Palestine is a Climate Justice Issue!
The world's climate and environmental crisis touches every corner of the globe. The people of the world are truly "in this together." However, some are being hit harder and sooner. The most vulnerable and marginalized populations of the world are bearing the brunt of climate change and suffering daily environmental injustice.
Nowhere is that more true than in Israel/Palestine.
For Palestinians, climate change is not just a natural phenomenon, but a political one. Israel‘s regime of occupation and apartheid, which denies Palestinians the right to manage their land and resources, greatly heightens the impact of the climate crisis for Palestinians, making them more vulnerable to all climate-related conditions.
Today, after a century of unbridled colonialism, the historically green and fertile land of Palestine has lost much of what it once offered the world, and environmental conditions continue to deteriorate rapidly. Massive destruction of agricultural land, rampant pollution of indigenous communities' farmland and local water sources, denial of essential health infrastructure, wide-scale water deprivation, over-exploitation of natural resources, dangerous dumping and processing of waste in occupied territory...the list goes on and on.
Yet Israel cultivates an image worldwide as an environmentally conscious, “green” society. It is even considered to be an environmental leader for the world.
The reality is dramatically different.
Join us to learn the environmental reality in Israel/Palestine today, what is being done by the land's indigenous protectors. and what we can do to support their efforts.
We are honored to have one of Palestine's leading voices on Palestinian activism and resistance, Mazin Qumsiyeh, who is also an authority on the natural world of Palestine and environmental justice. Dr. Qumsiyeh is the founder and director of the Palestine Museum of Natural History and the Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability at Bethlehem University.
He is also the author of several books, including Sharing The Land Of Canaan: Human Rights and the Israeli-Palestinian Struggle and Popular Resistance in Palestine: A History of Hope and Empowerment, and he has been called "the most important chronicler of contemporary popular resistance in Palestine."
When we gathered online with Mazin Qumsiyeh in early November, representatives from around the world were meeting in Egypt for the United Nations' global climate conference, COP27. As we see on November 9th, the fight for climate justice for all is directly connected to the Palestinian struggle.
Palestine is a climate justice issue.
Resources:
In addition to hundreds of articles published in news outlets, journals, and collections, Qumsiyeh is the author of several books, including notably:
"Sharing The Land Of Canaan: Human Rights and the Israeli-Palestinian Struggle" and "Popular Resistance in Palestine: A History of Hope and Empowerment." About Popular Resistance: "This is a timely and remarkable book written by the most important chronicler of contemporary popular resistance in Palestine. Mazin Qumsiyeh brilliantly evokes the spirit of Mahatma Gandhi, Edward Said, Rachel Corrie and many others, to tell the unvarnished truth about Palestine and Zionist settler colonialism. Learn more and see where to order it here.
POWERPOINT SLIDES:
Mazin Qumsiyeh showed some powerpoint slides during the webinar and you can access those here.
MAZIN QUMSIYEH, WRITING ON THE ENVIRONMENT:
Stopping the Environmental Nakba: A statement from the Palestine Institute on Biodiversity and Sustainability
Environmental Justice in Palestine: Rights of Natives to Their Environment Versus Colonial Onslaught
Environmental Education and Climate Change in a Colonial Context
The Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability (PIBS), PIBS on Facebook
More about the Institute: Biodiversity and Hope Flourish at Palestine's First Natural History Museum
BDS ACTION:
Chevron and Siemens: Stop supporting Israeli apartheid and climate disaster
See more campaigns targeting companies making a negative impact on Palestinians lives and human rights, from the The Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC)
Investigate! A tool created by AFSC to discover corporations involved in incarceration and immigrant detention, the Israeli occupation, and the border industries.
WhoProfits, providing in-depth, on-the-ground documentation of companies complicit in the Israeli occupation
USACBI, The US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel: Recommended by Mazin Qumsiyeh as powerful action to affect public opinion and change systems.