By Dr. Daniel Orenstein
For most of my professional career, I have researched environmental issues in Israel. While issues of water scarcity and loss of open spaces loom large among the country’s problems, the more I study the more I’ve become convinced that many of its environmental problems are rooted in underlying socio-political problems. This could be direct — as when the inequitable distribution of land resources favoring Jews over Arabs leads to wasteful use of land resources — or this could be indirect, as when the ongoing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, and between Israel and Arab states deflects resources away from pressing social needs like the environment and education, in favor of military expenditures.
