EcoPeace Middle East is a unique organization that brings together Jordanian, Palestinian and Israeli environmentalists.Our primary objective is the promotion of cooperative efforts to protect our shared environmental heritage. In so doing, we seek to advance both sustainable regional development and the creation of necessary conditions for lasting peace in our region. EcoPeace has offices in Amman, Ramallah, and Tel-Aviv.
On Thursday they announced that Israel and Jordan signed a MOU to rehabilitate the Jordan River, an initiative that will require cooperation with the Palestinian Authority as well.
"Jordan River rehabilitation is a critical climate adaptation measure that can help bring back 50% of the biodiversity lost because of decades of pollution and freshwater diversion," the group said. "With the river basin experiencing consecutive years of climate-related drought, a rehabilitated river can be the basis for creating regional climate resilience. The river being holy to half of humanity can provide much-needed jobs through tourism and pilgrimage, especially for Jordanian and Palestinian communities."
Sounds like a win-win, right? Helping the environment, helping the Palestinian and Jordanian economies, even helping tourists and pilgrims who want to visit the Jordan. Who can object?
BDS can.
The Jordanian branch of the BDS movement issued an angry statement of their own, saying that the project “works to integrate Jordanian and Palestinian youth into environmental programs and joint workshops, along with Zionist groups coming from the occupied territories.”
It accused EcoPeace of "environmental normalization" which they define as “cooperating with the Zionist entity under the guise of improving the environment, whether through reducing pollution, recycling, increasing access to water, or reversing climate change.”
They said Israel “uses environmental normalization as a means of public relations, and as a cover to hide its violations of human rights, and to cover up its environmental crimes against the Palestinians and their lands."
So, according to BDS, anything Israel does to help the environment is terrible because it covers up the awful things Israel does to the environment.
In other words, better that the Jordan River dries up than allowing Israel to be involved in saving it.
If you hate Israel more than you love the planet, you just might be an antisemite.
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