Nakba ambiental

The report details how the Israeli occupation in the West Bank utilizes environmental degradation, resource expropriation, and restrictive land-use designations as tools for colonization. It highlights the systemic theft of water resources, the dumping of industrial and nuclear waste on Palestinian lands, and the use of 'nature reserves' to justify the displacement of Palestinians and the destruction of their agricultural assets. The document concludes that these environmental crimes are inseparable from the political struggle for Palestinian self-determination.

• The Israeli occupation employs a strategy of 'environmental Nakba,' where environmental destruction is used as a tool for ethnic cleansing and colonization, including the demolition of Palestinian villages and their replacement with forests by the Jewish National Fund.
• Israel maintains dominant control over water resources in the West Bank, capturing over 85% of the water from the eastern, western, and northeastern aquifers, leaving Palestinians with less than 15%. This results in a stark disparity in daily consumption: Palestinians average 73 liters per person per day, compared to 300 liters in Israel and 369 liters in settler colonies.
• The separation wall is described as an environmental crime that has destroyed hundreds of thousands of hectares of cultivated Palestinian land and expropriated fertile soils. Its placement along the Western Aquifer potentially deprives Palestinians of up to 75% of their available groundwater.
• Palestinian territories are used as dumping grounds for Israeli waste; for example, a landfill near Qalquilia received industrial chemical waste from Israel for 20 years, leading to lead contamination and high rates of cancer and gynecological anomalies in nearby Jayyous and Azzun.
• Israeli settlements frequently discharge untreated sewage onto Palestinian agricultural lands to make them 'unusable' and thus easier to confiscate under 'unused land' regulations. In some cases, Palestinian communities are prohibited from developing their own sewage systems unless they also treat the waste from nearby Israeli colonies.
• Industrial enclaves like Nitzanei Shalom, located in the separation zone on confiscated land, operate with minimal environmental oversight and poor labor conditions, allowing companies to pollute with impunity while employing Palestinians at wages often below the minimum.
• The designation of 'nature reserves' is used as a 'green makeup' for ethnic cleansing. In Wadi Qana, the area was declared a reserve to restrict Palestinian access and cultivation, while settlers were permitted to cultivate the land and destroy native vegetation.

APA

Al Butmah, A., Peek, B., & Scandrett, E. (2013). Nakba ambiental. Friends of the Earth International. https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/03-FoEI-Nakba-report-ESP-mr.pdf

Chicago

Al Butmah, Abeer, Bobby Peek, and Eurig Scandrett. Nakba ambiental. Friends of the Earth International, 2013. https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/03-FoEI-Nakba-report-ESP-mr.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Al Butmah |first1=Abeer |last2=Peek |first2=Bobby |last3=Scandrett |first3=Eurig |title=Nakba ambiental |publisher=Friends of the Earth International |date=September 2013 |url=https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/03-FoEI-Nakba-report-ESP-mr.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{albutmah2013nakba, author = {Al Butmah, Abeer and Peek, Bobby and Scandrett, Eurig}, title = {{Nakba ambiental}}, institution = {Friends of the Earth International}, year = {2013}, month = sep, url = {https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/03-FoEI-Nakba-report-ESP-mr.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }