeeming the land” was in fact the ultimate form of greenwashing."

Planting a forest of trees to cover up this destruction, the JNF has turned one of the most life affirming and sustaining symbols and natural elements into a weapon of violence.

Forest Fires

The forests burning in northern Israel were planted by the JNF over destroyed Palestinian villages. (Oren Ziv/ActiveStills)

In addition to the harm caused to Palestinian people and way of life, the JNF has inflicted grave harm on the natural environment in Palestine.  Its manner of planting, by its use of hazardous chemicals and by planting trees that are not native to the land, has been disastrous. Over time, extensive planting of pine trees by the JNF has killed off much of the native habitat and is implicated in massive forest fires.

In his piece, “The Carmel wildfire is burning all illusions in Israel” Max Bluthenthal describes the environmentally destructive role of the JNF-planted pines in last year’s fire in Northern Israel that killed 42 people.

"The JNF planted hundreds of thousands of trees over freshly destroyed Palestinian villages like al-Tira, helping to establish the Carmel National Park. An area on the south slope of Mount Carmel so closely resembled the landscape of the Swiss Alps that it was nicknamed “Little Switzerland.” Of course, the nonindigenous trees of the JNF were poorly suited to the environment in Palestine. Most of the saplings the JNF plants at a site near Jerusalem simply do not survive, and require frequent replanting. Elsewhere, needles from the pine trees have killed native plant species and wreaked havoc on the ecosystem. And as we have seen with the Carmel wildfire, the JNF’s trees go up like tinder in the dry heat."

Lake Hula

Lake Hula is one of the most egregious examples of the role of JNF in environmental destruction. In 1950, the JNF drained Lake Hula in the interest of agricultural development. Once rich with diverse animal and plant life, today the area is a barren desert devoid of life.

The lake was drained without a study of its ecological impact. An Israeli photographer described the draining and destruction of the lake with heartbreaking resignation. His photos document plants shriveling up and dying, the carcass of birds desperately in search of water. "Death got most of them - the desert offers no escape…Cracked, parched earth cried out, as the lake's millions of creatures died with their mouths gaping open."

Draining the lake not only resulted in the destruction of an entire eco-system. It caused fires on peat lands, sent ground pollutants flowing into Lake Kinneret/the Sea of Galilee, generated dust storms, and led to the spread of weeds that damage crops. It later proved problematic for agricultural development as well.