Greenwashing

Settler
Colonialism:
A Case Study of Israel’s
2018 UN Climate Change
Report

Undergraduate researcher: Annie Jones

Faculty mentor: Sara Salazar Hughes, PhD
Literature Review
A. Disciplinary focus:

a. Political Ecology - examines the intersection of ecology and politics, asserting that ecological
questions are inherently political

b. Comparative Settler Colonial Studies - a colonial situation in which the primary object is the
land itself, and the replacement of a indigenous population a settler population
B. 3 key sources that helped develop themes to look for in the report:
a. Kyle Whyte: Settler futurity and collective continuance
b. Patrick Wolfe: Elimination of the native
c. Sara Salazar Hughes, Stepha Velednitsky, Amelia Green: Greenwashing & sustainability
A. Potawatomi scholar Kyle Whyte

a. Settler futurity:

i. Settler colonies establish themselves ways that imagine

and ensure the settler society’s futurity (at the expense
of indigenous futurity)

b. Collective continuance:

i. The ability of a collective group to sustain their

community into the future and adapt to change in ways
that avoid reasonably preventable harms

c. Connection:

i. The Israeli environmental report establishes a vision of

Israel’s future, and Israel’s role in the world’s future of
climate change mitigation, that undermines Palestinian
collective continuance
A. Patrick Wolfe: elimination of the native

a. Logic of elimination:

i. Settler societies are premised on complete control of

the land, and therefore require the
removal/elimination (by a variety of means) of
natives

b. Connection:

i. The absence of any mention of “Palestine” or

“Palestinians” in an environmental report on Israel
erases their existence and relationship to the land
from the conversation, even though land, land use,
and environmental protection are central to the
Israel/Palestine conflict
A. Salazar Hughes, at al.: greenwashing, settler colonialism &
sustainability

a. Greenwashing:

i. Traditional definition: Technologies/industries that are

described as “green” or environmentally friendly even
when they aren’t

ii. Contribution: Any innovations or technologies that

undermine indigenous collective continuance,
regardless of their ecological impact, are inherently
unsustainable

b. Connection:

i. Israeli efforts to promote their “green” innovations

without mentioning Palestinians or the impacts on
Palestinian relationships with the land are examples of
greenwashing
Methods
A. Why this document?
a. “ISRAEL’S THIRD NATIONAL COMMUNICATION ON CLIMATE
CHANGE” - Submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change (UNFCCC) (2018)
i. Why did we pick this document? Examine how Israel frames itself
regarding climate change and its climate technologies
B. What’s the method?
a. Discourse analysis: Analyzing the current writings and discussion
surrounding a topic to understand the present discourse
b. Coding: Searching for recurring themes and assigning “codes” to said
themes
i. Process of coding is iterative: codes were developed beforehand (lit
review), codes were added during, codes were edited during the
coding process to identify key themes
Theme 1: Geographic imaginary
A. How Israel uses a particular geographic imaginary

a. Israel depicts the country as a derelict desert that needs to be “redeemed” through Israeli technological
innovation
B. What does this do for Israel?

a. This helps depict Israel as resilient and

overcoming the odds through innovation

b. This implies that prior to Israeli settlement,

the land was neglected and misused (by
natives) - the “proper use” narrative

c. This also implies that Israeli innovations can

overcome these issues in other landscapes
(“saving” the world)
Theme 2: Israeli tech as the solution for sustainability
A. What is Israel highlighting?

a. Technological innovations like water recycling, desalination plants, solar fields, etc.

b. Used to combat issues caused by Israel’s climate and the worsening impacts of climate change.

B. What does this do for Israel?

a. Frames these technologies (and therefore Israel)

as the solution to combat climate change

b. It removes the settler colonial, land-based

conflict between Israelis and Palestinians from
the conversation about climate change, and
distracts from Israeli human rights abuses
against Palestinians
Theme 3: Indigenous erasure as elimination
A. What does indigenous erasure mean?

a. A settler colonial tactic to not just remove indigenous people but make it as though they
never existed.

B. How is Israel doing this?

a. Not discussing Palestine in its climate report, continuing to settle Palestinian lands, and
more

C. What does it mean for Palestinians?

a. Palestinian existence is under threat as the population separated from their ancestral lands.
Preliminary Conclusions
1. Israel is using sustainability as an excuse to further dispossess Palestinian land –
greenwashing.

2. Israeli technology is inherently unsustainable because it’s not equitably

accessible – undermining Palestinian collective continuance.

3. Israel portrays itself as legitimate stewards of Palestinian land and as a global

leader in sustainable development, without mention of Palestinians and settler
colonialism – logic of elimination.
Acknowledgements
& thank you!

UROC Researchers program

& Dr. Jessica Bautista

Dr. Sara Salazar Hughes

(mentor F21 & S22)
&
Seryna Bonacorso
(Fall 2021 peer researcher)
Examples from the document
1. “Israel‘s vast range of ecosystems, from the humid Mediterranean coast to the arid desert, hosts a
range of climate vulnerabilities and challenges. As temperatures increase, conditions become
drier and storms become stronger, critical resources will become more vulnerable.” pg. 64

2. “A rise of 1.5°C may move the desert line

northward and Mediterranean systems,
which are situated currently on the edge
of the desert, will be transformed into desert.
Such increased desertification is expected to
lead to a spatial shift northward of 300-500 km
in the distribution of Mediterranean organisms
and a shift of desert ecosystems up from the
Negev desert.” pg. 68
Examples from the document
1. “Israel is a global leader in water recycling, primarily for agricultural use.” pg. 7

2. “Water scarcity in Israel has led to the development of advanced technologies for seawater and
saline water desalination and wastewater treatment and recovery. Desalination of seawater
increased by 91% between 2010 and 2015, from 277 MCM to 503 MCM, as desalination
capacity increased.” pg. 7

3. “Furthermore, solar energy is a major source of

power for residential water heating, as per a
long-standing regulation that mandates
installation of solar water heaters on all new
residential buildings up to nine stories.” pg. 31