Criticism of Blueprint Negev

Blueprint Negev, the Jewish National Fund's (JNF) $600 million project to develop the Negev region of Israel has been met with environmental and social critiques. The Blueprint Negev claims it will increase its population by 250,000 Jewish immigrants in the next five years, improve transportation infrastructure, add businesses and employment opportunities, preserve water resources and protect the environment. [ [http://www.jnf.org/site/PageServer?pagename=negevPoints THE 12 POINTS OF BLUEPRINT NEGEV] ]

Criticisms

Israeli and American environmental groups are concerned that the creation of isolated suburban communities in the Negev will lead to water and energy intensive suburban sprawl and strain Bedouin-Jewish relations. [Orenstein, Daniel. [http://www.springerlink.com/content/gh7k811x54604wr7/ "Population Growth and Environmental Impact: Ideology and Academic Discourse in Israel;"] "Population and Environment" Volume 26, Number 1 / September, 2004] [ [http://www.alternativenews.org/images/stories/downloads/NfW_OctNov_2006/A_Desert_Mirage_Manski.pdf A Desert Mirage: The Rising Role of US Money in Negev Development] ] [ [http://www.neohasid.org/negev/resolution Ohalah resolution] ] [ [http://neohasid.org/negev/save_the_negev/ Neohasid's Save the Negev Campaign] ]

Water and energy consumption

The Blueprint Negev's planned artificial desert river, swimming pools and golf courses raise concerns among environmentalists; according to the JNF itself, [http://www.jnf.org/site/PageServer?pagename=Water_facts Israel is over-consuming its water resources] by 25 percent. [ [http://bustan.org/2007/01/jnf_website_blueprint_negev_de.html Water use concerns] ] Devorah Brous, founder of the environmental justice organization Bustan, has expressed concern that JNF PR has not addressed increased demand on regional water and energy resources as direct result of a dramatic influx in population in conjunction with development of planned industrial centers, high-tech firms, golf courses, swimming pools, roads, etc. [ [http://neohasid.org/negev/brous/ Brous' Open Letter to the JNF] ] Bustan is concerned that the Blueprint Negev's social gestures may be cosmetic and that its green rhetoric constitutes 'greenwashing.'

Overbuilding, overpopulation, and demography

Daniel Orenstein, of the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life, a well as a JNF Board Member, agrees with the JNF that overdensity and overdevelopment in the north is indeed a problem in Israel, but adds that overpopulation is as great a concern, and has not been appropriately addressed for ideological reasons. [http://www.springerlink.com/content/gh7k811x54604wr7/] Rebecca Manski, former Communications Director of Bustan, argues that by bringing in new immigrants from abroad the Blueprint Negev will contribute the problem of overpopulation; she furthermore argues that the Blueprint Negev is part of an attempt by a wing of the American Jewish community to combat what they perceive as a "demographic threat" to Israel's Jewish majority, represented by the fast-growing Bedouin population in the Negev. [ [http://www.alternativenews.org/images/stories/downloads/NfW_OctNov_2006/A_Desert_Mirage_Manski.pdf A Desert Mirage: The Rising Role of US Money in Negev Development] ]

Religious Jewish organizations concerned with Jewish justice principles, such as Neohasid, which has launched the [http://neohasid.org/negev/save_the_negev/ "Save the Negev"] campaign, are concerned that if implemented, the plan’s rapid development will overbuild the last open spaces left in the 'Holy Land.'

Unequal allocation of resources

Orenstein argues that the Blueprint Negev's planned developments will require a tremendous amount of public investment per capita while benefiting a small number of comparatively well-off, or already wealthy, immigrants in a region suffering high poverty rates. [ [http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/841397.html When an 'ecological' community is not] ] According to Bustan, the Blueprint Negev's approach to addressing the disproportionate lack of services and infrastructure extended to Bedouin citizens residing in the desert appears to be 'trickle-down' in that the plan focuses explicitly on Jewish development. Bustan notes that as of 2008 the JNF did not advertise any specific tangible plans to address the conditions in which Bedouin citizens live, and that on its website the only social project listed among its projects is the Aleh Negev rehabilitation center for disabled children (located in a Jewish town); although Bedouin endure the highest infant mortality rate in Israel, one of the highest in the developed world, and suffer high rates of congenital birth defects, the Aleh Negev project makes no reference to disabled Bedouin children.Fact|date=May 2008

Bedouin displacement

Bustan and SavetheNegev.org [ [http://savethenegev.org Neohasid's Save the Negev campaign] ] are furthermore concerned that if implemented, the plan’s rapid development will increase pressure against the last vestiges of the Bedouin way of life. Bustan fears that the plan is a complement to existing Israeli development plans to removed the 45 unrecognized Bedouin villages and force their 80,000 residents into government towns, in order to make way for Jewish development. Ohalah, the Association of Renewal Rabbis and Cantors, expressed concern that Blueprint Negev forswear funding any project that would involve the demolition of Bedouin homes or facilitate removal of Bedouin communities. Ohalah and other rabbinal organizations have asked that the "JNF-US inform potential donors about the distinctions between giving to Blueprint Negev and giving to KKL (JNF-Israel), and about the fact that Blueprint Negev is the JNF-US name for the development projects in the Negev run by different organizations." [ [http://www.neohasid.org/negev/resolution/ Ohalah Resolution on Blueprint Negev] ]

Alternative Negev development

The main thrust of critics' argument is that the appropriate response to overpopulation is not to recruit hundreds of thousands of additional settlers, and the answer to overdevelopment in the north is not to build up the last open spaces in the second most-densely crowded country in the developed world. Rather, there is a consensus among these critics, that what is required is an inclusive plan for the green vitalization of existing population centers in the Negev, investment in long-awaited service-provision in Bedouin villages, clean-up of its many toxic industries (such as Ramat Hovav), and the development of a viable economic plan focusing on creating job options for the unemployed rather than promoting an influx of new immigrants and creating jobs for them. Fact|date=May 2008

JNF responses to critiques

Critics of the Blueprint Negev have not written about the ongoing talks between JNF and a small group of Bedouin leaders from the Abu Basma Regional Council. However, the Save the Negev website has been modified since its founder met with the JNF's CEO to discuss environmental issues and Bedouin concerns. JNF plans to build a community center in cooperation with the Abu Basma Regional Council, as well as planting projects, are being finalized.Fact|date=June 2008

At the start of the PR campaign for the Blueprint Negev, the JNF public relations material discussed park and forest promotion in a general manner, and advertised plans for an artificial river in the desert that will be created from waste water from the city.Fact|date=June 2008 After concerns over resource-exploitation caused by the Blueprint Negev's development were voiced by individuals such as Daniel Orenstein of the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life, the JNF's website began to reflect increased attention to green critiques.Fact|date=June 2008

References

ee also

* Blueprint Negev
* Jewish National Fund
* Negev