With the body count soaring beyond 25,000 in Gaza, Deceleration invited climate leaders to share why they are supporting ceasefire in Palestine.
Greg Harman
As one of the most recognizable climate activists on the planet, Greta Thunberg is well aware how closely her words are watched. And in November 12, 2023, she gave those words to the Palestinian cause and invited a Palestinian and an Afghan woman to join her on the mic.
“As a climate justice movement, we have to listen to the voices of those who are being oppressed and those who are fighting for freedom and for justice,” Thunberg said at what is understood to have been the largest climate protest in the Netherlands to date. “Otherwise, there can be no climate justice without international solidarity.”
After being interrupted by a man who objected to what he saw as “a political view” marring his expected climate gathering, Thunberg encouraged the crowd to chant: “No climate justice on occupied land.”
Donate to DecelerationIn the month following, climate organizers attending the COP28 global climate summit dared local authorities by holding a protest on the sidelines of the gathering. UAE bans protest, Democracy Now! reported at the time, but allowed some actions during the summit.
“When human rights are under attack, what do we do? Stand up! Fight back!” over 100 people chanted. They unfurled banners, one reading “Ceasefire” and another: “End Environmental Apartheid.”
They read off the names of some of the (then) 15,000 killed in the Israeli response to the Hamas attack that claimed roughly 1,200 lives on October 7, 2023, itself ranking as one of the deadiest terrorist attacks in the nation’s history.
Against a backdrop of genocidal rhetoric pledging to “erase” or “flatten” Gaza and make it “hell,” the Israeli military response has been brutal and predicated upon mass displacement and a liberal targeting of non-combatants.
The death toll today in Gaza is more than 25,000. Eight out of every 10 killed have been women and children. More journalists were killed in the first 10 weeks of the assault on Gaza than have been killed in any other nation in any other year, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. That number is now 83, several of which could have involved the intentional targeting of journalists by the Israeli military.
In December, South Africa filed a complaint against Israel with the International Court of Justice, the United Nation’s highest court, alleging that genocide is underway in Gaza.
The violence targeting Palestinians existed long before October 7, 2023. That increasingly punishing occupation and the rise of autocratic elements on both sides in recent years made the attack all but unavoidable.
In 2021, Deceleration published an essay co-authored by Mazin B. Qumsiyeh, founder of the Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability (PIBS) at Bethlehem University, that explained how the occupation of Palestinian lands is not only a human rights crisis but an “environmental Nakba” marked by the intentional destruction of Palestinian waterways, collapse of biodiversity, targeted toxic pollution, and unjust distribution of water.
Palestinians point to the creation of a Jewish state in 1948 as the original Nakba, or “catastrophe” in Arabic, in which an estimated 750,000 Palestinians were driven from their homes during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.
Calling for international solidarity against the destruction of Gaza during COP28, Tariq Luthun, a Palestinian organizer from the Detroit area, said:
“What good is finding a world that is green if the roots are soaked in blood? What good is a world that is green if there is nobody left to live in it?”
In San Antonio, Texas, activists have been confronting local politicians and gathering in central spaces for months while decrying Israel’s overwhelming violence and the legacy of colonialism and decades of Israel’s apartheid domination over Palestine.
Maria Turvin, founder of Yanawana Herbolarios and now using the name Mazatl Cihuatl, led chants within the San Antonio City Council chambers earlier this month, shutting down the evening meeting for a time. In comments before the Council members, Cihuatl said shared histories of colonial occupation and a common fight for liberation binds residents of Turtle Island, a Native American conception of North America, with Palestine. As Cihuatl concluded their remarks, dozens lept from their seats to chant: “Free, Free, Free, Free Palestine!” and “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free!”
To understand how different climate-focused communities are organizing to demand an end the violence in Palestine, Deceleration invited leaders from a dozen climate-centered organizations to share why they are standing up to demand a ceasefire (and more).
Below are some of the responses we received:
Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty
Michael Poland, Campaign Director
As a network committed to decolonization, justice, equity, international cooperation and freedom, we strongly oppose all forms of discrimination, military occupation, racism, violence and genocide, and remain steadfast in our defense of fundamental human rights and the right of peoples to self-determination, freedom and liberation. We join the call for peace, justice, and safety, where all human rights are respected without distinction. We urge leaders to act in line with the principles of international law, justice and universal human rights, and to apply pressure to end the blockade of Gaza, end apartheid, and act on the calls of citizens from across the world including Palestinians and Jews, who have taken to the streets, demanding an immediate ceasefire.
Muslim Climate Watch
Nazish Qureshi, Founder
Without putting an end to occupation and dismantling colonialism everywhere, including in Palestine, the pursuit of climate justice is futile and morally dishonest. Failing to condemn Israel’s ongoing occupation, settler-colonialism and apartheid against Palestinians while advocating for climate justice is utterly hypocritical. Israel uses climate oppression to make life unsustainable for Palestinians. Through policies of climate and ecological apartheid, Israel forces Palestinians to bear disproportionate burdens of climate change by appropriating their land, water, and natural resources, and imposing restrictions on their freedom of movement to deny their ability to build climate resilience.
We are witnessing the convergence of warmest temperatures ever recorded on Earth and an indiscriminate ongoing carpet bombing of a besieged strip housing more than 2 million people. With the genocidal intent to obliterate Gaza and its people, Israel has dropped more than 25,000 tons of explosives, including the documented use of prohibited white phosphorus, sending more emissions to the atmosphere amidst a climate emergency.
Rejecting oppression against all people is a cornerstone pillar of the climate justice movement and an earnest fight for any decent human championing justice and equality. Offering land acknowledgements and tributes to indigenous peoples marginalized by colonialism, whether on Turtle Island or in Palestine, becomes a sanctimonious performance to absolve complicity and alleviate guilt of inaction if not accompanied with tangible action; and today, this entails actively demanding a ceasefire to stop the genocide in Gaza and advocating for a free Palestine.
Yanawana Herbolarios
Mazatl Cihuatl, Founder
The human race is at a pivotal moment in time, the moment when we may lose our humanity. As an Indigenous Person, I feel the pain of my Palestinian siblings like a keening in my spirit. I know the pain of genocide deep within my soul. I grew up being told by both teachers and classmates that my people were extinct. I grew up with my medicine practices being handed to me cloaked in Christian mysticism and devoid of context out of my ancestors desire to protect and preserve our culture (with the hope we would one day reclaim the context). I grew up without knowing my language, one that I’m working to reclaim now.
I will be working the rest of my life to reclaim fragments of what the violence of genocide stole from me. What I wouldn’t give for a chance to go back 500 years and prevent what is happening to my Palestinian siblings from happening to my ancestors! Only a little over 2% of the people living in San Antonio identify as Indigenous to this land and yet a little over 65% of the people living in San Antonio identify as Mexican. This is a direct result of genocide and the continued colonical occupation we are under even today.
With the Genocide of Indigenous Peoples comes the genocide of languages, medicine practices, artistic traditions, architectural innovations, plants, and animals. With the Genocide of Indigenous Peoples comes the loss of stewardship, reciprocity, and living in agreement with the land. With the Genocide of Indigenous Peoples comes the end of the world.
FREE PALESTINE. END THE OCCUPATION.
Climate Justice Alliance
October 2023 organizational statement
Climate Justice Alliance has always stood against imperialism, colonization and oppression. This includes opposing all forms of violence, war and genocide.
As environmental justice communities based in the United States, we call on Biden and the US Congress to support an immediate end to the violence by publicly demanding a ceasefire within the region. We stand firmly on the side of peace and support the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination, decolonization and life.
We are clear about the harms of war, not only on people, but also on the environment. For generations, Palestinians have been living under a system of apartheid, breathing in toxic air and consuming food grown on soil contaminated by bombs and other tools of destruction.
With this newest round of genocidal attacks by Israel on the civilian Palestinian population, that has forced thousands to flee and live without water, food and electricity which is continuously blockaded and shut off, the Israel government has defied international law; President Biden must oppose this.
We know that war breeds death, not democracy and will only further harm people and the planet for generations to come. US taxpayer dollars must not be used to support a policy of genocide. We stand in solidarity with all those fighting for justice and peace, especially those families who have lost loved ones in Israel and Palestine, and all those who continue to be under fire today.
Additional Resources
Visualizing Palestine
An Ongoing Displacement: The Forced Exile of the Palestinians Since 1922
UN: During 15 year blockade of Gaza, the area has experienced “momentous de-development, severely impacting normal daily life for all residents and restricting their basic human rights.”
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