Between Ruin and Restoration: An Environmental History of Israel

Chapter Seventeen: The Future of the Israeli Environmental Movement: Is a Major Paradigm Shift Under Way?

357 The goals and methods of the environmental organizations in israel have changed profoundly over the sixty years since the founding of the state. israeli scholars have pointed to a broad paradigm shift from an early romantic , nature-centered approach to a more pragmatic, public-health emphasis , relying on tools of science, law, and land-use planning (de-shalit 1995; tal 2002; schwartz 2009). at a global scale, paradigm shifts within the environmental movement have also been suggested, representing periods of extreme change with regard to priority environmental issues and policy prescriptions (Carter 2007). Citing the continuing global environmental crisis, some advocate for a new paradigm shift in israel (schwartz 2009) and similarly in the United states (shellenberger and nordhaus 2005) that would integrate social issues into the environmental agenda. in this chapter, we examine whether the environmental movement in israel is on the cusp of a paradigm shift toward convergence with a broader social justice agenda. We use case studies of three relatively recent campaigns to ponder the current and future trajectory of the environmental movement in israel. an important contextual note: the history of the young israeli environmental movement is being written by active participants who are creating that same history (look no further than this very edited volume, as its authors all have been intimately involved in the same environmental history that they are writing), rather than by more sober and detached historical analysts. in CHAPTER SEVENTEEN THE FUTURE OF THE ISRAELI ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENT Is a Major Paradigm Shift Under Way? Daniel E. Orenstein and Emily Silverman 358 DANIEL E. ORENSTEIN AND EMILy SILVERMAN this chapter, we quote widely from the writings of these participants. further, we—the authors of this chapter—are not only participants in the same environmental movement, but also colleagues and friends of many of the primary actors. PARADIgM SHIFTS IN THE ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENT: A HISTORICAL OVERVIEW scholars of environmental studies describe broad paradigm shifts in the development of the environmental movement in the developed world (e.g., europe , the United states, and Japan). Carter (2007), for example, describes three “generations” of environmental issues (table 17.1). Prior to the 1960s, the first generation focused on preservation of wildlife and habitats and was represented by economic elite and middle-class interest in aesthetics, hiking, hunting , and other forms of nature recreation. other prominent issues on the environmental agenda were soil conservation and dealing with localized environmental problems, which were generally by-products of a century of industrialization . The second generation of issues, emerging during the 1960s, has been termed “modern environmentalism.” among the main issues confronted by this generation were population growth, the environmental impact of technology, air pollution, safe drinking water, hazardous waste management , and pesticide use. notably, it was during this period that environmentalism evolved into a broader ideology and political movement framed around questions of values and behaviors. accordingly, the environmental movement became a mass movement drawing from all sectors of society, as exemplified by societywide participation in the first earth Day in 1970 (Carter 2007). beginning in the mid-1970s, Carter suggests, a new, third generation began to think about global issues such as acid rain, ozone depletion, climate change, and loss of global biodiversity. These activists and professionals pushed for and responded to the proliferation of environmental policies and regulatory bureaucracies to promote and enforce new environmental laws and agreements at the national and international levels. Conco and Debelko (1998) suggest a similar transition is witnessed in the differences between the 1972 United nations Conference on the environment in stockholm, which is symbolic of Carter’s second generation, and the 1992 United nations Conference on environment and Development in rio, which is more reminiscent of the third generation (or even the fourth, as we will describe below). The stockholm Conference was characterized by narrow representation of government representatives focusing on air and water pollution. The latter, by contrast, was attended by a broad range of government representatives , nongovernmental organizations, and grassroots activists and was centered on large-scale and integrated global ecology issues. further, Conco 359 Table 17.1. Phases of development of the global and israeli environmental movement Carter (2007) Phases of development in the global environmental movement de-Shalit (1995) Predominant Zionist and Israeli attitudes to the environment Schwartz (2009) Paradigms within the Israeli environmental movement Preservation and Conservation Movements Pre-1960s -“middle class interest in the protection of wildlife, wilderness and natural resources...