November 11, 2010
Dear Participants in “With Earth and Each Other,”
We are writing because we’ve uncovered very troubling new information to add to the information that we have already publicized[1] about Israel’s Arava Institute for Environmental Studies[2] and the online event “With Earth and Each Other: A Rally for a Better Middle East.”[3] We fully understand that many of you are participating in the event from a sincere desire to build “a better Middle East.” Unfortunately, it has become increasingly clear to us that supporting the Arava Institute and this event will actually damage the causes of justice and peace in the Middle East because Arava is a close and seemingly uncritical partner with right-wing institutions that continue to dispossess Palestinians from their homes and communities. Any efforts by Arava and the November 14th event to foster dialogue and improve the environment are just minor sideshows to the larger projects of Palestinian dispossession implemented by Jewish National Fund[4] and the Israeli government that Arava is serving to legitimize. Therefore, the best action that you can take to help create a better Middle East is to withdraw from this event.
Recap of reasons to boycott the event: We’ve previously explained that, modeled on the movement against apartheid South Africa, Palestinian civil society has overwhelmingly called for a boycott of businesses and academic and cultural institutions[5] that are complicit in denying Palestinian rights. The Jewish National Fund is one of the primary institutions involved in taking over Palestinian land, erasing Palestinian communities by planting trees over Palestinian villages that were destroyed by Israel, and thereby privileging the rights of Jews and discriminating against Palestinians. Arava and the JNF are close partners, and the JNF helps to fund Arava. According to the Arava Institute, Arava and “the Jewish National Fund (JNF) share a common mission to protect and preserve the land of Israel. This common mission has resulted in a formal partnership.”[6] Arava does not speak out against the JNF’s projects to secure Palestinian land for Israeli Jews, including this summer’s demolition of the Palestinian Bedouin village of Al Araqib in the Negev,[7] the home of Arava. Arava claims that it is “nonpolitical,” and that the purpose of November 14th event is “not to take a side.” However, self-described “neutral” efforts to foster “dialogue” that fail to confront oppression merely serve to further an unjust status quo.
Arava Leaders featured at JNF Conference: Arava Institute Director David Lehrer notes on his blog that the Arava Institute has worked to keep folksinger and social justice activist Pete Seeger in the November 14th event, despite a number of public letters to Seeger calling on him to withdraw. In addition to Seeger, other participating entertainers include Ian Anderson, Dan Bern, Mandy Patinkin, Tuck and Patti, David Broza and Shuly Nathan. Lehrer explains on his blog that he met with Pete Seeger and Seeger’s daughter Tinya on October 8th at Seeger’s Beacon, New York home where “I also discussed the concerns raised about the Jewish National Fund's sponsorship of "With the Earth and With Each Other."[8]
Lehrer’s blog includes many of his daily activities. However, what he omitted from his blog, and what has just come to our attention, is that just two days after his visit with Seeger, Lehrer was a “Featured Speaker” at the Jewish National Fund’s National Conference in Atlanta, along with Friends of the Arava Institute Executive Director, David Weisberg, according to JNF’s program for the event.[9]Lehrer was rubbing shoulders with other featured speakers like JNF Board Chair Ronald Lauder, Likud stalwart and Israeli Infrastructure Minister Uzi Landau, and Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, a leader in implementing the Judaization of Jerusalem, and described by JNF in the conference program as "a rising political star." Barkat unequivocally promotes a “united Jerusalem” under Israeli rule. On “60 Minutes” in October,[10] Barkat angrily defended the blatant takeover by Jewish settlers of the Palestinian East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan.
Arava silent on demolitions while others protest: Jewish activists protested both outside[11] and inside the JNF Conference,[12] and Jewish groups delivered a letter from 28 Israeli organizations and eight American Jewish organizations criticizing the JNF's policies in the Negev and the JNF’s destruction of Bedouin villages like Al Araqib.[13] The JNF responded to the letter with an angry rebuke, according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.[14] David Weisberg has claimed in emails to Adalah-NY that Arava supports the Bedouin residents of the Negev, but Arava did not sign the letter to the JNF, and made no public comments supporting the protests. Instead, as mentioned above, Arava’s leadership spoke alongside leading right-wing Israelis.
Arava partners with the Israeli government: David Lehrer never mentioned on his blog or elsewhere, the repeated demolitions of Al Araqib by Israeli forces between July and October, though these events occurred in Arava's "backyard.” Instead, in his blog, Lehrer highlighted Arava's negotiation "with the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs's Development Aid Department (MASHAV) on an expanded program for 2011." Lehrer wrote that members "were thrilled to hear about these global developments taking place in their own backyard.”[15] In another blog post during the same period, Lehrer wrote that on "August 24th, Dr. Shmuel Brenner, straight back from Brazil, Dr. Clive Lipchin and I met in Jerusalem at the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs,"[16] to discuss once more strengthening Arava’s partnership with the Israeli government. Lehrer’s actions and words clearly demonstrate that Arava has prioritized strong partnerships with the JNF and the Israeli government, the main actors in dispossessing the Bedouins in the Negev, over actions in support of the Bedouins. It appears clear that Arava has taken a political stand with the oppressors.
Recap of Israeli government and JNF Role: The Israeli government’s denial of rights and dispossession of its Palestinian citizens, including the Bedouin in the Negev, and the JNF’s role in that process, have been carefully documented by human rights organizations like Adalah: The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel and Human Rights Watch.[17] The JNF has been engaged in the “Judaization” of Palestine[18] for more than 100 years. After the 1948 expulsion of two-thirds of the Palestinian people from their lands, the JNF planted[19] fast-growing non-native trees on the ruins of Palestinian villages in a deliberate attempt to prevent refugees from returning to their land. Today, the JNF directly controls 13% of the land in Israel and effectively controls more than 93% of the land, renting and leasing only to Jewish citizens of the state in violation of the rights of the Palestinian minority.[20]
The growing boycott movement: In comments that are directly applicable to “With Earth and Each Other,” the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel has emphasized that “Under conditions of colonial oppression… joint projects claiming to be ‘apolitical’ or aimed at promoting music, science, environmental protection, etc. as domains that are ‘above politics’ are misleading and injurious to the struggle against injustice. By overlooking the oppressive reality of Israel's atrocities and gradual ethnic cleansing, these projects in effect legitimize and contribute to perpetuating and normalizing oppression.... More than twenty years of such projects in Palestine... have led to nothing but further entrenching Israel's colonization and progressive denial of Palestinian rights.”[21]
Palestinian civil society has issued a boycott call because close examination showed that so many businesses and academic and cultural institutions, including many that claim neutrality or appear well-intentioned, are actually complicit in Israel’s denial of Palestinian rights. Many organizations and artists are now refusing to conduct business as usual with a country that places itself above international standards. Elvis Costello,[22] Gil Scott Heron, Carlos Santana, Roger Waters,[23] Devendra Banhart,[24] and the Pixies are but a few of the artists who have refused to perform in Israel in the past year.
Our research has demonstrated that the Arava Institute is yet another Israeli institution that is deeply complicit in Israeli oppression, and therefore deserves to be boycotted. If you participate in the November 14th event, you will share in Arava’s complicity.
Thank you,
Adalah-NY: The New York Campaign for the Boycott of Israel (New York)
www.adalahny.org
American Jews for a Just Peace (US)
www.ajjp.org
Artists Against Apartheid (International)
www.artistsagainstapartheid.
Boycott! supporting the Palestinian call for boycott divestment and sanctions (BDS) from within (Israel)
boycottisrael.info
Educators for Peace and Justice (Toronto)
International Solidarity Movement – Palestine (Palestine)
www.palsolidarity.org
Jews Say No! (New York)
jewssayno.wordpress.com
[1] Letter to Pete Seeger from Jeff Halper, Coordinator of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, http://icahdusa.org/2010/09/
[5] For more information, see the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (www.pacbi.org) and the Global BDS Movement (http://www.bdsmovement.net/)
[6] See Arava’s website, http://www.arava.org/cat.asp?
[7] Israel Demolishes Bedouin in Village in the Negev for the Fifth Time, The Alternative Information Center, http://www.alternativenews.
[9] Draft Program: JNF National Conference, http://support.jnf.org/site/
[11]Bulldozers Return to a Bedouin Village for the Sixth Times, The Jerusalem Post, October 14, 2010,http://www.jpost.com/Israel/
[12] Activists Disrupt JNF Conference, Mondoweiss, link to mondoweiss.net
[13] Open Letter to the Jewish National Fund: Equal rights, sustainability, and development for Israel’s Negev – not dispossession of the Bedouin!; http://bedouinjewishjustice.
[14] JNF Rebukes Pro-Bedouin Petition, The Jewish Telegraphic Agency, October 12, 2010,http://www.jta.org/news/
[17] Special Report: The Jewish National Fund, Adalah: The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel,, http://www.adalah.org/eng/jnf.
[18] Trees of Reconciliation, Curriculum and Teacher’s Guide, September, 2009, Philadelphia Jews for a Just Peace, http://phillyjjp.org/
[19]Trees of Reconciliation, Curriculum and Teacher’s Guide, September, 2009, Philadelphia Jews for a Just Peace
[20] Land Controlled by the Jewish National Fund for Jews Only, Adalah: The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, July, 2007, http://www.adalah.org/eng/
[21] West-Eastern Divan Orchestra: Undermining Palestinian Civil Resistance and Violating Palestinian Cultural Boycott Guidelines, Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel,http://www.pacbi.org/
[22] It Is After Considerable Contemplation, Elvis Costello, http://www.elviscostello.com/
[23] We Shall Overcome, Roger Waters, http://www.youtube.com/watch?
[24] Folk Singer Devendra Barnhart Cancels Israel Show, YNet, http://www.ynetnews.com/
On the subject of Arava and like companies profiting from the occupation, there’s a new campaign just started by The US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation (it’s on the ADL top 10 list) aimed at having volunteers telling Amazon shoppers that it’s wrong to buy products that are on the BDS list such as Arava, Caterpillar etc. Smart idea and everyone can chip in:
link to salsa.democracyinaction.org
I’ll happily stand with the Arava folks against the boycott. They do great work in general.
I’ll also join the call that people connected to the Arava Institute think about what’s being said here. There is room for improvement. But the trope of: ‘dear liberal pro-peace organization, we shall deprive you of legitimacy for not repeating what we believe and for consorting with those we disapprove of’ is not a good one.
Want to go after the JNF? It’s a great target. Want to go after a JNF partner that doesn’t do great work? Meh. Fine.
Want to go after a JNF partner that actually does great work on the environmental front, and in the cause of bringing Israelis, Palestinians and Jordanians together? Sorry. Arava folks do good work, notwithstanding how messed up the JNF is.
Find a better target, please.
Just as an example of how things get complicated: Alon Tal was a founder of the Arava Institute, and a leader of Israel’s environmental movement. Who did he recruit to take the leadership of the umbrella organization ‘Life and Environment’? None other than a pre-Knesset Dov Khenin, the only Jewish anti-Zionist member of the Knesset.
And when Alon Tal entered politics, who did he do it with? An explicitly pro-peace, far left of center entity called the ‘Green Movement.’ Tal also worked closely with JNF – helping to stop some of the most damaging practices, and moving it forward on various fronts.
I still wish JNF all the ill in the world; my path is not that of Tal or the Arava Institute. But the attacks on them fail to showcase the good work that they do or the need for organizations that can navigate in the heart of the Zionist enterprise AND work within other circles, including Palestinian/Jordanian environmental groups.
Arava Institute grads are moving the ball forward for peace, not backwards. They aren’t the JNF.
Great comment. It seems like an odd effort to impose a self-appointed politically correct position hypocritically.
I attended a lecture by Amira Hass last week at the Eqbal Ahmad annual lecture at Hampshire College.
An ACADEMIC lecture, by someone that on the whole supports Palestinian rights and dissent against abuses, but is also periodically critical of some dissent and often critical of Hamas and other Palestinian resistance groups.
Noone urged a boycott of her because of her association with Haaretz newspaper, or for Israeli citizenship which she retains.
Is that hypocritical. I’m not urging people to boycott Amira Hass. On the contrary. I believe that more than the few hundred in the room should have come.
Mondoweiss is associated with the Nation magazine, and the Nation is generally supportive of the two-state solution and J Street. Should Mondoweiss be boycotted on the basis that it is in bed with the oppressor?
Like Israel, I believe that JNF needs reform. There are some very appealing elements to their land ownership model that I love. (In trust for the greater good, qualified property rights rather than libertarian definition of sanctity of individual private property.)
a palestinian friend wrote this:
I think you are right to focus on the JNF. It’s existence and structure tell a story about racism, expropriation and expulsion. Well, also some other things about Jewish hopes and dreams, but at this stage it’s fair to agree that the end result wasn’t very pretty.
And it’s tempting to try and get ‘everyone’ to protest the JNF and focus on the role they play.
But it’s also true that the JNF plays a role in lands management and the environmental movement in Israel. As someone who cares about environmentalism in Israel (and Palestine) I don’t foresee any kind of ‘defeat’ for the JNF, but rather a gradual transition to a less racist and less environmentally destructive mandate.
The Arava Institute and other environmental NGO’s are part of making that happen.
Imagine if there was a call to boycott the Bureau of Lands Management in the United States because of how they damage the environment and betray the public trust. Imagine that there was a nonprofit that was working on reforming the BLM. Now imagine that the boycott of the BLM extended to include the folks trying to reform the BLM. That’s what this looks like.
Clenchener, I find your defense of Arava and JNF thefts of Palistinian patrimony on grounds of some of the good stuff they are doing for Israel as offensive as you’d find my list of the good things that Hitler instigated for the benefit of the German people. I don’t know about the sins of the BLM that are alluding to but I’m sure stealing Palestinian land and natural resources are not some of them. It’s your business if you want to stand with the bad guys of Arava but don’t try to make them into some honourable organization; above all, they are thieves.
The fact that the event itself is a vapid, feel good event that takes no positions other than “we all want peace” is enough of a reason to boycott it. Such events (and the views behind them) serve the purposes of the oppressors quite admirably.
From the WEAEO website:
shmuel, stand with me and let us, heads gently tilted skyward, and with love in our hearts, silently yearn for peace.
uh, shmuel, i’m yearning, but i don’t sense any emotional investment on your part. you’re not trying to undermine the peace process, are you?
I recommend you two undergo some serious chakra and aura cleansing, and give it another shot.
I’ve tried that, Antidote, but the vibes of oppression, dispossession and suffering coming from Gaza have thrown my entire chakra-aura system out of whack. Maybe some Pete Seeger music will help.
Have you listened to Pete Seeger? Do you know at all who he is, what his life has been?
“chakra-aura” system.
I get that you are young, but try to respect those that have struggled for social justice in as dedicated a manner as a life is possible.
If you think that forming guidelines for ecologically sensitive (rather than abusive) land use as vapid, feel good, then you live in a different world than I.
Environmental action is already post-Zionism. It is living in the single state already.