Environmental Justice Taking Root: New Program Cultivates Arab Environmentalism

When Nashwa Alrfiaay, a woman in her 20s, opens the front door of her home in Lod every morning and sets foot in the street, she has to tiptoe between piles of trash that haven’t been cleared for weeks. As she walks into the city, she sees children playing dangerously close to unfenced railroad tracks, where fast interurban trains pass by hourly. The air she breathes is tainted with the foul odors of toxic waste, which is disposed of by factories situated in residential neighborhoods.

Lod is not an unusual case: across Israel, public spaces and natural areas in Arab cities and villages are dangerously neglected. Yet, Nashwa, a laboratory technician who was born and raised in the mixed Jewish-Arab city in central Israel, refuses to remain silent. She established Mashady (Unusual) to demand and bring about environmental justice for her community.

Mashady was recently selected as one of six initiatives to join Jdhur جذور (Roots), a first of its kind NIF-led program that fosters activism and environmental field activity in Israel’s Arab community. After postponements due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the current war, the program was inaugurated in May 2024 to help close the gap between Arab activists’ passions and their skills and resources.

Poverty, crime, discrimination, and a dysfunctional educational system usually take center-stage as the prime concerns among Arab communities, with little heed paid to environmental issues. At the same time, in many Arab communities, residents have become environmental activists seeking cleaner air, water, and streets, but lack the resources and platform to effect change.

Jdhur is NIF and Shatil’s answer to this challenge. The program combines environmental training with local experts and field tours with Shatil consultation and capacity-building, peer learning, and networking opportunities. Participants also receive seed grants. The year-long program is designed to be culturally adaptive—Arab environmental activists face different challenges than their Jewish counterparts—and is conducted in Arabic.

“We are very encouraged by the high level of interest from activists in Israel’s Arab community,” said Merav Mizrahi, NIF’s chief of staff. “It shows the need for Jdhur, and we will do our best to provide the highest level of support, guidance, and training.”

The chosen participants are mostly concerned residents, many of them women, who are looking to make changes to their immediate surroundings. Waste management, pollution of natural springs and valleys, and use of disposable dishes are common challenges. As local, grassroots organizers, many find themselves powerless in the face of obstacles—key among them, the authorities’ and law enforcement’s unwillingness to cooperate. Maha Diab Taha, a retired businesswoman from the northern village of Kabul, who founded the local NGO “Intlaqa” (“Beginning”), shared that her struggle to create clean and welcoming public spaces in her village has, so far, felt futile. “We are a group of women who want our community to enjoy the village’s natural areas, but apparently, it is well-known among contractors from all over the north that dumping waste in Kabul is an ‘easy fix’—law enforcement [here] is virtually nonexistent.” Maha is currently working to recruit the mayor to reclaim spaces that have become wastelands and turn them into parks.

As part of the program, Shatil consultants help the initiatives develop strategic plans based on their theory of change. Jdhur’s steering committee, comprised of Arab experts, donors, and representatives from the Sheli Fund, among others, provides strategic input to enhance the program’s long-term impact.

With comprehensive training, strategic support, and the collaborative efforts of passionate individuals, there is growing optimism that these grassroots initiatives will overcome deep-seated obstacles. With help from Jdhur, they will pave the way for a brighter and more sustainable future for Arab communities across Israel.

The program is operated through the Sheli Fund—an NIF initiative which provides funding and capacity-building to Israel’s environmental movement—in partnership with Shatil and Life & Environment, an umbrella organization for the movement. It is supported by the Sam and Bella Sebba Charitable Foundation, Yad Hanadiv Foundation, and the Stein Family Foundation.