Yesterday at Dar Assadaqa I had a class with 20 young men about the environment in
Palestine. On the timetable for Dar Assadaqa there is a slot for the environment. But I
think in the case of Abu Dis the best way to use this time is to establish an environment
club that actually works pro-actively to make Abu Dis a better place to live. Over the
course of an hour, we developed a plan to improve the environment in and around Abu
Dis.
The first step was to build on what was discussed by the previous group of EVS
volunteers. Getting a list of names of people who come to Dar Assadaqa who would be
interested in being part of the environment club. Secondly, we decided that something
should be done about the all the rubbish in the streets and that we could arrange a time
to clean the main street in Abu Dis or university street to start with. We also agreed it
would be good to buy some seeds from the shop in Azariya/ Bethany and plant trees
such as pine and olive trees. No-one really knew where we could plant these trees but it certainly left us with food for thought.
The other important tenet of improving the environment, not just in Abu
Dis but in Palestine generally, was green education. We came up with the idea to teach
about the environment in schools because it hardly ever gets taught about in schools.
Everyone concurred that the most of effective way of persuading people to change their
attitudes was to begin with young people. There was a good idea by one of the lads to
ask someone from Al Quds university who studies the environment to give a talk at
schools in Abu Dis. Finally, we suggested we should write to the Ministry of Agriculture
in Ramallah to ask for some sort of project support.
The land is very important to people in Palestine, Palestinians take great pride farming
their land and growing their olive trees. The occupation is the main cause of
environmental degradation, as a result of the Israelis using Palestinian areas as a
rubbish dump, and a place where waste sewage from settlements collects. Water
appropriation from wells and aquifers on Palestinian land by the authorities is also a
huge problem. And of course there are no services such as rubbish collection.
However, I think by changing many peoples’ attitude toward the environment in Abu
Dis could make it a more beautiful place. In addition, we all shared the view that
protection and greater respect for the environment is an effective form of
resistance to the occupation that will have a positive impact on the lives of all
Palestinians.
