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December 12, 2005  Daniel E. Orenstein and Steven P. Hamburg’s recent oped in the Jerusalem Report  (November 28, 2005 [please note: This site is current under reconstruction.]) is drawing critical attention to the proposed development of the Negev. "The JNF’s Assault on the Negev” (reprinted below) challenges the Jewish National Fund's  (JNF-USA) proposal to populate Israel’s "last great reserve,” according to Orenstein and Hamburg, with a half million people in new low-density communities.

Orenstein, a graduate student in Brown’s Environmental Studies Program, and Hamburg, director of the Watson Institute’s Global Environment Program and Brown’s Ittleson Associate Professor of Environmental Studies and Biology, are co-investigators of the Watson Institute’s Middle East Environmental Futures Project (MEEF). MEEF engages in interdisciplinary and cooperative environmental research and outreach in Palestine and Israel. It seeks to assess the current and future state of the environment in the region and to explore through an in-depth dialogue the environmental identities and desires of the two nations as well as those of many communities within each. By integrating the natural/physical and the social sciences, it is producing policy-relevant publications that will integrate expert knowledge with community-level concerns.

Orenstein and Hamburg's oped criticizes the JNF-USA’s approach to population expansion into the Negev as compared to the Keren Kayemet Leyisrael (KKL), JNF-USA’s counterpart in Israel. Orenstein and Hamburg describe the Negev's environmental value:

"Yet while the Negev is far more affected by human activity than the JNF-USA suggests, the region still has unsurpassed value for Israelis seeking quiet and immersion in nature. It is the only part of the country where extensive landscapes without roads and power lines can be enjoyed. It is where the stars are clearly visible at night and where large mammals can be returned to nature with real hope of survival in the wild. It supports a relatively healthy and diverse desert ecosystem—and therefore, a thriving tourist industry."

Through this piece, Orenstein and Hamburg are adding their voices to an ongoing debate at this time over the environmental future of the region. As responses to their oped appear in the press and on academic and policy-relevant websites, this article will link to these.

[This oped is copyright by The Jerusalem Report and reprinted with permission.” The Watson Institute expresses its gratitude to the Jerusalem Report for permission to reprint this on our website.]

"The JNF’s Assault on the Negev"

By Daniel Orenstein and Steven Hamburg

As it appeared in the Jerusalem Report on November 28, 2005.

The bulldozers are coming! The Jewish National Fund in the , which has spent the last decade or so marketing itself as a premier Zionist environmental organization, is revving the engines. It has targeted the Negev—'s last great natural reserve—or development.

Calling the desert region "almost untouched" and "a massive land reserve waiting to be developed," JNF-USA's "Blueprint Negev" calls for bringing a half million people to 25 new low-density communities in the area. JNF-USA president Ron Lauder likens the proposed effort to the conquest of the American West, expressing what he calls "'s Manifest Destiny."

In fact, the JNF-USA and its president are referring to a region where the army controls 50 percent of the land for military training. The "untouched" Negev is home to mining and industry, and to sites for toxic, radioactive and solid waste disposal. It is already home to 600,000 people, including 150,000 Beduin, some of whom are among 's poorest citizens.

Yet while the Negev is far more affected by human activity than the JNF-USA suggests, the region still has unsurpassed value for Israelis seeking quiet and immersion in nature. It is the only part of the country where extensive landscapes without roads and power lines can be enjoyed. It is where the stars are clearly visible at night and where large mammals can be returned to nature with real hope of survival in the wild. It supports a relatively healthy and diverse desert ecosystem—and therefore, a thriving tourist industry.

But, rather than revel in the Negev like the Hebrew prophets, who repeatedly sought solitude there, the JNF-USA vision resurrects David Ben-Gurion's naive and defunct view of the Negev as empty wasteland. The environmental and social cost of JNF-USA's proposal would be tragic. Publicly accessible open space is among the country's most endangered resources. Endorsing new, low-density communities violates all existing long-term development guidelines. As already shown by the 1980s "Judaization of the Galilee" program, there is no greater threat to long-term preservation of open space in than ill-conceived development drives.

The JNF-USA proposal essentially bypasses Keren Kayemet Leyisrael (KKL), JNF-USA's counterpart in . Due to the arduous work of environmental groups, KKL has environmental oversight in the form of a sustainability committee. KKL projects must comply with planning and environmental laws, and—after court cases and public demonstrations—KKL is increasingly sensitive to the need to live up to its environmental responsibilities.

The projects outlined in JNF-USA's "Blueprint Negev" have not been reviewed or endorsed by the KKL directorate or sustainability committee. Rather, JNF-USA is implementing the project through a third organization—Tnu'at Or. This organization is aimed solely at creating new Jewish communities in the Negev and Galilee, a goal it has pursued for the past five years. Its online literature suggests that settling the land is the solution to 's social and spiritual problems, and that the Beduin will take over these areas unless Jews settle it first. By bypassing KKL, the JNF-USA has effectively steamrolled environmental checks and balances. While the KKL becomes increasingly accountable to the people of , the JNF-USA is moving in the opposite direction.

Rather than establishing superfluous new communities, the JNF-USA should redouble past efforts to support existing communities—development towns, Beduin towns, kibbutzim. Each could benefit from new neighborhoods to supplement their population base. It is self-evident that expanding existing communities rather than establishing new ones reduces both environmental impact and capital costs.

As for accountability, JNF-USA has two options. Either its leadership can realign itself and its projects with KKL, sponsoring only efforts that have gone through transparent decision-making in . Or the JNF-USA should open its own decision process to the same environmental oversight as KKL. This means not only giving its plans to outside reviewers for appraisal, but also having professional and public committees with the power to veto project proposals based on their environmental, social and political implications.

The Land of Israel does not need another development binge. Rather, it needs the JNF-USA to break from its past glorification of concrete and develop a vision that blends the land of milk and honey with a modern nation-state. The same courage that was required in the last century to build a viable political and economic state is now needed to create an environmentally and socially sustainable country. And the stakes—I's health and future—are just as high.

Daniel Orenstein is a PhD candidate and Steven Hamburg is Ittleson Associate Professor of Environmental Studies and Biology at Brown University's Center for Environmental Studies.

The Jerusalem Report, November 28, 2005 issue.

(Photo: Daniel E. Orenstein [left] and Steven P. Hamburg [right] during a MEEF Project meeting at the Watson Institute.)