Sharing the Land of Canaan: The Conflict and Sustainable Development (Chapter 10)
Publisher: Pluto Press (London & Sterling, Virginia)
Author(s): Mazin Qumsiyeh
Date: 2004
Topics: Conflict Causes, Land, Programming
Countries: Israel, Palestine
The Zionist program has always been built around the concept of "reclaiming" the ancestral Jewish homeland by building extra-state institutions" (World Zionist Organization, Jewish Agency etc), establishing Jewish land ownership through various mechanisms (largely involving ethnic cleansing of non-Jews), and expanding settlements, borders and control over land and natural resources. The settlements and borders continuously expanded in territory of hostile natives. The initial large-scale replacement of population met with obstacles but still succeeded in transforming the country from a predominantly Arab and Muslim (with some Christian and Jewish Arabs and others) to a predominantly Ashkenazi-led state with Zionist laws. Yet, Palestine/Israel now has some 9 million people and nearly half are still Palestinian natives. Israeli leaders are frantically seeking to maintain the demographic "edge." A three pronged program is now obvious to attempt to accomplish this seemingly impossible task: a) preventing refugees from returning, b) incentives and other tools to lure in as many Jewish (or even non-Jewish but not native) immigrants who identify with Zionism, and c) making life so hard for the remaining Palestinians that they leave (or even outright removing them). It was thus inevitable that there would be sever environmental effects of on this fragile sliver of land on the Eastern Mediterranean region, cut off from its hinterland in the Middle East. Any proposed solution must take these issues into consideration.