1 Message from the Editor These days, few issues carry as much relevance in our lives as the ongoing pandemic, while self-interest and calculation, rather than compassion or even the acknowledgment of responsibility, tend to guide vaccine distribution. The situation in Gaza is dire. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization warns that acute hunger may affect 20 countries, including not only Yemen but also Lebanon and Syria. Still, we tend to neglect the fact that our daily habits cause the destruction of nature, creating the conditions that facilitate the emergence and spread of viruses in the first place. Only 4 percent of mammals on earth are wild animals, 36 percent are humans, and 60 percent are domestic animals that we raise mainly for some form of consumption!* This month’s issue highlights the beauty of Palestine’s environment and draws attention to challenges that Palestine must tackle to preserve this treasure and protect the country’s flora and fauna. We wish to thank our authors Zayne Abudaka Cover: Toubas area. Photo by Fuad and Hammam Othman, the directors of research and operations, respectively, at Sawafta, courtesy of Palestinian advisory Board Momentum Labs; Dr. Mazin B. Qumsiyeh, director of the Palestine Museum of Assembly for Photography and Hani Alami, CEO of COOLNET Natural History and the Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability, and Dr. Exploration. H.E. Mounir Anastas, Ambassador, Issa Musa Albaradeiya, director general of the Environmental Resources Directorate Alternate Permanent Delegate of the at the Palestinian Environment Quality Authority (EQA); anthropologist Dr. Ali Qleibo; State of Palestine to UNESCO Akram Halayqa, director of the Coastal and Marine Environment Department at the Sari Khoury, architect EQA; Hadeel Hisham Ikhmais, who works in the EQA’s climate change section; Mohammad Mahassneh, the EQA’s director of biodiversity; Dr. Shaddad Attili, an Rima Najjar, activist, researcher, and adviser-ranking minister at the Negotiation Department and former water minister retired professor of English literature at the Palestinian Authority; Roubina Bassous/Ghattas, founder and director general Muzna Shihabi, communications of Pioneer Consultancy Center for Sustainable Development; Majed Ghannam, a forthcoming Issues expert program manager at UNDP/PAPP specialized in water resource and integrated water Sari Taha, principal consultant, management; journalist Amira Gabarin; Imad Atrash, executive director of the Palestine May 2021 Momentum Labs Wildlife Society, and biology student and volunteer Maha Abu Gharbieh; Dr. Anton Palestinian Realpolitik Khalilieh, executive director of Nature Palestine Society, and Dr. Yara Dahdal, a project June 2021 manager at the society specialized in water desalination and wastewater treatment; This Is Sumud (Steadfastness) and Simon Awad, executive director of the Environmental Education Center of the July 2021 tWiP Team Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, and Bashar Jarayseh, an COVID-19 and Our Children Publisher: Sani P. Meo active research volunteer at the center. Art Director: Taisir Masrieh Our Personality of the Month is head of the EQA Jameel Mtour, Artist of the Month is Mohammed Alhaj, and Book of the Month is Checklist and Ecological Database of Graphic Design: Tamer Hasbun Wild Plants in the West Bank by Banan Al Sheikh. TWiP Kitchen presents a recipe for Editor: Tina Basem qatayef, and Ahlan Palestine Postcard takes you to Kifl Haris where you can learn to make maftoul. Enjoy the few listed events. The entire team at TWiP wishes a happy Easter and a blessed Ramadan to all who are celebrating religious holidays this month. We hope that everyone will emerge from this pandemic healthy and well! *https://www.livekindly.co/60-of-all-mammals-on-earth-are-livestock-says-new-study/. The views presented in the articles do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. Telefax: +970/2 2-295 1262 Maps herein have been prepared solely for the [email protected] convenience of the reader; the designations and Sincerely, presentation of material do not imply any expression www.thisweekinpalestine.com of opinion of This Week in Palestine, its publisher, www.facebook.com/ThisWeekInPalestine editor, or its advisory board as to the legal status of any country, territory, city, or area, or the authorities Tina Basem thereof, or as to the delimitation of boundaries or national affiliation. Printed by Studio Alpha, Al-Ram, Jerusalem. 2 THIS WEEK IN PALESTINE 3 THIS WEEK IN Our Environment Issue 276 April 2021 www.thisweekinpalestine.com THIS WEEK IN Personality of the Month 94 www.thisweekinpalestine.com Book 68 of the Month 96 Greening Moonshot Artist of the Month 98 TWiP 6 36 Kitchen 100 Tackling Environmental Climate Change in Palestine Ahlan Challenges 72 Palestine Postcard 102 Palestinian Olive Trees Events 104 42 12 Directory 105 The Status of Invasive The Palestinian Environment: Alien Species in Palestine 80 Threats and Opportunities Faqqua Iris The Last Word 106 52 20 84 Towards a Green The Palestinian Cultural Basin New Deal in Palestine Birds of Palestine 28 60 90 The Dead Sea Palestine in Focus Owls in Palestine 4 THIS WEEK IN PALESTINE 5 Our Environment renewable energy, water treatment, and waste management projects Tackling Environmental have been developed with support Environmentally from the Palestinian government and friendly agricultural international donor organizations ventures can preserve that today form the seed for the environment, Challenges environmental transformation. The strengthen resilience development of these projects has For a Sustainable Palestinian Future mainly been driven by the need to against the occupation, ensure the sustainability of vital and generate income resources such as energy and for thousands of water at an affordable cost. To build Palestinians. on existing efforts, more actors need to pay attention to resource sustainability in the agriculture sector. Palestinians in the West Bank and Out of over 5 million Palestinians in Gaza import most of their food, the West Bank and Gaza, around a while their ability to produce their third (1.7 million, mostly in Gaza) food on their land is increasingly alestinian life is are food insecure, and a further 16.8 constrained. To ensure food filled with cultural percent (841,000) are marginally security, Palestinians have little references that food secure.i Food insecurity is choice but to adopt technologies By Zayne Abudaka tie Palestinians only expected to increase due and practices that can radically and Hammam Othman to their “natural to population growth, increasing improve conservation of soil environment.” The international commodity prices, and quality, water resources, and other olive tree has become a symbol of Palestinian steadfastness, and hardly Israeli restrictions on trade (and agricultural inputs. This could enable a day passes in Palestine without a referenceP to the land, sea, and air that the sector to grow sustainably associated costs), in addition to the Palestinians have been denied. Despite the patriotic slogans, however, reduced capacity for food production to serve a growing population speaking about the environment and climate challenges is considered to be due to shrinking land area and water despite the challenges. Adopting a luxury in many Palestinian communities. Decades-long occupation has reserves. more advanced technologies clouded most of the discourse, with many Palestinians considering any other conversation to be secondary or “less important” at best, and “imported” or Plastic bags placed on arcuate faqqous grown in the town of Deir Ballout in the Salfit governorate. “Western,” at worst. Photo by Daoud Abdallah, Palestinian Assembly for Photography and Exploration. This understanding of the environment is extremely problematic, mainly because it ignores the importance of environmental and resource sustainability to Palestinian liberation from occupation, dependency, and underdevelopment. While Palestine’s contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions is miniscule, the impact of climate change in Palestine is expected to be severe. In Palestine and the region, the combination of rising temperatures and decreased rainfall is expected to dramatically increase demand for water, which is an already scarce resource, inflicting significant harm in agricultural production capacity. Combined with the impact of Israeli restrictions and settlement expansion on the water resources and land area available for agriculture, climate challenges are expected to have catastrophic implications for food security in Palestine. For this reason, efforts that focus on improving food security and sustainability in Palestine and the region are likely to intensify. Despite the absence of a clear and systematic approach to addressing environmental and climate challenges at the national level, a number of 6 THIS WEEK IN PALESTINE 7 Our Environment Despite the great potential of and access to networks of resellers, agricultural technology in the wholesalers, and in some cases As Palestine must Palestinian context, there are consumers directly. When farmers From the farm to deal with occupation- several challenges that impede its cannot access a feasible sales your plate: Palestinian related restrictions development. Advanced agriculture channel, they dump their produce farmers face and is expected to be is capital intensive and requires to avoid costly storage. In addition, difficulties in their particularly hard hit by tight