This is Not Our Country

And no, it’s not the Palestinians’ country either.

That we people, any people, own a country is a misconception. The places have been here long before we ever had any national identity. The landscape, the flora and fauna were here long before us. Despite what various holy books tell you – they do not belong to us. At the most, we can say that we belong to a place.

Common misconception though.

Take the movie Avatar. The beautiful Na’avi, in tune with nature to the point of being able to hook up with trees and animals via their built-in natural USB devices. They respect all living beings and try to melt into the forest in perfect harmony. All nice and poetic, until the are threatened by Terrans and encouraged by Jake’s avatar to fight back. How does Jake end his call to battle? “Let’s show them that this is OUR land!”

Doh! So suddenly the Na’vi are land owners?

On Human Right Activists and Peace Activists

I am all for human rights, and yes that includes civil rights and the right to form your own national movement. That said, if peace is what we want, encouraging fascistic trends and the “our land” line of thought is just so wrong. Whether it’s on the Jewish or Palestinian side.

Take Edna Kanati, for example. She’s one of the new participants of Big Brother Israel. She’s a left-wing activist and a member of  ”Mahssom Watch”. That means she goes out to IDF roadblocks and does her best to monitor the soldiers’ behavior towards Palestinians. So far, so good. I admire and appreciate the work she and her friends are doing.

On a recent Big Brother episode, Edna stated what she thinks Palestinians ought to do. She called out for Palestinians to refuse to cooperate with the roadblock system. Fair enough. Not practical, but whatever. Then she added something that really bugged me. She said Palestinians should tell the soldiers they refuse to cooperate because “this is OUR land”.

Doh! Again.

We Belong to This Country

Both us and the Palestinians belong to this country. Not only have both nations been formed here (less important IMO), but both share a deep affinity with this place and a sense of belonging.

The problem begins when we feel that we own the country. We feel this gives us the right to do whatever we want to the place. With horrible consequences.

Both nations have little ecological awareness. It begins with the governments and municipalities, who don’t think twice before designating what little non-cultivated natural areas we have left: new roads, new settlements… new agricultural projects.  You name it. Rarely do they perform any wildlife survey first and it takes a LOT of public pressure from Israel’s weak green organizations to try and save a place.

Then it’s commercial polluters. They still spray the fields and orchards from the air (and there are always people living next to the fields). They pour pollutants and sewage into the streams. Arabs and Jews united in their lack of care for environmental considerations.

The people themselves are just as bad. Yes, this is a generalization. Yes, we recycle batteries, plastic bottles and paper in our household and we’re not the only ones. It’s all you can actually recycle in Israel, and on the whole, not enough people do it.

What’s worse, many people just dump their trash outside towns. Got a truckload full of junk? Head out towards the nearest field or forest and you’ll find a nice pile of trash to which you can add. It’s not legal and you can get fined. In theory. In practice, our police force is overtaxed as it is and environmental issues are probably at the bottom of the list.

There’s so much more… People driving their off-road vehicles and ruining habitats;  hunting, fishing and picking up wild plants (not flowers, we did good with educating the public about those, but Palestinian and Druze people pick a lot of edible natural plants). There’s so much more.

The results? Polluted streams, fewer natural green areas, trash everywhere and more and more animals disappearing from view. When I was growing up, we often saw turtles, hedgehogs and chameleons. You’d be very lucky to see them today (not as roadkill that is). No more leopards in the deserts either. No more otters in the rivers. Very few big birds of prey in the sky.

Many people here, both Arabs and Jews, will tell you we’re too busy “fighting over our land” to worry about the environment. At this rate, there won’t be much left worth fighting over.

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