Green Colonialism: From Palestine to Turtle Island

With the recent Palestinian resistance to apartheid Israel’s occupation of Gaza and so-called Israel’s genocidal response, it is vital to consider the role of green colonialism in ongoing efforts to subjugate people in both Palestine and Turtle Island. The formation of Israel, much like the United States, was predicated on the theft of Indigenous land and destruction of Indigenous livelihoods. Since these original offenses, methods of colonialism have shifted over time to justify its violent and genocidal aims. Mining companies on Turtle Island are co-opting demands for an energy transition away from fossil fuels, by pushing for a  “green” economy. This is based on the continued exploitation of Indigenous lands. Meanwhile, settlers in occupied Palestine blatantly greenwash the expansion of the Israeli colonial project to justify ongoing violent colonization of Palestinian land and people. While the tactics used in these two contexts are different, they are interconnected examples of green colonialism. 

In Anishinaabe territory in Minnesota, Indigenous communities are on the frontline of the proposed Rio Tinto - Talon nickel mine. This planned nickel-sulfide mine is located in a vast wetland ecosystem, home to some of the most productive manoomin, or wild rice, lakes in the world. Sulfide pollution, which has resulted from every nickel sulfide mine throughout history, threatens clean water and manoomin, a sacred Anishinaabe cultural resource. Despite these risks, Talon Metals is deflecting away from the substantial environmental and human rights concerns of their mine by claiming they will be a “green mine” and will source “green nickel.” Using this deceptive framing, Talon received a $115 million grant from the Department of Energy. Concurrently, they also received a $20 million grant from the Department of Defense, the largest global emitter of fossil fuels, under the pretext of being a military mine that is crucial to national security. 

Opponents of Talon are calling this and other new mines on Turtle Island a form of Green Colonialism because mining companies are targeting Indigenous lands for resource extraction, using false climate solutions as a justification for land grabs and cultural genocide. 

Across the Atlantic Ocean and through the Mediterranean sea, a different yet connected colonial project is boiling over. The Israeli ethnostate and its U.S. based partners have been following the lead of American greenwashers by adopting their own deceitful strategy of colonization. One of the major perpetrators is the Jewish National Fund (JNF), a global Zionist organization founded in 1901 by Theodore Hertzl, an architect of Zionism. They own 13% of all stolen Palestinian land, pooling billions of dollars from wealthy Zionists across the globe to fund illegal Israeli settlements. How do they get away with such blatant colonial practices? Greenwashing and Green Colonialism. JNF props up their “tree planting” campaign, in which they raise money for the deceptively innocuous purpose of planting trees. However, upon a deeper analysis JNF, in accordance with the Israeli state, uses these trees as a colonial weapon. There are countless examples of the Israeli army demolishing Palestinian villages in Gaza and the West Bank, followed by JNF coming in to plant trees and found national parks on the rubble of uprooted villages. Canada Park in the West Bank, which was funded by JNF, lies on the ruins of three Palestinian villages: Beit Nuba, Imwas, and Yalu. JNF and the so-called Israel state have also uprooted more than 800,000 olive trees to plant invasive tree species, a devastating act of cultural genocide and material loss to Palestinians.

If these acts of cultural genocide in the name of “green” practices seems similar, it might not come as a suprise to learn that some of the same colonists are behind them in both Palestine and Anishinaabe territory. Two high ranking Talon Metals executives sit on the board of directors of the JNF. 

Furthermore, the United States federal government has signed off on green colonialism in both contexts. The U.S. government has historically given the Israeli military $270 billion, as well as billions to mining companies on Turtle Island. Even this week as civilians in Gaza are bombed indiscriminately, the U.S. government is choosing to ignore Israel's war crimes and announced their unequivocal support for Israel. The mine drills desecrating Indigenous territory on Turtle Island and the bombs dropped on civilians in Gaza are both underwritten by the U.S. Department of Defense. 

We must be vigilant in tracking and resisting the waves of green colonialism happening globally. We must  always properly contextualize resistance to settler violence. As the use of greenwashing in extractive industries and Indigenous erasure increases around the world we must take a strong stance against this new ideology based in the same old framework of settler colonization. From Palestine to Turtle Island, the struggles to resist green colonialism are connected.