A deep dive into the long-standing history of Green Zionism that is plaguing Palestine
A Lancet study reported that the actual estimated death toll in Gaza exceeds 180,000+ Palestinians, citing 96% of Palestinians in Gaza facing famine and thousands missing under the rubble, an unconscionable amount being children. As the world watches one of the most documented genocides of our time, Israel, unmoving, still boldly asserts itself as a climate-friendly and green state. A floating yet persistent question amongst the Palestine movement is how Israel, a state that is currently committing genocide according to countless prominent human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and the United Nations, can pledge to be for the environment while destroying it in the process.
Green Zionism has been a prevailing doctrine since Israel’s creation by intersecting environmental efforts with colonialist aims. You may have heard the infamous slogan “A land without a people for a people without a land,” a deceptive quote, trailblazing the justification for settler colonialism and an ethnic cleansing campaign in Palestine, but a slogan that the climate justice movement has often disregarded is this notion of “greening the desert,” an insinuation that Palestine was a barren wasteland. Therefore, Palestine needed to be colonized, and its current “unworthy” inhabitants dispossessed.
For Palestinians, the climate justice movement is not just a fringe issue but something that unequivocally ties to their identity and their fight for liberation and self-determination in their homeland. As the attacks on climate intensify with Israel waging an over 426-day-old genocide on Gaza, Israel has done everything in its power to exacerbate its degradation of the environment and destruction of Palestinian lives.
Since October 7, Israel has dropped over 85,000 tons of bombs onto Gaza, leaving air, water, and soil polluted, as well as irreversible damage throughout many of Gaza’s ecosystems and sewer systems. According to the Guardian, Israel’s climate cost in the first 60 days of its military response was “…equivalent to burning at least 150,000 tonnes of coal,” as 99% of the air pollution links to Israel’s brutal aerial bombardment and ground invasion. But things don’t stop there, as Israel continues its assault on the West Bank.

According to international law, there are over 720,000 illegal Israeli settlers in the West Bank. Settler attacks on Palestinian crops and olive trees have been a recurring act of violence and cruelty imposed by Israel for decades as a way to sabotage Palestinian livelihood and serve Israel’s colonial endeavors. Settlers have been known to set fire to olive groves, Palestinian homes, cars, and even kidnapping and burning Palestinian children. This not only makes Palestinian life almost unbearable but difficult to access resources for Palestinians in the West Bank.
Nur, a Palestinian student residing in Nablus, elaborates on how crucial olive trees are to Palestinians and how the connection to the land is intrinsically a part of her identity, “The olive tree is a huge symbol in Palestinian culture, and Palestinians not only rely on them but cherish them; when a settler burns an olive tree, it’s like burning a generation.”
Many Palestinians, like Nur, come from a family of farmers who rely on their olive trees and crops for food and sustainability. According to the Palestine Bureau, over 82.4% of Palestinians in the West Bank are agricultural holders, many of them being staunch cultivators and farmland owners.
Nur’s family has been witness to many settler attacks during the olive harvest that takes place in Palestine every October, “I remember my father told me one of the settlers started charging at him and threatening him and my uncles to leave,” Nur says. Settler attacks in the West Bank have increased exponentially since October 7, marking at least over 1400 incidents. The intentions of these settlers have always been evidently clear – subjecting Palestinians to excessive violence and intimidation to push them out of their lands and homes.
This is all done under the protection of the Israeli Defense Forces. “There were 4 settlers, and they got physical with my dad and my uncles, pushing them, getting in their faces, and cursing at them in Hebrew,” Nur says. What Nur’s family experienced highlights a recurring struggle that has endangered the lives of millions of Palestinians and has resulted in the incineration of approximately over 1 million olive trees since 1967.
“Olive trees take years to grow and over 40 years just to bear fruit, so when I see settlers burning our trees, it’s a total devastation for me and my family,” Nur said.
Back in September of this year, Israeli settlers from the settlement “Rehelim” set fire to Palestinian olive trees in the Palestinian village of Yatma, not too far from the city of Nablus, where Nur and her family reside; This happens every year in order to prevent Palestinians from accessing their resources and cultivate their lands properly. “Settlers know this is our way of life, so they try to destroy it,” Nur says.

This phenomenon of undermining the connection that indigenous peoples have with their land is a classic colonial talking point, propped up by the Jewish National Fund (JNF). This Zionist organization has played a prominent role in the colonization of Palestine, dating back to the earliest foundations of the political movement in 1901. Founded in the city of Basel, Switzerland, at the fifth Zionist congress, the JNF first launched itself in the United States in 1926, taking pride in planting millions of European trees all over Palestine in the name of climate while encroaching on Palestinian land.
The organization is a growing force in Jewish communities across America. Many Jewish families and individuals donate money to the JNF to plant trees to symbolize their connection and commitment to Israel. In 2021 alone, the JNF surpassed an $803 million dollar fundraising milestone. While donating money to Israel to plant trees is tailored to the public as an act of deep love for the environment and advancement of civilization, one can quickly search on the JNF website and read about the charity’s intentions.
On the website, the JNF claims to be “…greening the desert with millions of trees, building thousands of parks across Israel, creating new communities and cities for generations of Israelis to call home,” the organization fails to mention Palestinians and their presence in the land and instead prides itself on planting over 260 million trees as well as creating 250 reservoirs and dams, building more than 2,000 parks, and expanding the infrastructure for more than 1,000 settlements.
While this sounds astonishing to the ear, it isn’t what meets the eye. Most of these trees that the JNF plants have been renowned as invasive species in the region, causing immense environmental damage. Although the Jewish National Fund posits itself as an environmental charity, its efforts to green the Naqab desert in Palestine have resulted in irreversible damage to the environment, including afforestation.
Planting European trees, the most unadapted to Palestine’s summer heat makes them the most prone to wildfires. This has caused immense damage to many of Palestine’s foliage and cities. In August 2021, the largest wildfire broke out in Jerusalem, destroying 2,000 hectares of land. This was due to European Pine trees being planted in the Jerusalem mountains, making them sensitive to heat.
The JNF is committed to planting trees, regardless of what kind, because of its ability to conceal what is underneath them. Zionists destroyed over 800 Palestinian villages during the Nakba of 1948, uprooting an entire people and civilization. Many remnants of Palestinian villages remain today and have been covered up by millions of European pine trees as a way to erase Palestinian existence in its entirety. This method was immensely popular throughout the 60s and 70s after 1948, following the JNF purchasing 1 million dunams of Palestinian land, which led to increased displacement of Palestinians and exclusive Jewish communities. This act is still being practiced today, especially in the Naqab desert, where the Palestinian bedouin population has been victim to recurring displacement as Israel continues to greenwash its war crimes.
The world is waking up after 76 years of human and climate injustice in Palestine. Thousands of demonstrations are happening worldwide by both Palestine and Climate organizers, fighting to end the genocide and calling for the end of weapons sales to Israel that not only belligerently kill but harm the environment with toxic chemicals and waste.
Many European climate activists have participated in continuous demonstrations for Palestine all throughout Europe, calling for boycotts of Israeli products and pressuring for an Israeli arms embargo to prevent the constant dropping of bombs. The international world has paid witness to Israel’s greenwashing and its continuous whitewashing of its war crimes that not only kill hundreds and thousands but continuously deplete the environment.
I asked Nur if she had anything to say to climate activists in America, and she said,
“Palestine is in everything. It is the perfect example of how the fight for environmental justice and the justice of its inhabitants are interchangeable.”
