Contested Environmental Illness in the Negev/al-Naqab: A Narrative Analysis of lLcal Knowledge and Organizational Struggle

In 2003, the Israeli government announced plans to transfer a large army base from the centre of the country to the Negev (al-Naqab in Arabic), 8 kilometers downwind from the Ramat Hovav industrial zone and national hazardous waste treatment site. Since its creation in 1975, Ramat Hovav has been a major centre for bio-chemical production, hazardous waste treatment and consequently, pollution. For decades, Bedouin residents from Wadi Naam had been living adjacent to the industrial zone, their concerns and protests remaining unheard. However, when the health of Israeli soldiers serving at the prospective site was at stake, local environmental disputes shifted into the national spotlight. The decision to move the army base was a catalyst for a prolonged struggle over conflicting interpretations of environmental health risks. Using a narrative-based case study methodology, this research examines both the local environmental knowledge and the organizational strategies that inform the contested environmental illness struggles that took place at the Ramat Hovav industrial zone between 1997 and 2011. It illustrates how environmental organizations, policymakers, and industrial representatives, through protracted challenges and counter-challenges, found an interim approach for addressing pollution, thereby clearing the way for the construction of the army base. It also illuminates the differential treatment of contested environmental illness by state, municipal, and organizational actors when the subjects at risk are Jewish Israeli youth, as opposed to Bedouin residents, thus uncovering institutionalized environmental discrimination toward the Bedouin of Wadi Naam that is symptomatic of prejudicial public policies dating back to the establishment of the state. The first formal study of contested environmental illness in the Middle East, this case contributes broader insight into the institutional dynamics of environmental injustice, the relationship between local knowledge and political pressure, and the organizational tactics underlying environmental risk management.Ph