The Israeli Environmental NGOs and the Construction of the Security Fence

The purpose of this work is to examine how civic organizations that promote environmental justice and global principles of sustainability deal with a situation, which is framed through concepts of territoriality sovereignty, and nationality. It analyzes the response of environmental NGOs to the construction of the security fence between Israel and the West Bank during the years 2002-2006. The basic empirical finding is that environmental NGOs played a marginal role towards the construction of the security fence. The explanation of this finding is grounded in a thesis which stipulates that the conceived scope and nature of civic environmental action depends on the way “environment” — as a basic action-orientation — is conceptualized and understood. The paper posits that the concept operates through two interesting axes: One relies on the distinction between “environment” as nature and landscape and “environment” as a site of interaction between human beings and the physical world; the other refers to “environment” as related to either a specific physical space or to a global and borderless space.