Settling Nature: The Conservation Regime in Palestine-Israel

by Irus Braverman

A study of Palestine-Israel through the unexpected lens of nature conservation

  Settling Nature documents the widespread ecological warfare practiced by the state of Israel. Recruited to the front lines are fallow deer, gazelles, wild asses, griffon vultures, pine trees, and cows—on the Israeli side—against goats, camels, olive trees, hybrid goldfinches, and akkoub—which are affiliated with the Palestinian side. These nonhuman soldiers are all the more effective because nature camouflages their tactical deployment as such. ​Drawing on more than seventy interviews with Israel’s nature officials and on observations of their work, this book examines the careful orchestration of this animated warfare by Israel’s nature administration on both sides of the Green Line. Alongside its powerful protection of wildlife biodiversity, the territorial reach of Israel’s nature protection is to date, nearly 25 percent of the country’s total land mass is assigned as a park or a reserve. Settling Nature argues that the administration of nature advances the Zionist project of Jewish settlement and the corresponding dispossession of non-Jews from this space.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics

362 pages, Paperback

Published April 18, 2023

Reviews

[Kai · Rating 4 out of 5]

this is a really compelling book which examines a variety of nature and animal protection regimes in "Palestine-Israel" (i.e., taking the governance of the entire territory as tied together despite sometimes purported differences in approach). Three chapters examine territorial governance (parks) and three examine animals (totemic and pests). Overall, it is quite compelling - Braverman is an Israeli expat who took as her charge a kind of insider ethnography of the Israeli government/military/scientific approach to managing landscape and species ecologies. Her research shows how in the process of governing nonhuman spaces and species, approaches which privilege and extend Israeli law and norm alike are accomplished through the seemingly apolitical governance of nonhumans. In the process, Palestinians are dispossessed of access to their land, water, and knowledge, rendered to be criminals and anti-environment. Braverman is a relatively straightforward writer (I taught this book in an undergraduate senior seminar). She also presents some deeply compelling evidence for her claims. I do think that there are ways that the political argument and consequences are rendered a bit unclear given that her interlocutors are almost entirely Israeli Jews. This is not to say that her own critical position on these settler apparatuses isn't evident - just that it is a good book to read in conjunction with further literature on environment, science and tech, or territory in Palestine.

[Abbey Heard · Rating 5 out of 5]

A well-written, nuanced perspective of the history of Palestine-Israel. Very helpful in gaining a deeper understanding of the history in this region through the lens of settler colonialism. Would highly recommend for anyone who wants a deeper understanding of the ongoing genocide.