Israel: Greenwashing Colonialism And Apartheid

This paper demonstrates how Israel uses environmental policy to sustain its oppressive status quo, rather than the environment. This paper is divided into four parts. First, I explain how past colonial and apartheid states used environmental policy to sustain their oppressive status quos. Second, I describe how Israel employs systems of colonialism, capitalism, and apartheid. Third, I explain how these systems harm not only the indigenous Palestinians, but also the environment. Fourth, I explain how Israel uses environmental policy to advance its oppressive agenda. I also explain how this policy often harms the environment. This paper concludes by explaining how Palestinians and supporters of the Palestinian cause are resisting against Israel’s oppression. In sum, this paper argues that all oppressive systems, such as Israel’s colonialism, capitalism, and apartheid, must be dismantled in order to safeguard human and environmental interests. I argue that environmental policy used by states, like Israel, to advance colonialism, capitalism, and/or apartheid must be rejected by all environmentalists. Indeed, I argue that the definition of the term environment needs to be widened to include humans, since human and environmental fates are inextricably linked, (Mcdonald 2002, pg. 3). This paper combines scholarly research with personal narrative, drawing on my personal experience, as a Palestinian who witnessed Israel’s injustices first-hand.