Toward a Sustainable Israel: News from SHATIL’s Environmental Justice Project

May 31, 2008

World Environment Day on June 5th was created by the United Nations to encourage awareness about and action on the critical environmental issues all of us now face. But for SHATIL’s Environmental Justice Project, every day is Environment Day. As the Earth heats up, so does the Project’s work. Begun thirteen years ago, the Project now employs five organizers and consultants who work throughout the country to increase government responsiveness and empower citizens to promote greater environmental justice.

Alona Vardi was a pioneer in Israel’s environmental movement and the founder of SHATIL’s Environmental Justice Project. She was instrumental in moving the movement from one which focused solely on fixing environmental problems to one whose actions were based on a deeper analysis and understanding of the social and economic causes of those problems. She stood at the forefront of the struggle for the rights of citizens – especially those on the social and geographic periphery -- to influence environmental policy.

On Thursday, Life and Environment will present the 2008 Green Globe Award, initiated five years ago by Alona Vardi, to environmental organizations that have made outstanding contributions to the environment. Winners include Shomera, a Jerusalem organization that works to protect the Jerusalem forest and educates and initiates projects in many sectors – including the ultra-Orthodox and at-risk-youth -- in recycling, urban gardens and more.

The past month has seen a flurry of SHATIL activity on environmental issues including successes and new beginnings. In a testament to SHATIL’s environmental leadership, the Finance Ministry and the Knesset Environment Lobby asked SHATIL to coordinate the creation of a five-year operating plan for the environment, An Environmental Agenda for Israel. SHATIL has finished the first draft of its recommendations, which focus on energy, transport, land, water, industry and local economy, and recently began a series of meetings with the director of the Finance Ministry to review the proposals.

Environmental Justice Project staff have fanned throughout the country, training local activists in how to get environmental issues on the agendas of candidates running for local elections; teaching environmental organizations to use non-violent tactics in managing conflicts; and lending our expertise to important environmental campaigns.

In June, SHATIL will launch the Environmental Fellows Program in the south, which will bring together environmental leaders – including heads of NGOs, local authorities and businesses – to develop a vision of sustainable environmental practices in the south and work to promote that vision.

Last week saw the first meeting of a new SHATIL-led coalition of environmental, social and consumer organizations and academics to fight the planned privatization of the electric company and to provide an alternative to this government “reform.”  And the SHATIL-led Ramat Hovav Coalition is working to submit a petition to the Supreme Court, together with the Law Clinic for Environmental Justice at Tel Aviv University, to force the government to abide by laws pertaining to hazardous chemicals in the area.

SHATIL’s one-year-old Palestinian Forum for Environmental Justice is about to finish gathering data about the specific environmental dangers in Arab population centers throughout Israel. The Forum will formulate its action plan based upon review of the data.

Most recently, SHATIL has become involved in the campaign to stop the building of a coal power plant in Ashkelon. Last week, Minister of the Environment Gideon Ezra announced his opposition to the plan.