Discusses the history of environmentalism in Israel and the efforts that have been carried out to keep development sustainable amid a century of political and cultural turmoil.
The pathology of a polluted river - an introduction to Israel's environmental crisis; reclaiming a homeland - Zionism's mixed ecological message; Palestine's environment, 1900-1949 - prelude to disaster or benign half-century?; the forest's many shades of green; the emergence of an Israeli environmental movement; a general launches a war for wildlife; the quantity and quality of Israel's water resources; Israel's urban environment, 1948-1988 - the politics of neglect; a ministry of environment comes of age; Israel, Arabs and the environment; environmental activism hits its stride; toward a sustainable future.
Alon Tal is founder of the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies and chairman of Life and Environment, an umbrella group for Israel's eighty environmental organizations. He has a law degree from Hebrew University and a doctorate from the Harvard School of Public Health.
This book is likely to become THE future point of reference for scholarship on environmental issues in Israel. Tal combines his extensive inside knowledge with broad and thorough research to take the reader clearly through a complex fabric of personalities, organizations, and issues. - Stuart Schoenfeld, York University