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by Allison Deger for Mondoweiss

Last Thursday, I joined about 40 others in San Francisco for an organic lunch with Dr. Alon Tal, co-founder of the Zionist Green Alliance and board member of the Jewish National Fund (JNF). Tal, an American-born Israeli, is the unofficial leader of what critics describe as the greenwashing movement, producing green futures for Israel as a way of masking the inequitable status quo.

Before starting a greenwashing political party, Tal had a history of working against Bedouin land rights while publicly advocating for environmental service improvements, at the JNF and the leftleaning Arava Institute. Both organizations have public pro-Bedouin personas. However, a deeper look into the environmentalist's work reveals his red-lines. One example, dug up by Tali Shapiro from the Coalition of Women for Peace, is Tal's 2006 remarks in Ma'ariv, where he list Bedouins as one of Israel's "top ten environmental hazards."

The Bedouin harm open areas. They create a situation of over-grazing, which brings about land erosion. There are fifty thousand illegal structures in the Negev built by Bedouin. They are halting the development of the area since nothing can be done with land they've occupied. It's not fair towards the general public, who're supposed to enjoy these open spaces, to go on a retreat and even ride a jeep through the open landscape.

The interviewer with Ma'ariv responded to Tal's above remarks with:

So you suggest wiping out Bedouin culture so that Yuppies can drive in Jeeps?

Tal is not in favor of creating scenic driveways through every neighborhood the JNF marks for demolition. He made a one-time intervention to stop an eviction in Silwan in East Jerusalem, a move that seemed to buy him a touch of maverick street cred with the Zionist environmental community. But his site characterizes the occupied neighborhood as a "disputed" one and, based on his comments to me last week, that intervention reflected an effort to stave off Arab dissent, rather than an acknowledgment of land rights.

'Green' Jewish territorial expansion

During Tal's 30-minute lecture luncheon, he described “green” Jewish territorial expansion as a utopia, in which military vehicles will run off of alternative energy sources. In order to attain this colonial utopia, the green Zionist movement will return "harmony in society and the environment," by designating large tracts of lands as national parks or nature reserves, and lobbying all political parties to adopt green agendas.

And in fact, currently, the JNF is doing just that, forcibly removing 30,000 Bedouins from their homes for a new nature reserve in the Negev.

The Bedouin evictions are part of Israel's national zoning plans. Tal said the once "agriphobic" (fear of farming) idea of planning that dominated the 1950's era-- think Bauhaus-style Tel Aviv new urbanism--has since been exchanged for a new stage that favors open spaces. That old phase, Tal finds, was based upon the "bonanza" when "Israel won the lottery," in 1948, and proceeded to "create demographic facts."

In this new phase of Israeli planning, wide-open spaces are no longer viewed with fear as being undeveloped tracts of recently confiscated Palestinian land, and thereby ripe for Palestinian return. Such "territorial security issues" governed the first 100 years of Zionist expansion, Tal explained; and he looks to the next 100 years for building harmony with environment. This harmony is created through the designation of nature reserves, which often come at the expense of Palestinian and Bedouin residential and agricultural land use.

Tal also asserted that there are over "one million dunums of land waiting to be protected" as nature reserves, so that these lands are preserved for future generations. When asked, What of the Bedouins who are currently living on some of these lands, let alone their future generations "waiting to be protected," Tal expressed no sympathy. Becoming visibly irritated at the mention of Bedouins, he said they are "breaking the law," trespassing on lands for which they only have "ancestral claims."

He added, "they can't keep having twelve children, expecting to expand on the land, it can't happen."

In terms of "breaking the law," Tal is correct; the state does not acknowledge Bedouin land deeds in unrecognized villages. However in terms of expansion, Tal is wrong; 160,000 Negev Bedouins living in unrecognized villages use about 1 percent of the desert land, and their localities are systematically reduced/evicted/demolished by planning schemes from institutions like the JNF.

Later, I followed up with Tal on the separate issue of nature reserves outside of the green line. There are four Israeli parks in the West Bank. Tal's take was that they should become "peace parks," or buffer zones, meaning that he believes Israel should keep the confiscated land in the occupied territories. Unfortunately, our conversation then concluded abruptly.

"Excuse me, my cousin is here, I need to say hello," he said, and walked away.

Ending the event with a gracious smile, Tal waved to the receptive audience-- "we'll see you in Israel." But the eco-friendly Israel he imagines is one for future generations of Jewish Israelis only, without geographic and demographic constraints.

P.S. The lunch menu? Buffet style tuna wraps, cold pasta salad and
coffee--all served with compostable plates and silverware.