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Paper short abstract:

Ethnography of an endeavor to defend the sabra from an invading aphid in Israel/Palestine with the help of an immigrant beetle. This contentious effort involving cross-national collaborations, challenging themes of nationality and ecology while reaffirming issues of separation and power relations.

Paper long abstract:

In the era of increased globalization and climate crisis, are required huge and cross-border efforts to eradicate transformations of species or to mitigate their effects. Such efforts can be a fruitful platform for collaborations and coalitions that challenge political, political and cultural separations. However, the practice and implications to deal with them continue to be hotly debated topics.

Despite having been introduced relatively recently from the Americas, the prickly pear (sabra) is viewed, rather ironically, by both Palestinians and Jews in Israel as symbolizing their nativity in the land of Palestine/Israel, respectively. More recently, an aphid (Dactylopius opuntiae) has been causing devastating mortality among prickly pears.

This ethnographic study accompanied a small group of scientists who are trying actively infect all the sabra shrubs in the area with the aphid, but to do so together with the larvae of one of its natural enemies, a small beetle (Hyperaspis) that they imported from Mexico and have acclimatized to the local conditions. This controversial project is being carried out in collaboration (based on personal acquaintances) with scientists from Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority, but is also currently provoking great opposition among other scientists and among key organizations and political forces.

Using theoretical approaches such as 'more than human' and 'settler colonialism', this paper examines the sabra rescue project and shows how the project succeeds in challenging perceptions of conservation and development and international boundaries, but it also reinforces previous conceptions of nature and culture, human and non-human, and power relations.