 Greenwashing is a propaganda tactic used on birthright trips to Israel. This is boycott birthright and other free trips to Israel. Our series where we have been following the birthright trip day by day and talking about their propaganda activities. Today we're going to be talking about a form of propaganda called greenwashing, which Israel is no stranger to. If you don't know what greenwashing is, it's when a corporation, government, or other entity puts forth misleading green initiatives in order to distract from the actual harm and destruction they cause the environment. We have a lot to talk about, so let's get into it and look at today's itinerary from the Taglet Birthright website. As we can see, birthright goers are visiting Ben Gurion's home and learning about his radical vision to transform a barren landscape into a thriving oasis, and they will also see Israel's unmatched agricultural prowess in the flesh. The greenwashing is evident in just this language alone. Don't get me wrong, I believe that Ben Gurion has a radical vision to transform the landscape of Palestine, but it's not because he has some new green initiative that's going to do that, it's because he's going to ethnically cleanse Palestinians in order to make it happen. And this is the unmatched agricultural prowess in question. We're going to talk about some big concepts, so bear with me, but don't worry, I know you guys are smart and we're going to take it step by step. Plus, you've been following along this series, so this is nothing for you. Like I said, Israel is no stranger to greenwashing, and that is because it's a settler-colonial state, and settler colonialism is an antithesis to environmentalism. Therefore, all green initiatives produced under that structure are inherently going to be greenwashing, and I'm going to explain why. Settler colonialism requires the removal of the indigenous people to a land in order to make room for the settlers. In this case, Palestinians are ethnically cleansed from Palestine in order to make room for Israeli settlers. By being the stewards of Palestinian land for generations, Palestinians have developed such a unique and expansive knowledge of that landscape. This isn't something that can simply be replicated because it took hundreds of years to develop that connection to the land that they have been tending to. So when Israeli settler colonialism comes in and removes Palestinians, the land suffers because its caretakers are now gone, and Israel can steal as much as they want from Palestinians, but they will never be able to steal that generational knowledge that would allow them to properly care for Palestine. This relationship between Palestinians and our land is so beautiful, it's almost sacred, because as Palestinians kept that land alive for generations, the land responded and kept Palestinians alive right back. So when Israel kills Palestinians, it's killing the land, because you can't have one without the other. So settler colonialism is inherently unsustainable because indigenous people are such an important part of the environment. So when Israel is actively ethnically cleansing Palestinians to this day, none of its green initiatives could be taken with any credibility because they're created under the Zionist settler colonial structure. So now that we got that out of the way, let's talk about how Israel greenwashes. They do so both literally and figuratively. The village of Ikretz exemplifies this literal greenwashing very well. It was ethnically cleansed in 1948, and what used to be acres of farmland dedicated to planting grapes, figs, and olives is now covered in pine trees. Pine trees that don't thrive in Palestinian soil. Also Ikretz is the largest military base in Palestine. As you can see, this isn't a thriving landscape. The pine trees actually erode the soil because they were imported from Europe and they don't belong on this land. So you might be wondering, why would Israel plant over acres of such fertile farmland? It was to cover the fact that there was farms there in the first place. Israel literally greenwashes Palestine's landscape by covering it in European trees to hide the fact that people used to live there. So figurative forms of greenwashing is like everything else that Israel does in the realm of environmentalism. I'm sure you've heard the phrase making the desert bloom and the argument that Palestine was this barren landscape and Palestinians didn't know how to take care of it and we needed these colonizers to come in and save us. This is obviously a greenwashing myth because like I said, Palestinians are the original and best stewards of our land so there was no need for colonizers to come in and destroy it as they have. This argument is used to justify the colonization of Palestine and the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. They use this argument to say that Palestinians weren't taking care of this land anyway. This land would be nothing without Israel so it's actually good that Israel came in and made something of it. When it's not true that this land wasn't thriving in the first place. Not only that, but Israel just actually isn't doing anything environmentally beneficial for Palestine's landscape. Aside from the fact that they're a settler colonial state which makes them inherently unsustainable, look at the articles that I put in the beginning of this video. Israel burns down olive trees. They plant pine trees where they don't belong. These aren't green initiatives that are actually doing something beneficial for the earth. When people go on birthright and they're fed this narrative that Palestine was this barren landscape before Israel came and made it thrive, that is propaganda and that is very harmful because it makes the case for the further colonization of Palestine and to have thousands of people come in every year and hear this narrative is detrimental to our liberation movement. Because let's be real for a second. If people go on birthright and they have this idea of Palestine as a desert but then they see all these green initiatives by Israel and they see these pine trees which are literally green and signal environmentalism to people, they're gonna believe that Israel actually did come in and do something good for Palestine even though that is so far from the truth. Because that's the goal of birthright. It's a propaganda trip to create lifetime ambassadors for Israel. So obviously this is what they're going to be telling them. And I know you already know what I'm about to say so say it with me. That's why we need to boycott birthright and all trips to Israel. You know better, so do better. Plain and simple, do not go on birthright or any free trip to Israel. And there is so much more to say about this so please join us for a webinar on June 15th at 6.30 p.m. central where we're gonna talk more about birthright and of course keep following this series. We have two more days left to go and I'll see you tomorrow. Bye!