Published: 8 October 2019
Last updated: 5 April 2024
I ALWAYS SMILE AT the unique capability of Israelis to argue and debate until the cows come home about pretty much anything at all. Never mind how much one actually knows about something, let alone how relevant the issue is to them; all that matters is that it should be put the test of a hearty debate.
When my extended family would come over, discussions unceasingly danced around elections or philosophies or Zionism or whatever else was on the guests’ minds. The exchanges often took up the better chunk of dinnertime and even spilled into dessert, when we would crowd into the lounge room to drink instant coffee and eat my aunt’s cake.
Israelis can argue about anything. Which is why I find it so interesting that one of the only things they seem to have any common ground on is the environment.
Israel, even under its otherwise highly conservative government, has prioritised the impending climate collapse by engineering some of the most advanced water management techniques in the world, reducing air pollution and enthusiastically signing the 2015 Paris Agreement.
The religious right, motivated by theological instructions found in foundational Jewish texts to care of the Earth, and the secular left, motivated by modern progressive environmentalist values, both back action on the climate.
There’s just one very uncomfortable elephant in the room: the Environmental Protection Ministry identifies the Israeli Defence Force to be the single largest polluter in Israel, followed by transport and energy. The ministry exposed the IDF’s normalisation of the illegal dumping of waste and ammunition, the spillage of fuels and oils into important water sources and even the expulsion of sewage into the environment.
