The future of the Israeli environmental movement: Is a major paradigm shift under way?

THE GOALS AND METHODS OF the environmental organizations in Israel have changed profoundly over the sixty years since the founding of the state. Israeli scholars have pointed to a broad paradigm shift from an early romantic, nature-centered approach to a more pragmatic, public-health emphasis, relying on tools of science, law, and land-use planning (de-Shalit 1995; Tal 2002; Schwartz 2009). At a global scale, paradigm shifts within the environmental movement have also been suggested, representing periods of extreme change with regard to priority environmental issues and policy prescriptions (Carter 2007). Citing the continuing global environmental crisis, some advocate for a new paradigm shift in Israel (Schwartz 2009) and similarly in the United States (Shellenberger and Nordhaus 2005) that would integrate social issues into the environmental agenda. In this chapter, we examine whether the environmental movement in Israel is on the cusp of a paradigm shift toward convergence with a broader social justice agenda. We use case studies of three relatively recent campaigns to ponder the current and future trajectory of the environmental movement in Israel.