Greenwashing in Palestine/Israel: Settler colonialism and environmental injustice in the age of climate catastrophe

Abstract

Israeli innovations in “green” technology are ostensibly aimed at sustainable resource management and climate change mitigation. But sustainable development and environmental (in)justice in Palestine/Israel need to be examined through interdisciplinary perspectives that account for the broader settler colonial and neoliberal contexts in which they occur. Taking into account the historical and geographic context of Israel's scientific development, we argue that Israel's green technologies are fundamentally structured by the Zionist project of appropriating Palestinian lands. Within settler colonial analysis, environmental injustice comprises part of a broader pattern of settler domination of Indigenous ecological relations, requiring attending not to ‘equity’ in relations with the state and environment but a reckoning with settler privilege and the return of land to Indigenous communities. We analyze the use of environmental infrastructures—specifically in the areas of waste management, renewable energy, and agricultural technologies (“agritech”)—as mechanisms for land appropriation and dispossession in Palestine/Israel. Our analysis of ‘greenwashing’ as a rhetorical strategy asserts that regardless of the ecological impact of individual technologies, in Israel's settler colonial context they further indigenous dispossession and elimination and are therefore incommensurable with long-term socio-ecological resilience. Through this analysis of Israeli greenwashing, we discuss Israeli sustainability initiatives and technological innovations not as ahistorical discourses, commodities, or technologies, but as elements of a historically situated settler colonial project.

The Doomsday Economy: Colonial Violence, Environmental Catastrophe, and Burning Tires in Palestine

“…Greenwashing functions in the vast apparatus of settler colonialism, which "obscures the conditions of its own production" (Veracini 2010, 14). Israeli Greenwashing conceals and justifies violent actions, sometimes against the environment itself (Feitelson, Tamimi, and Rosenthal 2012;Mason 2013;Al-Haq 2021;Charrett 2021;Hughes, Velednitsky, and Green 2022). It does so with excuses of climate aid, environmental protection, and progress -often articulated within a neoliberal discourse.…”

“…The State of Israel's greenwashing procedure appeals to modern environmental discourse and the fear of climate catastrophe to obscure and legitimize settler colonialism. Sara Salazar Hughes et al (2022) claim that by "Anticipating climate catastrophes and preempting these through the development of green technology, Israeli authorities frame the nation as an indispensable actor within the global community" (6). As Hughes et al further claim, framing Israel as a critical factor in "climate change mitigation and sustainable ecological management" attempts to obscure and legitimize settler colonialism (2).…”

“…The legitimization of the control over Palestinian land stems not only from the claimed ability of the State of Israel in the environmental scope but also from the claimed inability and even hostility of Palestinians in it. As Catherine Chiniara Charrett (2021) and Hughes et al (2022) stress in their studies, Israel claims superiority -morally, technologically, and strategically -over the Palestinians in the environmental scope. 3 These claims for superiority position "Israel as a responsible-and, by proxy, legitimate-steward of Palestinian lands" (Hughes, Velednitsky, and Green 2022, 2).…”

Cultivating biodiverse futures at the (postcolonial) botanical garden

“…Palestine was constructed as an empty space waiting to be revived by superior technologies (Braverman, 2009; Long, 2009) and Palestinians were confined to the realm of nature, that which is inert, removable and erasable (Hughes et al, 2022; Salih & Corry, 2020). Zionist aspirations to ‘make the desert bloom’ involved mending the absence of forests and fixing unproductive soils and dry lands (Long, 2009).…”

Beyond greenwashing: Prioritizing environmental justice in conflict-affected settings

“… 1. Similarly, researchers have pointed to environmental injustice in the Palestine–Israel context, drawing on a settler colonial analysis to highlight Israel’s greenwashing through green technology (Hughes et al, 2023). …”