A Slow Violence Perspective on the West Bank's Deteriorating
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ENVIRONMENTALISM OF THE OCCUPIED A slow violence perspective on the West International Master’s Programme in Human Bank’s deteriorating agricultural sector, Ecology and an overview of Palestinian Human Ecology Division agro-resistance in the struggle towards Department of Human Geography food sovereignty Faculty of Social Sciences Lund University Author: JL Pedersen Supervisor: Andreas Malm 21 May 2018 Lund University Table of Contents: ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................ 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................................... 4 ABBREVIATIONS: ...................................................................................................................... 4 1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................ 5 1.1 SITUATING PALESTINE AND THE RESEARCH TOPIC .............................................................. 5 1.2 AIM AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS ......................................................................................... 7 1.3 THE POLITICAL ECOLOGY OF OCCUPATION ......................................................................... 8 1.4 DISPOSITION ....................................................................................................................... 9 2. CONTEXT .......................................................................................................................... 10 2.1 THE COLONIAL MATRIX OF CONTROL AND DE-DEVELOPMENT .......................................... 10 2.2 THE SETTLER-COLONIAL PRESENT AND ITS LOGIC OF ELIMINATION .................................. 12 2.3 THE MYTH OF THE PEACE PROCESS ................................................................................... 13 2.4 CRITIQUE OF THE PARIS PROTOCOL, AND ENSUING ECONOMIC DEPENDENCE ON ISRAEL IN THE POST-OSLO YEARS ........................................................................................................... 14 2.5 THE LEGACY OF THE FIRST INTIFADA ............................................................................... 15 3. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ................................................................................... 17 3.1 SLOW VIOLENCE: RETHINKING HOW VIOLENCE IS DEFINED ............................................... 17 3.2 ENVIRONMENTALISM OF THE POOR................................................................................... 18 3.3 FOOD THEORY .................................................................................................................. 20 3.3.1 Food security and its limitations: .............................................................................. 20 3.3.2 The shift to food sovereignty ..................................................................................... 21 3.3.3 Issues of territory and state sovereignty within food sovereignty ............................. 24 4. METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................................. 26 4.1 METHODS AND SAMPLING APPROACH ............................................................................... 26 4.2 RESEARCH APPROACH AND JUSTIFICATION OF DOING FIELDWORK - DESPITE RESERVATION ............................................................................................................................................... 28 4.3 ETHICAL ISSUES: REFLEXIVITY, POSITIONALITY, AND PRIVILEGE ...................................... 30 4.3.1 Mobilizing privilege and critical solidarity .............................................................. 31 5. OBSTACLES FACING FARMERS IN THE WEST BANK ........................................ 32 5.1 THE ROLE OF THE PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY .................................................................... 33 1 5.2 ENVIRONMENTAL NAKBA & THE IMPACT OF SETTLER-COLONIALISM ............................... 35 5.2.1 The vicious circle of agro-military settlements ......................................................... 38 5.2.2 Israeli hydro-hegemony ............................................................................................. 42 5.2.3 Wall and checkpoint issues ....................................................................................... 43 5.3 THE IMPACT OF CLIMATE CHANGE, AND ITS EFFECT ON FOOD SOVEREIGNTY IN THE WEST BANK ..................................................................................................................................... 44 5.4 THE GOLDEN HANDCUFFS OF THE “AID” INDUSTRY .......................................................... 45 5.4.1 Aid and the de-development of the Palestinian agricultural sector .......................... 47 5.5 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................... 50 6. ANALYSIS .......................................................................................................................... 51 6.1 SLOW VIOLENCE IN THE WEST BANK ............................................................................... 51 6.2 ENVIRONMENTALISM OF THE OCCUPIED ........................................................................... 54 6.2.1 A resistance economy centered around the agricultural sector ................................ 55 6.3.2 Sustainability by necessity and forced self-reliance ................................................. 60 6.3.3 Land reclamation and land rehabilitation ................................................................ 63 6.3.5 Roof-top gardens in Aida refugee camp .................................................................... 67 6.3 IMPEDIMENTS TO ENVIRONMENTALISM OF THE OCCUPIED ................................................ 70 6.4 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................... 72 7. CONCLUSION AND LOOKING AHEAD ..................................................................... 72 8. REFERENCES ................................................................................................................... 74 9. APPENDIX 1: LIST OF INTERVIEWS ......................................................................... 93 2 Abstract This thesis explores what it means to struggle for food sovereignty under belligerent occupation. It makes the argument that the deliberate suppression of agriculture in the West Bank (occupied Palestinian territories) and ensuing deterioration of food sovereignty can be understood as an example of “slow violence,” further entrenching the settler-colonial occupation of Palestine. The settler-colonial occupation, along with the creeping annexation of land, agro-military settlements, hydro-hegemony, and asphyxiating checkpoint regimes strip Palestinians of their traditional forms of livelihood. This is a most urgent issue, with access to agricultural land rapidly diminishing and Palestinians increasingly finding themselves as a captive market, left to rely on imported food from Israel. In this thesis, therefore, I explore how Palestinians’ agro-resistance, and struggle to achieve food sovereignty, is also perceived and operationalized as resistance to the occupation. The research was carried out using secondary sources, as well as field work in the West Bank, primarily through interviews and participant observation, and also draws on insights gained during an internship with Palestine’s largest farmer’s union; the Union of Agricultural Work Committees. It explores a range of different examples of agro-resistance in the West Bank (e.g., rooftop gardens in refugee camps, land reclamation, the revival of local seeds and community supported agriculture). The results are analyzed through a political ecology perspective, drawing on theoretical concepts, including; slow violence and food sovereignty. Extending on the concept of “environmentalism of the poor,” this thesis suggests that an “environmentalism of the occupied” can be observed in the West Bank, where environmentalism can be understood as a struggle to sustain current and future livelihoods, but also aimed at securing self-determination/sovereignty over land and resources. In a climate-changed future, with agriculture increasingly under threat across the globe, the strategies and especially the perseverance of Palestinians in their agro-resistance serves as an example for all of us. Keywords: slow violence, food sovereignty, environmentalism of the poor, environmentalism of the occupied, resistance, occupied Palestinian territories (oPt). 3 Acknowledgments I am spectacularly thankful to every single person who has helped me in completing this thesis. Most of all, to the people I met in the West Bank who inspired me with their hope, courage and indefatigable determination. Any thesis would be too short to adequately express my admiration for you and the fantastic work that you do. I have never in my life met as many remarkable people in such a short time span, and only regret that the thesis is not long enough to include even more of your brilliant initiatives. Faced with more injustice than is fathomable, you are leading an environmental revolution that ought to teach and inspire all of us in the ways of resilience and resistance. Spending time with you was humbling! I am also grateful for having been accepted into the Human Ecology program, at Lund University. It has