iNews Publisher 2.5

The "Holocaust" and the Environment

The "Holocaust" and the Environment

By: Razan Zuayter

Addustour-January 10, 2008

The other day, Dr. Nabil Sharif wrote about the United Nation's impotence and its attempts to cover it up. Mr. Rakan Majali wrote about UN's campaign to plant one billion trees in one year. The two matters are relevant to me and to the story I want to share with you.

During the Earth Summit 2002 in Johannesburg , I made the acquaintance of Mr. Achim Steiner, the then president of the World Conservation Union (IUCN). I impressed upon him the urgency of IUCN intervening to stop the crazy uprooting of trees in Palestine at the hands of the Israeli occupation and called on him to support the Million Trees Campaign launched by the Arab Group for the Protection of Nature (APN) to replant uprooted trees. He suggested that we could organize an activity to draw attention to this problem and lobby with IUCN members. As advised, we held a workshop at the IUCN Congress 2005 in Bangkok on the impacts of wars and occupations on the environment and natural resources, which culminated in a resolution demanding immediate measures to address this problem, especially in Palestine . The resolution was ratified by all members, except the USA . However, IUCN made no actual steps to apply the resolution.

Achim Steiner moved on to become the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). I sent him a letter reminding him of the Million Trees Campaign and requesting UNEP's support to pressure the Israeli occupation to cease its aggressive systematic attacks on the trees of Palestine , which were being uprooted at the rate of one tree per minute. He replied that they had decided to launch a billion trees campaign and urged me to consider our campaign part of UNEP's overall campaign. I was full of indignation and sent him a letter explaining that while we appreciate their initiative, the UN, UNEP in particular, should play a role in putting an end to the environmental degradation caused by the Israeli occupation, including the pollution of water, uprooting of trees and distortion of the land's topography. I stressed that the billion trees campaign will not end the massacring of Palestinian trees. To date, I have not received an answer to that letter.

Despite that, we did not give up. While I was attending the World Social Forum in January 2007, I visited UNEP's offices in Nairobi and met, along with my colleague Kaori Sunagawa the president of a Japanese organization concerned with the negative impacts of American military bases in Japan , with a senior officer there. But nothing came off our meeting; and while there, I noticed that UNEP was hosting a huge exhibition on the holocaust.

A while back, I received a letter from Steiner's assistant asking me to send them the number of trees we have planted in order for them to include them in their campaign. I declined for the reasons above and because our campaign had in fact started before theirs. I also objected to their utter disregard of our call for support.

I am now certain that the UN not only suffers from inability but of double standards as well. However, this generalization does not apply to all UN agencies. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has indeed responded to our numerous demands, through my membership in the International Planning Committee on Food Sovereignty, and in 2003 reactivated their office in Palestine . I was invited to attend the signing of their cooperation agreement with the Palestinian Authority in Rome . FAO also supported one of APN's projects to plant palm trees in the Jordan Valley to counter Israeli threats to confiscate large plots of land there.

Similarly, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) is well-known for its concern for securing more Arab support to Palestine . We were actually asked to organize this support in an ESCWA conference held in Beirut in 2005.

There are people in those institutions who are not afraid to speak their mind like the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, John Ziegler, whom I hope we will get the chance to honor. This Swiss professor of sociology said that no hope can be sought in the UN, despite its great ideals. He believes that the UN is going through a schizophrenic phase because whatever affiliate organizations build is destroyed by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. He also accused the European Union of being hypocritical and was bold enough to point out the global failure with regard to the siege of Gaza .

However, the civil society has not lost all hope in the UN. We hope that it will be rebuilt on a new just basis. We also hope that our countries will be able to impose their priorities, particularly that they contribute to providing the UN with support and human resources.

We are close to planting the million trees, which APN pledged to plant with its partners, including the Welfare Association, Qatar Charity and the Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees. We will hopefully announce the completion of the campaign in the spring.

At the same time, APN is still carrying out the Green Caravan Project in Jordan . However, the speed of implementation is not as desired because our efforts are self-funded and led by a few volunteers. In addition, many of our local establishments do not support these initiatives unless there were photo-ops with some official! Unlike youth and students, who were enthusiastic to take part in the Mother's Day Campaign we launched in Jordan last spring, few establishments were responsive. But we are hopeful that they will be more involved and supportive in the coming spring.