Settling Nature

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 cowson the Israeli sideagainst goats, camels, olive trees, hybrid goldfinches, and akkoubwhich 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 Israels nature officials and on observations of their work, this book examines the careful orchestration of this animated warfare by Israels nature administration on both sides of the Green Line. Alongside its powerful protection of wildlife biodiversity, the territorial reach of Israels nature protection is remarkable: to date, nearly 25 percent of the countrys 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.