Environmental Justice Indicators in Municipalities in Israel

In recent years the prominence of ‘social justice’ and ‘environmental protection’ has increased in the public discourse in Israel. Environmental Justice combines these two principles in order to ensure that all population groups, identified by gender, socio-economic, ethnic and/or peripheral recognition, benefit equally clean environment and free of environmental and health risks. The new research of “Environmental justice indicators in municipalities in Israel” has empirically examined the state of environmental justice in different areas towards the development defined index of “Environmental Justice in Israel”. The indices examine the inequality between the municipalities and the state of environmental hazards in five categories: wastewater treatment, water quality, accessible public transportation, air pollution and public open spaces. It has been aimed to launch a long term research, therefore the ‘Environmental justice’ has examined by constructing a database for all municipalities and local councils in the country.

Summary

In Israel today, there are great disparities in the providing of environmental services between different segments of the population. AEJI research indicates that despite significant improvements in wastewater treatment, only 2.5 % of wastewater is discharged in Jewish municipalities, 14.7 % in mixed municipalities, and 21.8 % in Arab municipalities. Meanwhile, waste remains a major problem for Israel's Bedouin communities.

Promoting access to public transportation According to AEJI research, Arab municipalities have significantly less access to public transportation, with an average of 8.59 buses per 1,000 people compared with 20.65 buses per 1,000 people in Jewish towns and cities. Research has shown that access to public transportation is essential in reducing social exclusion and marginalization. In Israel, the lack of access to transportation especially affects Arab women and has resulted in a double social exclusion: both as Arabs and as women.

Those who have access to environmental services, information, infrastructure, transportation, and participation also enjoy a higher quality of life. Conversely, a lack of access may augment marginalization in many other areas, such as health or the ability to participate in the workforce. For example, a lack of access to waste management or wastewater (sewage) treatment can lead to detrimental health risks. The lack of waste infrastructure in Bedouin communities, to be more specific, has led to practices of burning waste or dumping it into nearby streams. This in turn pollutes the air and contaminates groundwater, with hazardous effects for the community.                                                                                                  The full report will be published in 2016

According to the report which reviewed over 200 municipalities, Arab municipalities have on average only 0.34 public open spaces per capita, compared with 7.36 public open spaces per capita in Jewish municipalities. Low and middle-income towns also suffer from environmental injustice. Of the 54 municipalities with the lowest rates of access to public open spaces, only one is a higher income municipality, 51 of them are Arab municipalities. High-income towns and cities comprised 19 out of 20 of the municipalities with the highest access to public open spaces.           

An official planning guide by the Housing ministry for urban public gardens[1] creates discrimination when the planning guideline indicate on allocating 10 square meters per resident in Arab and Ultra-orthodox (religious) municipalities and 15 square meters of green open space per resident in Jewish municipalities.