[Peace-discuss] Countering Israeli Greenwashing At The People’s Climate March

Tue Sep 23 08:24:13 EDT 2014

  Countering Israeli Greenwashing At The People’s Climate March

Action against uprooting of trees in Beit Jala, 03.03.2010
Resist! <http://www.popularresistance.org/category/resist/> Climate 
Change <http://www.popularresistance.org/tag/climate-change/>, Israel 
<http://www.popularresistance.org/tag/israel/>, Palestine 
<http://www.popularresistance.org/tag/palestine/>
By Gabriel Schivone, www.electronicintifada.net 
<http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/gabriel-schivone/countering-israeli-greenwashing-peoples-climate-march>
September 22nd, 2014
   Powered by Translate <https://translate.google.com>
1 
<http://www.popularresistance.org/countering-israeli-greenwashing-at-the-peoples-climate-march/#>
Print Friendly 
<http://www.printfriendly.com/print?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.popularresistance.org%2Fcountering-israeli-greenwashing-at-the-peoples-climate-march%2F>

As a possibly historic People’s Climate March in New York City 
approaches this weekend, a debate among participants and the organizers 
over Israel-aligned co-sponsors smolders below the surface.

Since the turn of the century especially, climate justice 
<http://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2014/apr/16/climate-change-justice-summit> 
activists have aimed to raise public awareness and shift national 
policies regarding the catastrophically growing buildup of carbon-based 
fuels (and the resulting emission of carbon dioxide) overloading Earth’s 
atmosphere. An international consensus among scientists maintains that 
human societies must act before it is too late. In other words, possible 
extinction of the species is imminent and humanity may only have the 
span of a few years to do something about it.

In the US, poor communities (especially communities of color) would 
likely feel the harshest effects first. Societies in the Global South 
have already been enduring 
<http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2011/apr/10/bolivia-enshrines-natural-worlds-rights> climate 
change emergencies while leading the world in protection efforts.

Preceding the UN Climate Summit 
<http://www.un.org/climatechange/summit/> on 23 September, activists 
organized the People’s Climate March, expecting 
<http://350.org/press-release/one-month/> the turnout to be the “largest 
demonstration for climate action in history.” More than twenty thousand 
people have confirmed their attendance on the march’s Facebook page 
<https://www.facebook.com/events/301805359975258/permalink/347734562049004/>. 
In 2000, the term “climate justice” first entered public discourse 
during the UN’s Climate Change Summit at The Hague, when the Rising Tide 
network organized an alternative summit, admonishing the “developed” 
nations and urging efforts to fix the problem, since they caused the mess.

The majority of fossil fuels are used in the industrial nations, whose 
economies are overwhelmingly dependent on coal- and oil-based energy.

South Asian author 
<http://www.akpress.org/undoing-border-imperialism.html> and activist 
Harsha Walia posted on the upcoming climate march’s page expressing 
concern about Israel-aligned groups as event co-sponsors. “At a time 
when Israeli war crimes are massacring Palestinian people, how is a 
climate justice march (ostensibly rooted in social justice and human 
rights) aligning themselves with Zionism?” asked 
<https://www.facebook.com/events/301805359975258/permalink/345102712312189/> 
Walia, who identifies as a migrant justice and Palestine solidarity 
activist, on the march’s page.

On their websites, several organizations co-sponsoring the march indeed 
explicitly have expressed support for Israel or Israel’s military.

The People’s Climate March organizers responded, quoting their event 
website, that the march “will bring together a spectrum of people with a 
broad range of perspectives” who have “agreed to gather peacefully on 
common ground to support the shared common goal: Solving the climate 
crisis.”

Unsatisfied by the response, a “Free Palestine!” bloc has been organized 
as part of the march, to counter the involvement of Israel-aligned 
groups. According to the page’s description: “Given the current massacre 
of the Palestinian people at the behest of a US/Israeli 
military-industrial complex that is one of the largest consumers of 
fossil fuels in the world,” the bloc’s Facebook page reads, “having 
Zionists at a climate justice march doesn’t seem to make sense.” Roughly 
600 people have confirmed attendance on the group’s Facebook page 
<https://www.facebook.com/events/358174271001821/>.

    *Challenging “Green” Israel*

The story reaches far beyond several Israel-aligned groups sponsoring a 
single climate march. Faced with consistent negative global perceptions 
over state policies in the occupied Palestinian territories and in the 
region, the Israeli foreign ministry officially launched the “Brand 
Israel” campaign in 2006. With the help of US marketing executives 
<http://forward.com/articles/2070/israel-aims-to-improve-its-public-image/>, 
the Israeli government poured in enormous resources to “rebrand 
<http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/foreign-ministry-pr-firm-rebrand-israel-as-land-of-achievements-1.255073>” 
Israel in a positive light upon the world. By 2010, the ministry 
allotted some $26 million for branding efforts 
<http://mondoweiss.net/2011/11/a-documentary-guide-to-brand-israel-and-the-art-of-pinkwashing>.

Part of the spin campaign comes under the guise of protecting the 
environment. In June 2012, Israel, for the first time, launched “an 
international television campaign 
<http://www.israelemb.org/washington/NewsAndEvents/Pages/Israel-launches-green-branding-TV-campaign.aspx> 
on CNN to brand itself as a green country which pioneers ‘green 
technology,’” its US embassy stated.  “Israel advertises its green 
technology edge to strengthen its image as a ‘Green Country,” according 
to the Israeli Ministry of Environmental Protection 
<http://www.sviva.gov.il/English/ResourcesandServices/NewsAndEvents/NewsAndMessageDover/Pages/2012/06_June_2012/GreenIsrael_240612.aspx>.

Efforts to rebrand Israel explicitly aim to divert attention away from 
Israeli policy in the occupied Palestinian territories, instead focusing 
on Israel’s positively spun and frequently overblown 
<http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/israel-tech-site-paying-interns-covertly-plant-stories-social-media> 
“green” achievements. The mission of the Green Zionist Alliance (GZA), a 
co-sponsor of the People’s Climate March, harmonizes with Israel’s 
rebranding campaigns.

Spokespeople from the Green Zionist Alliance were not available for 
comment, directing inquiries to their website. GZA’s statement on Gaza 
<http://www.greenzionism.org/resources/articles/379> this summer 
attempts to equalize the disproportion of violence and calls for a 
two-state solution. Israel’s “Operation Protective Edge” that lasted 51 
days killed more than 2100 Palestinians (mostly civilians, including 
more than 500 children), as well as five Israeli civilians (including 
one child), a Thai migrant worker, and 66 Israeli soldiers.

According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development 
(OECD) <http://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/topics/environment/>, Israel 
ranks at the bottom 33 out of 36 countries in “water quality” and 25 out 
of 36 countries in air pollution.

In order to mask Israel’s ongoing military occupation and colonization 
of the occupied territories and to hide its poor record 
<http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/new-green-israel-ads-cnn-greenwash-sewage-occupation-and-apartheid> 
when it comes to adverse environmental impacts, the Israeli government 
and its allies abroad continue to pour enormous resources into branding 
projects.

    *Israel**: part of US failure on climate change*

Countering Israeli “greenwashing 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/greenwashing>” can be an inroad to 
pressuring the United States as Israel’s leading patron. During Israel’s 
summer 2014 assault on the Gaza Strip, the US delivered 
<http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/stop-us-shipment-fuel-israels-armed-forces-evidence-gaza-war-crimes-mounts-2014-08-04> 
its latest shipment of jet fuel for the Israeli military. Between 2013 
and 2014 the US has delivered thousands of tons of fuel to Israel for 
military purposes, along with $3 billion in yearly military aid and 
other unique economic and political perks enjoyed by no other country.

The US is also a relevant target for social pressure on climate change 
because its policies (and lack thereof) represent perhaps the world’s 
single greatest prospect for helping or harming the dismal climate 
situation. The fact that the richest, most powerful country in the world 
has no national policy limiting fossil fuel use 
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/noam-chomsky/climate-change-nuclear-war_b_3383593.html> 
continues to stifle any meaningful efforts to deal with climate change.

Nevertheless, there are countries whose national commitments to 
environmental justice and holding Israel accountable provide a model for 
other nations, including the US, to emulate.

Bolivia has enacted unparalleled environmental protection rights and 
leads the hemisphere (if not the world) in its level of criticism of 
Israel. Bolivia severed diplomatic relations 
<http://www.haaretz.com/news/bolivia-cuts-ties-with-israel-seeks-genocide-charges-against-israeli-officials-1.268131> with 
Israel in protest over Israel’s Operation Cast Lead in Gaza that killed 
more than 1,400 Palestinians (again, the vast majority civilians) in the 
winter 2008-2009.

Since that time Bolivia’s President Evo Morales has called for 
international criminal genocide charges against Israel. Most recently, 
Morales declared Israel a “terrorist state” and canceled a visa 
exemption 
<http://news.yahoo.com/bolivia-declares-israel-terrorist-state-184920411.html> 
agreement that had formerly allowed Israelis to travel freely in Bolivia 
without a visa.

In 2010, Bolivia passed 
<http://www.scribd.com/doc/44900268/Ley-de-Derechos-de-la-Madre-Tierra-Estado-Plurinacional-de-Bolivia> the 
Law of the Rights of Mother Earth, conferring unprecedented rights 
<http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2011/apr/10/bolivia-enshrines-natural-worlds-rights> on 
nature equal to those of humans. The conceptual building blocks for 
industrial nations in Europe and North America to follow Bolivia’s 
indigenous leadership can be found in the “Charter of the Forests” 
traced to the thirteenth-century Magna Carta, the origin of modern 
western constitutional law.

The People’s Climate March in New York City has the power to demonstrate 
the widening groundswell of public concern over climate change. With 
enough social pressure, even the US can follow Bolivia’s lead, both in 
holding Israel accountable and setting down the path to broad-based 
environmental action on which a livable future depends.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace-discuss/attachments/20140923/4b4e08fa/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: img_1520.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 160414 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace-discuss/attachments/20140923/4b4e08fa/attachment-0001.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: google_logo_41.png
Type: image/png
Size: 2357 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace-discuss/attachments/20140923/4b4e08fa/attachment-0001.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: pf-button.gif
Type: image/gif
Size: 1848 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace-discuss/attachments/20140923/4b4e08fa/attachment-0001.gif>