Mapping Palestine’s Environmental Civil Society – The Good, the Bad and the Uncooperative

A study mapping the environmental actors in Palestine shows a desperate lack of co-operation between organisations and donors keen to play it safe with ‘practical projects’

The lovely people at Heinrich Böll Stiftung had done something that I have been procrastinating about for almost lifetime (well, not quite a lifetime but a good couple of years at least). They have mapped out the important actors and organisations on the environmental scene in Palestine. Exciting, right!? They have painstakingly gone through all those websites, NGOs and institutes with an environmental focus to bring us a clear image of the state of the environmental movement in Palestine. They found that out of 2,245 NGOs registered in the oPt only 104 were environmentally-focused and of these, just 56 were actually still active. More juicy details after the jump.

The Facts on Green Palestine

– 104 registered environmental civil society organisation in the West Bank and Gaza

– 56 civil society organisations are actually still active

– Over 70% of environmental civil society organisations feel that their relationship with other organisations is competitive rather than co-operative

– Limited funding and efforts to raise their grassroots presence are two main reasons for the competitiveness between organisations

– 8 key organisations in Palestine based on their size, the variety of programmes implemented and geographic range:

Most organisations complained that international donors attempted to remain neutral by focusing in practical action and lacked the political will to enforce real changes by addressing Palestinians’ rights to natural resources. As such many organisations felt their projects were simply ‘coping mechanisms’. Even so, the relationship between NGOs and funders was generally described as co-operative if highly dependent.

: For the full article and to find out the top 9 key green organisations in Palestine go to GreenProphet.com

: Palestine (Photo credit: Squirmelia)

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Al Jazeera: Can water end the Arab-Israeli conflict?

Could solving the water crisis in Israel and Palestine also help resolve the entrenched occupation and conflict? By Arwa Aburawa

Israeli officials destroy a water storage facility used by Palestinian farmers outside the West Bank village of Yatta, near the Israeli settlement of Sosia, in early June [EPA]

Around three weeks ago on a late Tuesday morning, Israeli soldiers armed with a truck and a digger entered the Palestinian village of Amniyr and destroyed nine water tanks. One week later, Israeli forces demolished water wells and water pumps in the villages of Al-Nasaryah, Al-Akrabanyah and Beit Hassan in the Jordan Valley. In Bethlehem, a severe water shortage have led to riots in refugee camps and forced hoteliers to pay over the odds for water just to stop tourists from leaving.

Palestinians insist that the Israeli occupation means that they are consistently denied their water rights which is why they have to live on 50 litres of water a day while Israeli settlers enjoy the luxury of 280 litres. Clearly, water is at the heart of the Israel-Palestine conflict, but commentators are now insisting that shared water problems could help motivate joint action and better co-operation between both sides, which could in turn help end the conflict.

“It’s a shame that water is being used as a form of collective punishment when it could be used to build trust and to help each side recognise that the other is a human being with water rights,” says Nader Al-Khateeb, the Palestinian director of the environmental NGO Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME).

Electronic Intifada: The Great Book Robbery of 1948

A new documentary reveals a hidden chapter in the history of the Nakba — the Palestinian expulsion and flight at the hands of Zionist militias as Israel was established in 1948 — which saw the systematic looting of more than 60,000 Palestinian books by Israeli forces and the attempted destruction of Palestinian culture.

As the violence which came to mark the formation of Israel erupted, Palestinian families living in the urban centers and villages of the country fled their homes in search of safety and refuge. One Palestinian family after another escaped, and believing that they would soon return, many left behind their most precious belongings. As Palestinian homes sat silent in the haze of conflict, however, a systematic Israeli campaign was underway to enter the homes and rob them of a precious commodity — their books.

Islam Online Book Review: Beneath the Bombs

Posting this book review as my work seems to be disappearing from Islamonline.net which is going through some ‘issues’..

Gaza: Blogging Beneath the Bombs

By  Arwa Aburawa

Freelance Journalist – UK

Title: Gaza: Beneath the Bombs
Author: Sharyn Lock and Sarah Irving
Publisher: Pluto Press
Year: 2010
Number of Pages: 176

It is hard to believe that it has been over a year since the first bombs fell on the Gaza Strip, killing over 1,400 Palestinians and injuring tens of thousands, yet here we are commemorated the first anniversary of that conflict. In the first days of the war, an Israeli-enforced media blackout meant that very little information was leaving the Gaza Strip about conditions inside.

In response to this, a few people inside Gaza decided to speak up and tell the world what was happening. One of those people was Sharyn Lock, whose insightful blogs have been recently edited into a book titled Gaza: Beneath the Bombs. IslamOnline.net (IOL) spoke to her about the book and her time in Gaza.

Gaza: Beneath the Bombs is not like most books written on Gaza, as it does not try to explain why the situation occurred, but instead chronicles what happened on those fateful 22 days with a sense of honesty and integrity. It shows not only the shock, confusion, and horror of war, but also the strength and humanity of the people of Gaza. Rather than simply focusing on statistics and political processes, Lock’s blogs give those living in Gaza a face — she honors their humanity. This is not to say that the context of the situation is missing. Lock’s blogs are explained and clarified by additional text provided by Sarah Irving, so that the average reader can understand events and organizations that Lock refers to. Even so, the book is led by Lock’s blogs, which have barely been edited since they were first published on the Tales to Tell blog one year ago.

Lock, who now lives in the UK, has been visiting and campaigning on Palestine since 2002, when she ended up in intensive care after being shot in the stomach by an Israeli soldier. She is part of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), which became famous after one of its members, Rachel Corrie, was crushed to death by an Israeli bulldozer carrying out a home demolition. After numerous visits to Palestine, Israeli authorities denied Lock entry into the country in June 2005, and she subsequently boarded the first Free Gaza boats into the Gaza Strip. It was under these circumstances that Lock found herself in the Gaza Strip just when Israel was launching its military assault on the strip.

Despite Israel’s efforts to get all internationals to leave the Gaza Strip before the military excursion, Lock tells IOL that “we were there with ISM mainly because of the isolation and the dreadful siege, and so, at a time when Israel wanted to isolate the Palestinians more, we made a decision that we didn’t want to leave.” Realizing that there was limited press in Gaza getting information out, Lock blogged about her experiences working in the hospitals with medics and also about families who were trying to retain some semblance of normality. “It was important for me to portray the humanity and not just the suffering, because that is Palestinian. That is why I go, that is why it is a privilege to be there and to be spending time with those people who just face with courage something that we would just be crushed by.”

Even so, Lock’s blogs also portray the shocking events that the people of Gaza endured. The young baby who was killed by Israeli rocket fire and chewed by dogs was retrieved by Lock’s medic friends, some of whom were also targeted by Israeli forces. One entry is about Arafat, a volunteer medic with young children who was killed by a flechette rocket. Flechettes are 4 cm metal darts that scatter at high speed after a rocket explodes, penetrating the human skin and bones and causing horrific injuries.

“His lungs [were] blown apart by flechettes from a flechette shell, and he did survive for six hours, but he was never going to make it,” explains Lock. “There was also his colleague who had flechettes in his body. They were trying to rescue teenagers that had been bombed, some were dead or maimed already in the first strike, and there was a deliberate second strike on the medics as they tried to rescue the wounded. I kept repeating that story to the media that I spoke to, to convey the level of insanity of what was happening.”

Lack of journalists on the ground in Gaza meant that many news services were relying on the Israeli press releases for information, and these painted a very different picture of what was going on in Gaza. Lock, who was taking as many calls from journalists as she could during this period to get information out, was constantly shocked at the level of misinformation: “Weeks in, I still had journalists from the outside saying, ‘well, Israel is targeting Hamas rocket fire,’ and I was just like how can you possibly think that at this stage and when every bit of evidence we have seen refutes this! But, obviously, that evidence was not getting out or Israel has a very good PR machine which can turn things right around from facts.”

Israel may have a formidable public relations machine, but Palestinians have the support of many people like Lock who have witnessed, in person, the daily realities of their suffering. Her book is a welcome addition to a growing movement of support from those ordinary people who are speaking up for Gaza and the people of Palestine. Lock, who stayed in Gaza months after the conflict, also witnessed the increasing attacks on Palestinian farmers and fishermen and confessed to Palestinians that an international presence no longer assured their safety. They simply replied, “Well no, but you are documenting it, and you are telling the rest of the world, and if that’s all you can do, then that’s very important to us.”

Blogging beneath the Bombs: Interview with Sharyn Lock

The Electronic Intifada, 30 December 2009

Israel has many weapons that it deploys against the Palestinian national movement and one of them is a powerful public relations machine. For years, it has allowed Israel to extend illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, demolish homes, erode the rights of Palestinians and imprison and torture them, all in the name of democracy and security. In the days leading up to last winter’s attacks on Gaza, Israel’s public relations machine was oiled up to give its version of events and without the watchful eye of journalists — who were denied entry into the territory — and it appeared likely to succeed. Yet Palestinians “citizen journalists” in Gaza and a few internationals living in the middle of the conflict decided to report a very different story than the carefully controlled Israeli narrative. Sharyn Lock was one of these voices.

Originally from Australia but now living in the UK, Lock has worked in Palestine with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) since 2002 when she shot by an Israeli soldier in the stomach. After being refused entry into Palestine from 2005 to 2006, Lock finally made it back to Gaza on the first “Break the Siege” boat sponsored by the Free Gaza Movement. She was in the Gaza Strip during Israel’s 22-day invasion last winter and her blog “Tales to Tell” documented the daily events she witnessed during the conflict not only with humanity but also humor. These posts have recently been published in the short book Gaza: Beneath the Bombs. The following is an edited interview with Lock about her experience in Gaza and why she feels privileged to have spent time with Palestinians there.

Arwa Aburawa: Why did you decide to stay during the attacks?

Sharyn Lock: With the announcement from Israel for internationals to leave, we assumed — correctly, as it turned out — that this was the start of the land incursion which followed the air attacks which had become regular. ISM were there mainly because of the isolation and the dreadful siege and so at a time when Israel wanted to isolate the Palestinians more, we made a decision that we didn’t want to leave. Also the fact that Israel wanted internationals to leave made us think, well, what is it you don’t want us to see, what is it you don’t want us to document? Whatever that is we want to be here for it.

AA: Did you realize at the time that you were one of very voices few coming from Gaza?

SL: It took a while for me to realize that I was seeing things that nobody else was seeing and that I needed to write them down. We didn’t have anyone telling us what to do and so we just got in the middle of things and were able to able to document them. It was up-to-the-minute reporting and I would try to get to a computer at the end of every day so that what I wrote would have been what I’d seen in the last hours. And once again, it was the least that we could do and it was really encouraging that people used it and responded to it by holding vigils and taking action based on the information that we were getting out to them.

AA: As your book is focused on the war in Gaza, was it hard to talk about anything but the suffering?

SL: It was important for me to portray the humanity and not just the suffering because that is the [story of the] Palestinians. That’s why I go, that’s why it’s a privilege to be there and to spend time with these people who just face something that we would just be crushed by, with courage and determination to keep hold of the things that they value. Basically, that’s what’s made it all possible and worthwhile, the negative experiences were totally outweighed by the positive experiences. That’s not to say that if you’re Palestinian, you wouldn’t want to get the hell out of somewhere where you have to battle to just exist, but people do it with courage and grace and manage to find humor. I guess that’s one of the ways that they survive.

AA: Did any of the events you witness and write about truly shock you?

SL: I am not sure if I can answer that question as all the things that happen all across the world seem to be near me, in front of me and I’m a witness to them even if I am not there. So, I tend to live in this state of mind and so nothing surprises me. Like the fact that civilians were so targeted in these attacks, that’s been Israeli policy for a long time and nothing stops them. And so when people were saying “this is horrifying, this is shocking,” it’s only a continuation of a policy that has existed for a long time.

There was one particular image which stunned people and that was of the baby that some of my medic colleagues retrieved which had been burned and chewed out by probably Israeli army dogs. And that’s a terrible image of something to happen to a child. But I wasn’t shocked by what I saw because that’s what this occupation is and it’s what we currently accept is going on. Also when these things get written up as evidence of war crimes, I do get a little confused as I’m thinking, “well, this was happening at the time and you’re speaking about war crimes now?” I just wish we realized things at the point at which we could try and stop them.

AA: What do you hope for the future of Gaza?

SL: I want to see the occupation end, I want to see the siege end. Weirdly, there was a CIA report that came out when I was there that predicted that in 20 years there would be one state for what is now Israel and Palestine. I feel like that’s what I want to hope for and certainly the Palestinians that I have spoken to have said that that’s what they hope for. Some Palestinians have said to me, “I don’t care whether it’s one state or two states, I just want to be on what’s historically our land, in peace, with equal rights to whoever is living with us and we don’t mind who that is.” There isn’t a sense that it’s us against them, they just want there to be justice for all.

Arwa Aburawa (https://arwafreelance.wordpress.com/) is a freelance journalist based in the UK.

Related Links

• Purchase Gaza: Beneath the Bombs on Amazon.com