Mother Drone, Mother Nature: The Griffon Vulture and Israel’s Military

Authors

  • Irus Braverman State University of New York at Buffalo

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5282/rcc-springs-4870

Abstract

This essay examines how military, technology, and nature converge in the Israeli griffon vulture project. The vulture is “good to think with” about settler colonialism and how it manifests in Palestine-Israel. Identified by Israeli conservationists as one in a handful of biblical species, the griffon vulture is subject to intense management aimed at making the landscape holy again. The griffon breeding project is also a technology for advancing Israel’s ecological exceptionalism and its imperial control beyond territorial boundaries. More broadly, the Israeli military’s involvement with nature protection functions as an act of greenwashing and as a way to exhibit and promote patriotic sentiments.

Author Biography

  • Irus Braverman, State University of New York at Buffalo

    Irus Braverman is professor of law, adjunct professor of geography, and research professor of environment and sustainability at the State University of New York at Buffalo. She is the author of several books, including Zooland: The Institution of Captivity (2012), Coral Whisperers: Scientists on the Brink (2018), and Settling Nature: The Conservation Regime in Palestine-Israel (2023). She was a Carson Fellow in summers 2017 and 2018.

     

Downloads

Published

31-10-2023

Issue

No. 4 (2023)

Section

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2023 Irus Braverman

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.