Environmental Defenders of the Asia-Pacific stand in solidarity with Palestine!

The Asia Pacific Network for Environmental Defenders (APNED) stands in solidarity with the people of Palestine in their continuous struggle for liberation and ending the Israeli occupation. 

From the 1917 Balfour Declaration, which enabled the cleansing and displacement in the 1948 Nakba, 750,000 Palestinians have lost homes, loved ones, and their lives from the continued militarization and occupation (Al Jazeera, 2017). A year after the Israeli attack on October 7, 2023, there were about 41,802 deaths and 96,844 injuries sustained from the attacks (Bensekkaim, 2024). 

Militarization has long been occurring in the land of Palestine. Since 1948, several native trees have been replaced by European pine trees, which harmed the biodiversity and resulted in numerous fire incidents (Qumsiyeh & Abusarhan, 2020). Illegal settlements have also caused destruction and pollution, with manufacturing companies starting to occupy the West Bank, causing several threats to the health and culture of Palestinian peoples, including indigenous groups.

The agricultural and fishing industries have been largely degraded throughout the occupation. Numerous agricultural lands were converted into settlements, and establishing infrastructure such as solar panels and cisterns has been a challenge for the Palestinian people due to bureaucratic issues (Institute for Middle East Understanding, 2022). In the 2007 blockade of Gaza, Palestinian fisherfolk also struggled for access to fishing grounds due to the militarization of the 40-kilometer-long coastline. With Israel’s long occupation and crimes targeted towards Palestine’s land and its people, problems have been intergenerational, from water shortage and food security, to the contribution of massive carbon emissions from weapons of war, which accelerates climate change. 

With continuous militarization in Palestine, 281,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide have already been released in the first 60 days of the attack, with about 99% of the pollution caused by the bombings of Israel (Lakhani, 2024). Even as the global climate crisis has received attention, the emissions from war and militarism, such as that waged by Israel and its allies in the Global North, have remained relatively unpunished. This endless dispossession, which happens not only within Palestine but in many other countries, hinders people from being able to build a nation that sustains their ecology, life, and culture. Wars not only destroy people’s livelihood, but also the ecological balance and path to sustainable development (Meaza et al., 2024). To attain climate justice, wars must end.

As environmental defenders, we must understand how our struggles against militarization and environmental plunder are interlinked with the struggles of the Palestinian people amidst genocide and settler-colonialism. As we amplify local campaigns, we must continue to resist and actively highlight the environmental and social war crimes of the Israeli state, fueled in assistance by the machinery of the United States (Robinson, 2023; Tait, 2024). Let us unite in solidarity in order to break free from this exploitative profit-oriented system. APNED joins in global calls for an ultimate ceasefire and an end to the illegal occupation. We environmental defenders must join the Palestinian people’s fight in the struggle for justice and liberation, for both the people and the planet.