Rishon Rishon

Conservation in Israel

Yesterday John Ray pointed to an article about anti-Semitism in the Australian Labor party. It sounds on par with left-wing parties worldwide.

The hypocrisy of the left in supporting terrorists of all stripes, and especially those that target Jews, is generally well commented upon, and I don’t think I’m capable of doing a better job. But just to recap: The terrorists are products of, and aim to promote, a set of values which is misogynist, homophobic, and puritanical in the extreme, not to mention anti-democratic. Aren’t these supposedly leftist values?

Israel is the least misogynist, least homophobic, most libertine, country in the Middle East, not to mention the region’s only democracy. You’d think that would win it some support, wouldn’t you? My contribution: It’s also the region’s most environmentally aware country, with the best environmental record. You’d think this would buy some support among the world’s Greens, wouldn’t you?

Of course not! Universal human rights, and the environment of the small world we all have to share, are culturally relevant only to the West, not for people who follow their indigenous traditions. Well, at least that lets traditionally observant Jews off the hook! Oh, wait, Jewish traditions don’t count because, because… sorry, I’m stumped, I don’t know why not.

Anyway, getting back to the Greens, their number one priority is saving the environment (hence the name)? Well, evidently there’s one thing that trumps the environment: killing Jews. Green movements around the world ignore Israel’s environmental achievements, in comparison with its neighbors, and champion Israel’s eco-unfriendly enemies. In fact, Israel is the only country in the region that even has a Green party! Though perhaps they’ve corrupted themselves with this practical campaign message in the Tel Aviv municipal elections:

הירוקים בראשות פאר ויסנר מתחייבים להקטין את מספר כלי הרכב הנכנסים לעיר ולאפשר לכל תושב חניה חינם כל היום בכל מקום המסומן בכחול לבן

Hay’ruqim b’reshut P’er Visner mithayvim l’haqtin et mispar kley harekhev hanikhnasim l`ir ul’efshar l’khol toshav hanaya hinam kol hayom b’khol maqom hamsuman b’kahol lavan

The Greens, headed by P’er Visner, guarantee to reduce the number of motor vehicles that come into the city and to make it possible for every resident to have free parking all day, in all locations that are marked with blue and white [legal parking spaces]

The truth is that Israel has a very old environmental movement, one that precedes the founding of the state. A very important part of Zionist ideology was getting back to the land. The early Zionists practiced what the preached, leaving their city lives and desk jobs, and becoming farmers. Not only did they feel that they were rehabilitating themselves by getting back to the land, but they took on the project of rehabilitating the land itself. By the time the Zionists arrived, the land had been over-grazed, and eroded for thousands of years. The land, once covered by open forests, was now treeless, the trees all burned for firewood. (In fact, evolution was at work, the native oaks becoming scrub as the tall members of every generation were cut down.)

The early Zionists are justifiably famous for planting forests. It is less well known that they worked in other ways to preserve the environment. I can vouch for the fact that it has become taboo in Israel to pick wildflowers, once a common pastime. This is a result of a campaign by the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (Hahevra l’haganat hateva`) – a rough equivalent to the Sierra Club in the US. Example:

A highlight in the history of nature conservation in Israel is the campaign to rescue the country's wildflowers. Picking wildflowers used to be such a popular pastime in Israel that by the beginning of the 1960s, many of the more attractive flowering plants were on the brink of extinction. Anemones and cyclamens, which bloomed in profusion and symbolized the beauty of Israel's landscape, had nearly vanished. To reverse this trend, the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI) and the newly-born Nature Reserves Authority launched a campaign which focused on both legislation and public education. In retrospect, this turned out to be the most successful public environmental re-education campaign ever launched in Israel. Today, thirty years later, Israelis scrupulously avoid picking wildflowers and the country abounds with the rich splendor of wildflowers.

Wild anemones and cyclamens are now very common. No Israeli would even think of picking them. (Amusingly, the text of this page is copied here, with Palestine replacing Israel. An endorsement of sorts.)

I myself am very much a conservationist, which is somewhat different from an environmentalist. I am most concerned with preserving species and habitats, controlling pollution is merely a means to this end (and to improve my quality of life). I think some people go way overboard on the pollution issue. So I take an interest in Israel’s efforts to preserve its wildlife. It does a lot, though it has the usual problems that come with increasing population (Israel is one of the most densely populated countries on Earth), and affluence (e.g. cars). I found this travelogue, with lots of nice wildlife pictures. Don’t miss Hay Bar, on this page (scroll down), whose purpose is to reintroduce to Israel native animals that had become locally extinct. One of the big problems with reintroducing native animals is Israel’s small size, which makes it easy for them to wander across the border, where they are inevitably shot.

ADDENDUMS: This page claims that Israel has the highest percentage of protected area in the Middle East, at 10%. But this page claims it's 14.9%, more than the US, Australia, and every Arab and Middle Eastern country except Oman.

Something about wolves: “The gray wolf (Canis lupus) is one of the most persecuted mammal species. In this century, gray wolves have been eradicated from much of North America and large areas of western Europe. In other parts of Europe (e.g., Italy, Spain, and Norway), small or remnant populations have persisted. In general, wolves are abundant only in regions where human density is low.

In the Middle East, a small, desert-adapted subspecies, the Arabian wolf (C. l. arabs) occurs. These wolves occupy arid flats and mountains throughout deserts of the Arabian Peninsula, Syria, Jordan and Israel. The Arabian wolf is rare throughout most of the Middle East, with the exception of Israel. In the Arabian Peninsula and Jordan, vast areas are used by the nomadic Bedouin for grazing of livestock, and they consider the wolf to be the major predator of their goats and sheep. Systematic shooting and trapping of Arabian wolves has nearly eliminated this carnivore from most areas in the Middle East. Harassing or killing wolves is prohibited in Israel. As a result, the population of wolves in the Negev Desert is relatively dense; 91-159 individuals in ca. 9,600 km2.”

In contrast, there’s this.

I hear these howling every night (and see them from time to time).

UPDATE: For those of you who know Spanish, Liberalismo.org said something about this post. (I don't know what.)