Here’s a sneak peek of my latest article for Aquila Magazine’s Earth Issue. It’s all about indigenous populations making the most of their ancient traditions to cope with an increasingly unpredictable climate. As well as highlighting the continued importance of ancient water tunnels (called aflaj) in Oman, I spoke to an expert on community adaption in Bangladesh about the floating gardens (called baira) which are providing a lifeline to flooded communities. There’s also a snippet on the amazing work of Hassan Fathy in Egypt…

Want to read more? Well all you have to do is download (how eco is that?!) a copy of the latest Aquila Magazine here. It’s only a couple of dollars for a mag jam-packed with goodness. Go on, you know you want to!

I speak to award-winning architect Salma Samar Damluji about her mud architecture work in Yemen and why Dubai’s property development mentality is ruining the Middle East

The Middle East may be a fascinating place politically but architecturally, it’s on its last legs. Years of corruption and poor governance mean it’s slowly becoming one of the ugliest places on earth. You just need look at at the sprawling mess of glass and metal in Dubai to realise that something has gone awry. Salma Samar Damluji, an Iraqi architect of 30 years says that greed and corruption is behind the fall of architecture and insists that this money rush is destroying the region’s architectural heritage one building at a time.

And no-one knows this more than Damluji. She has fought what she calls architectural recolonisation in Egypt alongside Hassan Fathy who championed mud architecture practiced by the falaheen (rural peasants) in the 197os. And she’s also worked in Yemen restoring and renovating eco-friendly mud buildings in Yemen’s Wadi Hadramout where ancient building can disappear over night.

“In Europe, countries have been able to preserve their own culture, architecture and urban heritage but the rest of the Arab world hasn’t done that,” explains Damluji. “So as a result they have no architectural heritage left – everybody is imitating Dubai which is a complete disaster. Unfortunately you see the result of it now all across the Arab region.”

One country that Damluji believes has been able to hold back the mass commercialisation of architecture is Yemen. “When I first went in 1981, there was a kingdom of architecture and there was a huge rich resource of architectural heritage. Yemen, I felt, was the last place in the Arab world that had this incredible civilisation and urban heritage that had been going on for hundreds of years. They were so developed that they were creating these amazing palaces out of mud – very modern too. I felt that there was a cause there and I felt I had to take on that cause.”

She has been visiting Yemen ever since and from 2005, the Daw‘an Mud Brick Architecture Foundation has supported her work to restore buildings in Wadi Hadramout. Another important institution has been the Cultural Emergency Response (CER) of the The Prince Claus Fund in Netherlands, which funded restoration projects in ‘Aynat and Sah following a destructive flood in the region in 2008.

Damluji’s effort to protect and preserve the mud architecture of Yemen, however, hasn’t been easy. Civil war, political in-fighting and badly mismanaged resources mean she’s had to rely on outside support to carry out any restoration and she also has to take on other projects just to make a living. And it isn’t getting any easier.

“It’s harder now than it used to be to work in Yemen as a woman because there are more people in Hadramout who are more… I wouldn’t say fundamentalist. There is a worse level of education and people are taking the girls out of school at the age of 12 to get them married and people rely on money that comes from relatives living in Saudi and the Gulf.”

“So, things are difficult but there is still an architectural scene for me to engage in and there are all these builders who I adore but the people don’t like dealing with a woman… They think that to become good Muslims they need to do what the Saudi’s do and not talk to women. I think they’ve got the wrong end of the stick.”

Damluji’s hard work maybe challenging but it is being recognised – she was recently named one of the five winners of the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture. The one thing she wants the award to do, however, is bring more attention to the need for architectural restoration in Yemen. She says she is going to be bringing out her begging bowl and say ‘yalla, where’s the money’. “The Yemeni residents give me such a rough time but I think that maybe years down the line people will appreciate the architecture and heritage that I helped preserve.”

Through his work he championed decent housing for all Egyptians and especially the poorest who lived outside the cash economy. Fathy (which is pronounced ‘fat-hy’) was also keen to preserve Egypt’s particular brand of vernacular architecture which he felt worked much better the poor than the concrete matchboxes that the inhabitants of Cairo now live in.

Years later, his model village ‘New Gourna’ near Luxor is falling into disrepair. And for all its faults those who still live there want to see it better preserved. In 2010, World Monument Fund visited the village and documented all the repairs that would be needed. What’s happened since then is not so clear. I’ve emailed them asking them for an update, which I will happily share if/when I get it. Whilst the WMF were in Gourna they made this stunning little film about the village.

I speak to Mario Cucinella the architect behind Gaza’s eco schools about building under conflict, water, education and bringing hope to a desperate region

Early 2013 will see the launch of a green school which will collect rainwater and regulate internal temperature using thermal technologies. Whilst such a project would not be noteworthy in Europe, this project is coming to the energy-scarce, water-poor and conflict-ridden region of the Gaza Strip. Constructing a green building in such a region definitely comes with a whole cache of problems- it also comes with a whole load of benefits. Building green schools that save water and reduce the amount of energy needed offers huge benefits to the people of Gaza. I caught up with Mario Cucincella, the architect behind the project to find out more.

Aburawa: Looking back at the profile of your work, most of the projects you are involved in are based in Italy. How did you get involved in the scheme to bring eco schools to Gaza?

Cucinella: I got involved in this project as I was invited to a conference by the Italian government which was about the future of Palestine and how a green economy could help Palestine’s economy and encourage development. At that meeting I met with UNRWA which is the UN organisation for Palestinian refugees and we talked about presenting a project about the green buildings I had worked on in the last couple of years as they were interested in the integration between green issues and architecture.

They took me to visit refugee camps and we went to Gaza to see the schools and so I proposed to them an idea of building a different quality of school. I mean, UNRWA builds a lot of schools as they are in charge of education and health and social problems- so they build schools, hospitals and lots of other things- and there was a big programme to build one hundred schools in Gaza and they were really interested in a new style or standard of building. Well, these things grow very fast and they were excited about my proposals and I guess, here we are.

Aburawa: There has been lots of press attention around the concept of green schools- could you tell us about some of the green features of the Gaza schools?

Cucinella: Well as you know, Gaza has a real issue with access to lots of resources. So for example, water is really polluted and 40% of the population still don’t have access to potable water. There’s also significant energy blackout and so that does affect how you can run schools and hospitals. The first idea was to collect rainwater as they don’t collect rainwater and in Gaza there are between 100-600mm of water a square a year- which is not lot but it’s still free water. They also don’t recycle water so the principle is to be able to collect maximum water for the school.

The other issue is that the schools are very low quality and they are not suited to their environment. In the summer the buildings are very hot and it’s hard for children to focus on their studies when it’s 38 degrees in the classroom. So another important feature is creating a sufficient thermal mass so that energy is stored and temperature can be better regulated. These two are not very complex principles but when you put them together you get something quite special which can really improve the people’s quality of life. And that was the agenda behind these buildings.

In Gaza it is notoriously difficult to construct buildings as there are issues around the ability to bring in materials due to the blockade. How will you be working around these restrictions to make sure the schools are built?

Cucinella: Well, it’s a complicated situation because as you know you can find almost any type of material in Gaza due to the tunnels but the problem is that the United Nations cannot buy anything from the black market. So everything has to come from Israel and that is slowing the process but we are hoping to make some of the materials in Gaza on site so that we can employ more people. But we will still need to bring in the pre-fabrication materials into Gaza before we can start.

In the last couple of months, the conflict between Gaza and Israel has flared up with both sides exchanging fire and a number of casualties in Gaza. How does this impact the progress of the schools?

Cucinella: This conflict has been going on now for more than forty years and sadly, you come to see the situation as the norm. It’s been like this for some time and there isn’t much you can do – the UN has been building schools and hospitals throughout the conflict and they accept that this is the situation that they are working in. There was a discussion at one stage about whether building green schools in a place where it is difficult to find food was a good idea but the thinking was that this is still very important. To design new schools and imagine a new life for the people of Gaza – it’s a different approach to humanitarian action. The project is also part of a programme of re-education with local engineers and also teaching the staff and pupils how to look after a green building. I mean giving schools free water and also the means to regulate the temperature are so important for the Gazan population.

We also hoping that our green approach will be part of the solution to the demographic boom in Gaza where people are struggling to build homes and schools with the resources they have. So, these (green buildings) are actually really useful for Gaza. Indeed, we are currently working with refugee camps in the West Bank around how we can improve the quality of life for people living in the camps. And how can we implement technologies such as solar panels and thermal technologies that help make them more autonomous from Israel.

What have the reactions been like to the project? Are they mostly negative or positive and has there been some reluctance to embrace the concept of a green school in the Middle East?

In the beginning it was a little difficult as people are naturally reluctant to change but after you explain the case and the changes that the school could have on the conditions the children study in, they recognise the benefits of the project. In fact when we presented the project at a conference I was surprised how optimistic and enthusiastic people were and they were saying if you can do this project in Gaza, you could do any project anywhere in the world! I mean we worry about this catastrophic vision of the world where there are no resources, no money, no energy and basically you don’t have to dream that in Gaza- it’s already like this. In a way, what I came away with is that the frugality of people is greater than any oppression – people are strong and are able to adapt to really difficult situations.

For me, it was also really exciting talking to the engineering students in Gaza – these people don’t really have any future, there is no work in Gaza and yet they go to school, they go to university and study engineering because they hope that something will change. For me, that was really inspiring. And I guess one day or another, this story of conflict will be finished. Maybe that day will be tomorrow or maybe it will be in another two hundred years but it will be over. Also when you are there you feel that the people of Gaza are more optimistic about their future than the people on the outside.

Who is the project financed by and when can we expect to see the first school to be opened?

The project is financed by the Islamic Development Bank but I also want to add that without UNRWA and the support of the General Commissioner, this project would have very difficult and almost impossible. We are going to Gaza in April and in the summer we are going to start construction so the first building should be open at the start of next year in 2013. It will be probably be six months of work. I think what’s really exciting about this project is that when you work in Europe, there is always a choice or another option, but when you deal with sustainable development in a place like Gaza it’s a real challenge. To be able to apply  our knowledge and skills in a completely different region and see that it is really helpful is really inspiring.

A recent GreenProphet blog which looks at the problem with green projects that are planned for the illegal Israeli settlements. 

Around a week ago, the Israeli government announced that 10% of its renewable energy quota would be going to the West Bank. This means that literally millions (some have put the estimate at $660 million) will be heading to the territories to encourage solar, wind and biofuel energy development.

Whilst this move has been welcomed by green activists in principle, there have been concerns over the fact that solar fields will be built in the Israeli settlements of the West Bank. The continuing growth of the Jewish settlements across the West Bank is one of the most widely contested issues in the region and is considered to be a major barrier to Israel and Palestine reaching a peace deal. So does green progress outweigh these political downfalls?

In the past, Israeli settlements have struggled to secure approval for renewable energy projects and were not assigned a quota of the renewable projects of the Israeli state. This all changed around a week ago when 10 percent of the allocation for renewable energy projects were shifted to the West Bankand the Israeli government placed a cap on settlement projects of 46 megawatts for large solar fields, 80 megawatts for wind power and 21 megawatts for biofuels. Thirty megawatts of the national 300 megawatt allocation has been given to the settlements.

According to estimates by the Jerusalem Post, if all the quota in renewable energy in the West Bank settlements are used it would add up to an investment of around $660million. The policy shift also means that various roof-top solar panel projects in the Ma’ale Adumim settlement were given the all clear.

You could argue that green energy projects need to be celebrated where ever they are but I personally find it hard to celebrate a policy which appears to be further jeopardizing the chances of peace between Israel and Palestine.

Although all Israelis (Arabs and Jews) are theoretically allowed to make use of the government quotas, only Israeli settlers have Israeli citizenship in the West Bank and so Palestinians can’t make use of the renewable energy quotas allocation. What’s more, Palestinian themselves struggle to secure permission from Israel to build their own renewable projects. As Hanna Siniora, co-CEO of the Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information, told the Jerusalem Post:

“Palestinians want to build renewable energy, but most of the land at the moment is under the administration of Israel’s defense ministry, Area C. We are not allowed to create projects in Area C. Renewable energy is as important to Palestinians as it is to Israelis, so maybe they should be given an equal chance to do this.”

:: Image via Jurvetson/flickr of a solar field in the Negev Desert.

:: Info via Jerusalem Post : Originally published at Greenprophet.com

Rawabi (which means hills in Arabic) is an ambitious $800 million USD project which aims to build houses for up to 25,000 people in a location between Jerusalem and Nablus whilst respecting the environment. Despite these good intentions the Rawabi project does seems to pose more questions then it answer.

For example, how does it plan to navigate the political conflict between Israel and Palestine during construction? Does the Rawabi project really live up to its green credentials? And what do Palestinians think of the project? In a bid to get to the bottom of these questions we caught up with Bashar Masri, the man behind the Rawabi project (who is also rumoured to be one of the richest men in the Middle East) to find out more.

For the full article go to Green Prophet- Here are some standout quotes from Mr. Masri:

[T]he unpredictable nature of the political situation does not change the importance of preserving the environment: Rawabi will prove that Palestinians are capable of protecting the environment, and will do so better than the residents of the settlements…

…building under occupation is the most difficult part of constructing Rawabi. We face a lot of circular, time-and resource-wasting political arguments. On a practical level, right now we are forced to use trucks – and therefore increase CO2 emissions – to bring in water, because both our road and water access are blocked at the political level by Israel.

We had dozens of focus work groups where actually the same concerns about Rawabi looking like an Israeli settlement was brought up, and our clients vehemently declared that they did not want red roofs, for example, which are thought of as the strongest aesthetic indicators of a settlement. Rawabi also won’t be hidden behind a wall and surrounded by guard towers…

All of us who live in Palestine realize that as much as we revere the past, and cherish it, it is equally important to take advantage of technological advances and international best practices in community development, housing construction. These debates are taking place all over the world, not just in Rawabi – how do you preserve a way of life, while at the same time, ensuring quality of life for future generations?

For the full article go to Green Prophet.

Need some ideas to help inspire Muslims on environmental issues? Here are my ten top tips…

As much as I’d like to tell you that there is an easy and foolproof way to capture the imagination of every Muslim when talking about the environment, the reality isn’t so simple. Sadly, there’s no magic formula to dazzle every Muslim into going green or at least I haven’t found it yet! Fear not though, intrepid blogger, because there is something you can do to improve your chances of firstly tapping into a Muslim readership and secondly, encouraging them to green their way of life.

1.  Do Your Research- Whilst no one expects you to be an expert in Islamic jurisprudence, a basic understanding of Islam and Muslim culture will help you when you are blogging. Doing your research about the topic you’re discussing and referring to Green Islamic principles will show the reader that you’re serious about green Muslims and consequently they’ll take your work seriously.

2.  Do Keep Things Varied- From news, reviews and interviews keep things interesting with a diverse range of blogs that reflect the diversity of the Muslim readership. Remember to appeal to them on lots of diverse topics- whilst faith shapes many Muslim lives, they still have interests and passions so if you can appeal to them in these areas you will have a better chance of success.

3.  Do Celebrate Green Successes- Highlighting the existing work of Green Muslims is an important aspect of blogging for a Muslim audience as it will appeal to them directly and also show them that there is a well established link between environmentalism and Islam. This will also help you build networks with the leading green Muslims. Just remember to ask them to keep you updated with exciting goings on and other Green Muslims worth talking to!

4.  Do Use Social Media Networks – Sites such as Linkedin, Twitter and Facebook are vital for keeping ahead of the news, getting in touch with people and even getting pictures to use on the your blogposts. As evidenced by the recent Arab revolutions that made the most of the social media networks, the Muslim world really is online- so make sure you’re signed up and are kept updated.

5.  Do Ask For Advice- If all else fails, just ask. We all learn through each other, so if after scouring the Internet you’re still not sure about a topic or issue then it may be worth dropping someone an email. The online Muslim community is pretty friendly and there are lots of people out there willing to help or at least try and help you.

6.  Don’t Rely On Islamic Verses Alone- The green roots of Islam should be a starting point onto other aspects of the environmental movement and ways to green the Muslim way of life. If you are just going to repeat the reasons Muslims should be environmentally friendly according to the Qur’an and hadith over and over again, it’s going to get very boring and repetitive very quickly. Trust me.

7.   Don’t Be Rude! - No, I am not talking about sex and swearing (Muslims are just open to these are the average person!) but certain topics which Muslims will be more sensitive about. Whether you’re reporting on topics such as the pilgrimage of Hajj or poisoned holy water, remember to apply a little bit sensitivity and care.

8.   Don’t Be Afraid To Tackle Controversial Topics- Debate and discussion are at the heart of every blog so embrace controversial topics and remember that nothing is off-limits if it is done with care and is backed with research. There will inevitable be some topics that must be approached with care when blogging for Muslims but that doesn’t mean that they should be ignored altogether.

9.  Don’t Preach- Avoid the temptation of seeing blogging for Muslims as an opportunity to teach them about being green and instruct them how to live their lives. This is a two-way street and there is probably a lot you can learn about being green from Muslims themselves. Listen out for their feedback and comments (you’ll be surprised how well informed some of your readers may already be) as these will also help you judge what blogs and topics attracted their attention and which ones don’t.

10.  Don’t Forget To Have Fun! After all these do’s and don’ts I just want to remind you the blogger to have a little fun with it all, add your own personality and flair to your blogs and stay positive. Engaging with Muslim audience will put you on a steep learning curve which is as fun as it is hard work- you can expect a lot feedback and encouragement, so good luck!

:: First Published at Green Prophet.

:: Image via Mrehan/Flickr.

This March 2011, they completed their six month training and returned to Jordan to start a new life for their village. Hopefully, they willl manage to attract enough attention for a sponser to pay for the start-up costs for the solar panels- if only so that they get a chance to put their skills into practice and bring solar power to their villages in the harsh deserts of Jordan. Here’s the piece I wrote about them for Green Prophet….

For many living in the harsh and desolate deserts of south Jordan, life without electricity is the norm. Either the infrastructure which provides electricity doesn’t reach them or they simply don’t have the money to afford it. However, all that looks set to change as two women bring to light the advantages of solar energy.

Two Jordanian Bedouin women have recently returned from a six-month course at a unique college in India where they were trained as solar engineers. The two women, who are illiterate and have never been employed, were carefully selected by the elders in the village to attend the course at Barefoot college in India which helps poor rural communities become more sustainable.

“We’ve been taught about solar energy and solar panels and how to generate light,” explains Rafi’a Abdul Hamid, a mother of four who lives in a tent in the deserts of south Jordan. “Hopefully when we return we will be able to teach others and use everything we’ve learnt here in India to improve our village.”

Building Sustainable Bedouin Communities

Many of the Bedouin communities in Jordan which previously lived off their herds, are now highly dependent on government handouts. They usually make up the poorest sector of society and have a very low standard of living. As such the government sees this project as a strategic way to encourage these poor villages to generate their own energy and also become more self-sufficient.

Raouf Dabbas, the senior advisor to the Ministry of Environment in Jordan told Green Prophet: “Providing this green technology to the rural community, whilst it will not have a major impact on reducing climate change, it will have a profound impact on the socio-economic position of the bedouins and it will help improve their standard of living.”

Read the full article which was published at Green Prophet.

Many Gulf states seem in race to build the ‘most lavish’, ‘the tallest’, ‘the most expensive’ building with ecological credentials and Islamic principles of moderation taking a back seat. Even in Mecca, the centre of the Islamic faith which Muslims face when they pray, criticism were made of the latest architectural addition which came in the shape of the ‘Royal Mecca Clock Tower’. A massive building towering over the Kaaba, it appears to be nothing but a Big Ben rip-off with a massive shopping mall, a 800-room hotel as well as large prayer halls for the pilgrims. A slapdash effort has been made to incorporate Islamic architecture which amounts to nothing more than a crescent on top of a spire and Arabic numerals.

See full article which was published at Green Prophet here.

:: Image via Wolfgang Staudt on Flickr.

Israel has exploited the country’s natural environment for its own political ends for decades. Since 1948 olive trees have been uprooted, quarries mined, the most fertile lands taken for settlements and water illegally extracted.

However, in the Naqab (Hebraized as Negev) desert and the Galilee this ecological occupation takes on a very different form. Instead of uprooting trees, they are planted in huge numbers by the Jewish National Fund (JNF), a Zionist organization setup in 1901 and which displaced Palestinians during the 1948 dispossession or Nakba, and has since planted more than 24 million trees covering more than 250,000 acres of land in the country.

Although the JNF states that it is working to improve the environment by making the regions “green and prosperous,” a recent incident in the Naqab desert where the local Bedouin population was accused of damaging 1,600 JNF trees tells a different story. The Israeli mayor Pini Badash of Omer, a small town bordering Beersheba where the alleged attacks took place this September, told the Israeli daily Haaretz that he believed that more than 10,000 trees had been uprooted by the Bedouin in the last year alone. If the allegations are true, they suggest that the local Arab Bedouin object to the JNF’s afforestation projects and also see them as symbols of occupation that need to be resisted.

Since 1948 the JNF has played a key role in the colonization of Palestine, working with the State of Israel to disposes Palestinian Arabs and create Jewish-only communities. Following the destruction of 500 Palestinian villages during the Nakba, the JNF purchased more than a million dunams of land (a dunam is the equivalent of 1,000 square meters) for the exclusive use of the Jewish state which it later shared with the Israel Land Authority. The dispossession continued into the 1960s in the Galilee region where destroyed villages were planted over by the JNF with pine trees. The West Bank was also targeted through a subsidiary group called the Hemnuta, which illegally acquired lands and houses, focusing on occupied East Jerusalem.

In the Naqab, JNF trees are planted row after row, cutting off Bedouin communities from their land, constricting their nomadic movements and pushing them into the poor urban townships. Entire Bedouin villages such as that of al-Araqib, Karkur and Twail Abu Jarwal have been destroyed and their populations made homeless simply to make way for JNF forests. The largest JNF forest is the Yatir forest located in the northern Naqab which covers 30,000 dunams and is in fact Israel’s largest planted forest. Inspired by Zionist mythology to make the desert bloom, the JNF’s forestation schemes now includes the “Blueprint Negev” project — a ten year and $600 million initiative which includes program for water conservation and further afforestation in the Naqab. None of these facilities, of course, will be for the benefit of the Bedouins living in “unrecognized” villages which Israel states are illegal although the Bedouin have lived there for generations.

By 2003 the JNF had acquired more than 2 million dunams of Palestinian land, although trees were planted and around 100 parks were built to obscure the sites of the Palestinian villages.

Consequently, it is not difficult to understand why trees planted by the JNF are seen as part and parcel of the Israeli occupation and therefore as legitimate targets of resistance and protest. As the Israeli historian Ilan Pappe states in a report on the JNF released by the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign in 2010, “The ‘green lungs’ of Israel have been created as part of the colonization of the country and the dispossession of the Palestinian people — and not out of care for ecology and nature.”

Although the JNF continues its work as an environmental charity, its efforts to green the Naqab have come under scrutiny by environmental experts who state that the afforestation in the Naqab is actually causing “serious and irreparable damage to nature and the environment.” Other critics such as Alice Gray, an environmental expert living in the West Bank, believe that the JNF uses afforestation as a means to control Bedouin land. “Trees are used by the JNF to actualize their control over tracts of land and prevent the Bedouin from using it. Are the Bedouin allowed to plant trees? No,” she says.

“The state has repeatedly destroyed Bedouin crops of all sorts — they used to spray them with Round-Up [a broad-spectrum herbicide] out of helicopters until too many were hospitalized with chemical poisoning and the [high court] forbade it … Between that practice and frequent house demolitions, the Bedouin of the unrecognized villages are subjected to continuous harassment and abuse by the Israeli state. Their entire way of life is delegitimized while at the same time the JNF is able to move with impunity,” Gray says.

Bedouin leaders have also refuted the tree-cutting allegations made by mayor Badash as completely unfounded, adding that damaging trees goes against the Bedouin culture of caring for the environment. Ra’ed al-Mickawi, a Bedouin from the Naqab who works with Bustan, a nongovernmental organization promoting environmental justice in the region, added, “Bedouins practice sustainability as a default — we are self-sufficient and consume very little, both in the past and now. We lead very humble lives and live on the things that we produce and I think that is a major factor in shaping the way that my community sees nature … In fact, many Bedouin practices are aimed at supporting and protecting nature.”

While the accusations against the Bedouin remain unconfirmed allegations, the trees the JNF plants are not symbols of a mutually-shared environment. They represent a form of Israeli oppression that has taken root in Palestinian land and which is constantly damaging the Bedouin way of life. As Gray remarks, “if the Bedouin did cut the trees — unproven but not entirely unlikely — they did so in resistance to an ongoing campaign of delegitimization and exclusion that is being waged against them by the State of Israel in collusion with the JNF.”

In early May 2010, the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement to hold Israel accountable launched a campaign highlighting the JNF’s greenwashing which activists say obscures its colonizing and apartheid activities. The Stop the JNF campaign is also working to challenge the organization’s charitable status in more than fifty countries and to document the JNF’s ongoing role in the ethnic cleansing of Palestine. An open letter signed by 26 organizations was issued ahead of the JNF’s annual meeting in October, urging it to stop forestation activities in areas of existing Bedouin villages and to end their complicity in the dispossession of Israel’s Bedouin community.

Arwa Aburawa (http://arwafreelance.wordpress.com/) is a freelance journalist based in the UK who writes on the Middle East, the environment and various social issues.