Forest Fires Expose The Fatal Roots Of Green Colonialism In Israel (image-Facebook/Kochav Yair Tzur Yigal Local Council)
Massive fire had broken out in Israel which has scorched approximately 5,000 acres, including around 3,200 acres of forested land. Meanwhile, active investigations into the cause of the wildfires are ongoing. However, there has been an interesting aspect to the cause of one of the most severe wildfires in its history.
The wildfire which has gripped Israel has burned down invasive pine forests that Israel has planted on top of Palestinian villages it had destroyed during and after its invasion. The pine forest was even referred to as green colonialism by a non-profit organisations such as Slow Factory. Palestinian scholar Ghada Sasa had claimed that the Zionists had “turned Palestine into a tinderbox” by planting over 250 million trees since 1948, which is largely of invasive pine and eucalyptus.
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According to AJ+, Israel during the 1900s under Jewish National Fund (JNF) had planted trees across the land in the name of making the country look more like Europe. Since these species are from Europe, which needs different climate conditions unlike Palestine, they are more vulnerable to catch fire.
Many activists have claimed that, under the guise of environmental conservation, Israel was trying to cover up the ruins of villages which were destroyed and emptied during the 1948 Nakba, where 95% of the Indigenous population was massacred or forcibly expelled from Palestine. And these efforts were further accelerated after the 1967 war and occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. Israeli historian Ilan Pappe had explained that the Birya Forest, Israel’s largest man-made forest in the north, was strategically planted over the ruins of 6 different villages. And this practice has been practiced as this would make it impossible for the Palestinians to return to their villages of their grandparents and ancestors.
Moreover, striking down of these forests is impossible as most of them were labelled as protected parks, forests or natural reserves. In 1951, Israel’s first prime minister David Ben-Gurion had called on Israeli settlers to “make the desert bloom” as part of a nationalist campaign.
Apart from the innocent lives of Palestinians, the Israeli authorities had uprooted over 800,000 Palestinian olive trees since 1967. These data were recorded by Visualising Palestine, an organisation that “uses data and research to visually communicate Palestine experiences”.
As per the historical records, it is very noticeable that Israel had repeatedly burned or destroyed Palestinian olive groves, taken as a way to destroy both livelihood and sustenance.
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Eucalyptus are yet another species planted in the occupied territory of Palestine. These species, native to Australia, can be found throughout the world in the former British empire. These trees are considered to be extremely “thirsty” leading to the complete disruption of ecosystems. However, as per the JNF website, “Eucalyptus trees are one of the most familiar sights on the Israeli landscape. This tree was originally brought to Israel from Australia to help dry out swamps, which were breeding grounds for malaria-spreading mosquitoes”.
These species are widely seen in the regions of West Bank and other parts of Palestine, which had led to water scarcity in the region. Moreover, eucalyptus trees are highly flammable due to their oily leaves and bark, increasing the risk of wildfires in the region.
And thus, accounting for the recent instances of severe wildfires in the region can be seen as a countereffect of colonial-era environmental interventions.
