Africana Studia

Editorial

Ahmad Abu Hammad — 2022-09-19

Resumos/Abstracts

Africana Studia — 2022-09-19

Politics, powers and the environment in Palestine

Mazin B. Qumsiyeh — 2022-09-19

The Palestinian environment is suffering from loss of natural resources, neglect of the environment, damage by occupation policies, environmental pollution, low water quality, depletion of water sources, and other human impacts leading to habitat loss and decline in biodiversity. The Israeli occupation makes these issues more and more difficult and continuously adds new challenges to the Palestinian environment. After the Oslo Agreements 1993-1994, the newly established Palestinian National Authority (a supposed state in the making) attempted to deal with the environmental problems. The limited authority given to the Palestinian “authority” does not allow for proper nature protection despite availability of instruments of signed international conventions. We conclude that major achievements in environmental conservation cannot be attained without changing the power dynamics. Yet, smaller scale structural changes such as transparency, environmental awareness, and better alignment of science-policy can and did help the environment.
Keywords: Conservation, Biodiversity, colonialism, governance.

Impact of Israeli Segregation and Annexation Wall on Palestinian biodiversity

Duaa Husein — 2022-09-19

The aim of the Zionist colonization in Palestine is to transform it from a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, multi-lingual, and multi-religious country into a monolithic society reflecting visions imported from abroad. By definition this entailed building colonial settlements while changing the character of the land and the relation of indigenous people (including creating refugees and destroying villages). Terraces that saved landscape and prevented erosions were even destroyed. In place, western “development was done”. Here we focus on the impact of such a “development”: annexation and segregation (apartheid) walls used as tools to isolate remaining indigenous people from their lands and from their natural resources have produced significant damage to people and nature. This work is a meta-analysis dependent on literature review, the authors’ own observations, and the eight-year experience of the Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability, examining
biodiversity in Palestine in areas in which the Wall was fully or partially completed. Data on the short-term impact of Wall on the local biodiversity show how wild mammal behaviour, water flows and plant distributions were affected. However, the data also shows need for more long-run studies.
Keywords: Conservation, colonialism, ecosystem, Israeli Wall.

The exploitation of natural resources in Area C of the West Bank as indicator of annexation

María Fernanda Cáceres Sánchez — 2022-09-19

This paper will review whether Israel’s exploitation of Palestinian natural resources, specifically in Area C of the West Bank, serves as an indicator that the occupation has crossed the line into de facto annexation of this area. For this purpose, it will examine how the exploitation is conducted in respect of various natural resources. It will subsequently analyse the concept of occupation, particularly the law of occupation in relation to the exploitation of natural resources, based on Article 55 of the Hague Regulations, and the principle of Permanent Sovereignty of Natural Resources. It will then examine the concept of annexation, and the requirements for a situation to constitute annexation, being the intent to annex the distinctive element. From the analysis, the conclusion will be drawn that Israel exploits the natural resources in Area C of the West Bank not as occupier, but as a sovereign power, with a clear intention to annex the territory, and consequently, this exploitation serves
as an indicator to prove that the occupation has crossed the line into de facto annexation.
Keywords: Israel, West Bank, natural resources, annexation.

Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on biodiversity conservation in the Israeli occupied West Bank, Palestine

Mazin B. Qumsiyeh — 2022-09-19

The impact of COVID-19 induced a reduction on human mobility and other activities on biodiversity which has received significant interest. The initial studies showed a mixed bag, such as reductions in the use of motor vehicles and airplanes, with a positive impact on greenhouse gas emissions while the increased flocking of populations to public parks and green areas had a negative impact on resident wildlife. We provide a first assessment of COVID-19 impact in Palestine through direct observations and a survey of 29 biodiversity experts. Our findings in this area showed that the tourism-dependent economy suffered but there was an increase in the use of green areas with damaging effects such as hunting and dumping of solid and liquid wastes. On the other hand, there was an increase in local food production efforts, which are environmentally friendly.
Keywords: Environment conservation, COVID-19, sustainability, tourism.

Land use changes into the Palestinian central mountains: Nablus Municipality, a case study

Sana Khalid Hasan Ghazal — 2022-09-19

Over the past six decades, the villages that were annexed to Nablus Municipality Boundaries have lost their agricultural, pastures and plains lands which were estimated by 18,000 dunum.
This study examines the land use changes of villages’ annexed land to Nablus Municipality Boundaries, especially how the land use of 15 villages annexed have changed since 1963-2016. The study concludes that the changes in land-uses occurred from agricultural, pastures and plains to industrial, residential and service uses. In 1963 the agricultural land had an area of 3,000 dunum, the plains of 6,000 dunum and the pastures of 9,000 dunum. Almost all these areas were converted to non-agricultural
land-uses.
Keywords: Land use, land annexation, Nablus Municipality Boundaries.

Land use changes and spatial analysis of an urban development case study: Shu’fat camp area of Jerusalem

Mohammad Muhsen — 2022-09-19

This study discusses the changes on land-use between 1997 and 2019 in the Shu’fat refugee camp area, one of the most populous and dense areas under a complex geopolitical dilemma in northeast Jerusalem. This paper aims to find the main demographic and spatiotemporal transformations that accompanied the process of urban development in the Shu’fat refugees camp area. The analysis method is based on two aerial photos - 1997 and 2019 - which using GIS (Arcmap 10.5 software) detect land-use changes and the urban development of the area. The study area experienced an intense urban sprawl due to the high population growth after 2005, which is strongly connected to the building of the separation Wall by the Israelis. This resulted in a yearly pace of urban development of about 72.6 % by increasing the built-up area surface of bare land. Furthermore, the change of the characteristics of the natural landscape, such as forest area, is another significant result.
Important socioeconomic transformations from rural landscapes to condensed urban-look are evident.
Keywords: Land use, urban development, natural landscape, Shu’fat Camp.

Urban self-development of a Palestinian refugee camp in Jerusalem

Halima Abu Haneya — 2022-09-19

This paper examines how indigenous people are self-developed and how they reproduce their space to overcome their precariousness. It focuses on the refugees of Shu’fat Camp in Jerusalem, who were able to fulfil their growing need for housing and provide accommodation for other Jerusalemites, seeking affordable housing to maintain their residency status in their city. This is done by tracing the self-urban practices of the Shu’fat Camp refugees as forms of unorganized collective action. Specifically, this research investigates the power strategies of the indigenous people in order to control changes in their own lives. The data in this paper comes from dozens of semi-structured interviews in the camp. The research uses settler colonialism as a general analytical framework and relies on Lila Abu Lughod’s (1990) analysis of power and resistance and Asef Bayat’s (2013) concept of “social non-movements.” The research emphasizes Shu’fat residents as active people of agency and not only victims or passive recipients of Israel’s policies and measures imposed on them.
Keywords: Settler colonialism, urban self-developments, Shu’fat refugee camp, social non-movements.

Environmental education and climate change in a colonial context

Mazin B. Qumsiyeh — 2022-09-19

Developing and effectively using practical educational modules for adaptation to and mitigation of climate change in locally sensitive ways is critical for sustainability. Such a project was implemented in schools in Palestine in close cooperation and dialogue between academia and an environmental NGO in partnership with national authorities. Panels, posters, power point
presentations, and videos (in Arabic and English) were produced via extensive consultation, expert engagements, and focus group meetings. Six field areas region (culturally sensitive, locally relevant) were specifically “packaged” within our region in ways to promote sustainability: Agriculture, Biodiversity, Geography, Energy and Transportation, Climate Change, and Waste and Chemicals. The educational packages were then used and disseminated to educators and students at 14 middle schools
in the West Bank initially and shared widely in others schools when they conducted visits to the museum. The educational material were also shared regionally (Jordan, UAE etc.) and globally (including shown at COP25). Climate change material was implemented in the Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability in many exhibits and educational modules benefitting thousands even under the difficult conditions of Israeli occupation.
Keywords: Behavioral change, Palestine, Middle School Students, museum usage.

Integração tripartida entre SADC-EAC-COMESA: perspetivas e implicações para SADC

André Luiz Reis da Silva — 2022-09-19

A Integração Tripartida entre a Comunidade de Desenvolvimento da África Austral (SADC), Comunidade da África Oriental (EAC) e Mercado Comum da África Oriental e Austral (COMESA) é uma iniciativa na qual chefes de Estado e de Governo tiveram de integrar as suas politicas numa única área de livre comércio. O principal objetivo do artigo foi analisar as perspectivas e as possíveis implicações da integração tripartida para SADC. Com base na abordagem qualitativa coadjuvada com as técnicas documental e bibliográfica, constatou-se a existência de duas visões, uma optimista e uma pragmática, que
divergem em relação ao custo-benefício da integração tripartida. A visão optimista prevê benefícios enquanto os pragmáticos calculam custos.
A pesquisa constatou ainda mais fatores de fraqueza do que de força para uma eventual implementação da integração tripartida, pelo facto de concorrer no mesmo espaço e tempo com a Área de Livre Comércio Continental (ALCC). Assim,
tanto a entrada em vigor da Integração Tripartida, como da ALCC terão implicações negativas para a SADC, em custos financeiros e humanos, na redução da receita aduaneira, na base do orçamento do plano económico e social dos seus Estados membros e no retrocesso, mais um, da sua agenda de integração regional.
Palavras-chave: Integração Africana, Integração Tripartida, SADC, COMESA, EAC.

Issa Musa Adwan

Mohammad Najajrah Najajrah — 2022-09-19

Kamal Abdulfattah

Ahmad Abu Hammad — 2022-09-19

Africana Studia nº 37

Africana Studia — 2022-09-19

L’adieu aux (l)armes

René Pélissier — 2022-09-19