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Markovich Report

The Markovich committee dealt with the issue of illegal building on state lands and in open (green) areas, a phenomenon it described as a ‘state catastrophe’ in the conclusion of the committee report, which said that a “illegal constructions are spreading over wide areas and destroying the principals of fiscal planning”. The committee ruled, “Central and local governmental bodies have to act quickly and decisively in order to stop the illegal buildings and destroy them immediately”.

The committee recommended the creation of a national unit, to control the illegal building as part of the Ministry of Interior Affairs. This is now operating and has six units in the different regions of the country, plus an administration centre. The unit is responsible for tracking illegal buildings, creating a legal case against them, and, following the legal process, their demolition.

Moshav

In this kind of cooperative agriculture settlement, each family owns its own farmland and home. Purchasing and selling are both done cooperatively. There are a number of villages grouped around a central town in a moshav. The town collects and gives out the produce and furnishes the needed equipment and materials. The town is the administrative centre. Within this central town, there is generally a secondary school, a concert hall, a theatre, and classes in cultural subjects for adults.

Nakba, Nakba or Al-Nakba

An Arabic term, pronounced An-Nakba, which means ‘cataclysm’ or ‘calamity’. It is the term which Palestinians usually use to refer to the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.

The term Nakba was coined by Constantine Zurayk, a professor of history at the American University of Beirut, in his 1948 book Ma’nat al-Nakba (‘The Meaning of Disaster’). Zurayk wrote a continuation book, The New Meaning of the Disaster (also in Arabic) in 1967, but the term Nakba is reserved for the 1948 war.

Together with Naji Ali’s Hanzala (the barefoot kid always drawn from behind), and the symbolic key for the house in Palestine carried by so many Palestinian refugees, the Nakba is perhaps the most important symbol of Palestinian discourse.

Nakba Day (May 15th) is considered an important day on the Palestinian calendar, and is traditionally observed as a time to learn about the history of Palestine and to remember the event.

National Park

An area designated as a National Park or National Reserve is intended as an area for trees and vegetation to grow with no disturbances, while birds and animals remain in their natural environment.

Nature Preservation Authorities

According to Azaria Alon, the former chairman of The Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel: “Israel is an island of nature preservation compared to its neighbouring countries, who do not consider this subject important at all” (Alon in Kliot, 2000:224).

Deep Ecology is the major focus of biocentric and ecocentric ecological philosophy strands, see Deval, 1994, Murphy, 2000. However, see the critique of deep ecology by Ramashndra Guha and others: Guha, 1994, Coats, 1998, Callicott, 1994. Bukchin, 2000.