West Bank, ALRAY - The international movement of BDS stated that Israeli occupation used the environmental cooperation projects to impose its hegemony over the lands of the Jordan Valley.
The movement explained in a fact sheet that Jordan Eco Park, known as Sharhabil bin Hasna Park, is one of the sheer normalization projects that carried out under the guise of preserving the environment.
It noted that the project works on involving Jordanian and Palestinian youths in joint environmental programs and workshops with Zionist groups from occupied Palestinian lands.
It added that the organization that runs the park is registered as a local institution in Jordan under the name Protecting the Earth and the Environment association (formerly Friends of the Earth.)
“This association is the Zionist Eco Peace Middle East organization itself, that introduce Israel as a partner of water diplomacy, totally ignoring to its continuous theft of natural resources in Palestine, Jordan and the Arab region,” the movement noted.
It stressed that supporting Jordan Eco park is a service to the colonial expansionist Zionist project, an official recognition of Israel, and legitimizing their presence in front of the world.
The movement explained that these programs have never been to save the Jordanian environment, however they seek to involve the Arab and Jordanian youth in normalizations projects with Israel, using them as tools to pass its hostile agenda.
The BDS movement in Jordan explained that some suspicious organizations that works with Israel have recently accelerated its activities in an attempt to control the Jordanian food basket, to affect Jordanian identity and their relation with their farm lands via environmental normalization with the Zionist entity.
The BDS explained the environmental normalization used the guise of improving the environment, whether through reducing pollution, recycling, increasing access to water, or reversing climate change to cooperate with Israel.
It noted that Israel used the environmental normalization as a mean of public relations, as a cover to hide its violations of human rights, and to cover up its environmental crimes against the Palestinians and their land.
It added that Eco Peace Middle East was founded in 1994, under the slogan of environmental peace, and is proud of its offices and activities in Amman, Ramallah, and Tel Aviv.
The organization gathered Palestinian, Jordanian and Israelis to implement projects in environmental leadership and management of shared natural resources.
It pointed out that the organization used the framework of training programs and workshops, to merge the colonizer with the colonized, and establishes equal environmental responsibilities between the occupation and its society on the one hand, and the Palestinian and Jordanian peoples on the other.
BDS explained that Eco Peace Middle East has participated in in community development projects in the Jordan Valley since the beginning of about 20 years.
It stated that the Eco Peace has asked Jordan Valley Authority a land in 2005, in order to construct a park, and in turn the Jordan Valley authority has given it 100 dunams.
“The good act of Eco Peace has encouraged the authority to give them additional 116 dunams, to be the total space given to it 216 dunams.
It stated that the main aim of establishing the Eco Park is to enhance the environmental normalization between Israel, Jordan and Palestinian authority and to work on joint goals that promote mutual respect and cooperation; This park is a tangible symbol of peace and mutual goodwill in a troubled region, BDS stated.
The BDS holds at the headquarters of the General Secretariat of the Partnership and Rescue Party, a Jordanian political organization, in Al-Rawabi neighborhood in the Jordanian capital, Amman a press conformance on Thursday to announce its boycott of the project.
Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) is a Palestinian-led movement for freedom, justice and equality. BDS upholds the simple principle that Palestinians are entitled to the same rights as the rest of humanity.
BDS is now a vibrant global movement made up of unions, academic associations, churches and grassroots movements across the world. Since its launch in 2005, BDS is having a major impact and is effectively challenging international support for Israeli apartheid and settler-colonialism.
