On Earth Day 2022, Where are the Palestinians?

JVL Introduction

In this article Benay Blend argues that Palestinians don’t count when it comes to mainstream global environmental concerns, yet Palestine is the issue which “unites all anti-colonial movements in the fight to reclaim land”.

They are subjected to “green colonialism” which trumpets the environmentalism of the occupiers while degrading the sustainability of the environment for the occupied.

Tellingly she reports how environmental tours to Israel organised by a large US based organisation for environmental volunteering, the Sierra Club, were suspended following lobbying by pro-Palestinian organisations and then reinstated following greater pressure from Pro-Israeli groups and will thus assist in Israeli “greenwashing”.

She tells too, how Irish Aid to support the sustainability of farming communities including through the installation of solar panels, was simply trashed by the occupiers.

Written as “Earth Day” approaches on the 22nd April 2022, the article points out the contrast between international anxiety about the destructive implications for nature of the invasion of Ukraine and the relative silence about day-to-day despoiling of Palestinian lands.

This article was originally published by The Palestine Chronicle on Fri 1 Apr 2022. Read the original here.