international day for water and a protest without opponents

My first job today as an intern at Megama Yeruka (Green Course), the national university-student environmental group, was to use doublestick tape and scrap paper to cover the government emblems on the front of the motorboat that we drove onto the lawn of Jordan Valley College at our Open the Kinneret! rally.

The shores of the Kinneret are public, and, according to law, users may only be charged the price of its upkeep. Over past years private individuals and groups have fenced off sections of shoreline, and in some cases charge exorbitant entrance fees (US$25), or have even begun to prohibit entrance. Megama Yeruka and the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI) have undertaken a public awareness campaign on the issue.

Today Jordan Valley College hosted political debates among Knesset candidates from several parties. Megama Yeruka set up a boat with banners and a bunch of students for a photo opp with a few candidates who promised to sign our Statement of Intent to Open the Kinneret.
This is what is fascinating about the psychology of the event: SPNI and Megama Yeruka are quasi-governmental organizations—they have autonomy, and are considered non-governmental organizations, but they use government funding in their operations. However, they are not affiliated with the Ministry of the Environment or any decision-makers, for that matter—their job is to educate and mobilize the public on important environmental issues without taking sides. But in this case (in this small country with only three degrees of separation) the guy who was originally going to lend his boat to be used in the protest bailed on us, and the other last-minute boat-lender who was contacted agreed to lend a government boat he had access to, on the condition that it was not displayed as such in public.

In short, a government boat was used to publicly protest government neglect. (Tell me if Im wrong, but I don’t think this could ever happen in the United States. No matter how respected the environmental lobby is on its issues, its NEVER in bed with the politicians.) This seems to demonstrate something notable about the psychology of media pitching. i.e. No one thinks that the Kinneret should be neglected; it just happens to lag behind national priorities like security, poverty, and healing social rifts. Megama Yeruka is working in general to raise environmental issues to the forefront of the political agenda. Yet its events are still set up like any protest, making it appear that one side is pitted in opposition to the other. I suppose this is because the media presents every issue has clearly having two sides, and these organizations are experienced and adept at working with the Israeli media. They know exactly how to portray the issue as contentious; here, brave activists successfully persuade candidates to sign a statement of commitment to their beloved, neglected Kinneret.

In reality, this, like all environmental issues, is a long-term problem which requires meaningful enforcement of a law that’s already on the books, but that sounds pretty lame. Environmentalism is the art of explaining natural selection and advertising natural seduction.