PePa - T

We are Tami Zori and Rena Kessem, writing to you from Israel. Two permaculture - witches - teachers - deep ecology writers and just two women devastated with the crimes the state has been perpetrating for many years, culminating in the last 20 months to a level we would have thought inconceivable. We first want to express our feelings of deep shame, rage, and heartbreak as Israelis.

I, Tami, have been active in permaculture here since 2005 when I founded and led the CityTree urban ecology center in Tel Aviv and taught urban permaculture courses for a while. I was part of the group who brought Extinction Rebellion to Israel. We left our eco-home in Tel Aviv, not being able to sustain it any longer, and today I continue to teach and write, host a podcast, and am active in the local Slow Money movement.

I, Rena, have taught animism and Earth spirituality, completed a master’s thesis on permaculture in Israel, and published a book on Earth spirituality in Hebrew.

We hope that we can contribute to this group with information about the broken state of the permaculture field in current Israel. It is almost impossible to create and maintain Permaculture or even just small farming within the ‘67 borders- All the eco-farms that have sprouted here in the past 20 years have closed one by one or changed dramatically under harsh pressure from the land authority. There is no legal framework for anything resembling an eco-village and financially it is almost impossible to survive unless you are focused solely on production. Land is impossibly expensive, and permits are not granted. Young people interested in permaculture here have only two realistic options: Leave Israel, which many have done, also out of disgust with the occupation, or start a farm - in the occupied territories. This is possible due to the generous benefits and subsidies the government offers to encourage the expansion of Jewish settlement there. Some of the foremost permaculture teachers have availed themselves of this opportunity, establishing farms and teaching permaculture on stolen Palestinian land.

Tami has written about this in an essay that we want to share with you soon, after we translate it to English. We also want to issue a statement putting forth the Ethics and Principles written in the context of Israel-Palestine, to clarify that eco-farms in the West Bank are in sheer contradiction with the most basic of permaculture principles, and should not use the term permaculture to describe their activity. It seems like the least we can do is to call out so-called permaculture farms hiding behind permaculture’s good name, while adopting racist philosophy and practice. We see this as unconscionable. We would also like to draw some kind of a vision for Peace&Farming in the spirit of Permaculture and the Slow Money movement. Not that we are very hopeful about these last two.

In addition we would like to be involved in writing the suggested statement on the crisis. Of course the Palestinian voices should lead. If there is an option for us to represent the Israelis who oppose the occupation and all of Israel’s  horrific actions - we think there is value in our involvement.

We also understand completely if our voices are not welcomed by Palestinians, but we would love to hear from any man or woman from Gaza or the West Bank who might want to be in touch - we hope to find ways in which we can cooperate in some way and against all odds.

For peace, for the land, 

Tami & Rena

[xxx] 058-422-7531 -  tree@citytree.net  -  https://www.citytree.net/