This open letter is a starting point for the climate movement to develop principled solidarity with Palestine that connects climate justice with the struggles of colonized peoples worldwide.
Authors’ Note: Please use this form to sign the open letter if you are a group that organises within the climate movement.
We, as groups who organise for climate justice, stand in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for liberation and condemn the ongoing genocide in Gaza. This assault on Gaza is just one symptom of the wider Israeli settler-colonial project. The people of Gaza have made three simple requests of the international community: to share the truth, to call for an immediate ceasefire, and to pressure Western governments into breaking ties with Israel. We respond to this call by highlighting the interconnectedness of our struggles and the centrality of decolonisation to climate justice. We view this open letter as a starting point for the climate movement to develop principled solidarity with Palestine that connects climate justice with the struggles of colonised peoples worldwide.1
For over 75 years, Palestinians have resisted the theft and occupation of their land and the exploitation of their natural resources. The ethnic cleansing of Palestinians is backed by Western powers, including the UK, the US, and the European Union. Across occupied Palestine, Israel has relentlessly imposed a system of oppression and domination against Palestinians. In Jerusalem, Palestinians are routinely faced with the violent threat of dispossession from Israeli authorities. In Gaza, Palestinians have been living under Israeli blockade for 16 years, with restricted access to basic necessities and militarised borders preventing any freedom of movement. In Jenin, it was only a few months ago that Palestinians faced ‘the largest military operation in the occupied territory since the 2000-2005 Second Intifada,’ with no condemnation from the international community.
Violence against Palestinians did not just begin with the massacre at al-Ahli hospital on 14 October nor the current carpet-bombing campaign in Gaza. Quotidian colonial violence has been the ongoing reality for Palestinians.
As climate activists in the imperial core, we understand the role that our governments play in facilitating settler-colonialism in Palestine. The UK was heavily involved in the birth of the Israeli colonial state through the Balfour Declaration. Today, the UK continues this legacy as it licences and exports arms to Israel, which are used on Palestinians and then marketed as “battle-tested”. Each year, the US sends at least $3.3 billion of taxpayer money to financially aid Israel and support the occupation forces. Most of the bombs dropped on Gaza in the last four weeks have been internationally manufactured. As we fight for the end of fossil fuels, for climate reparations, and an eco-socialist future, we must call on the US, UK, and the EU to end their military aid and complicity in Israel’s colonial occupation.
Settler colonialism and imperialism fundamentally shape the world we live in, the struggles that connect us, and the climate emergency we face. The expansion of the fossil fuel industry, against which we fight, is facilitated through colonial extraction and military operations in the Middle East and beyond. The US military-industrial complex, a ‘tremendous fountain of CO2 pollution’, dispossesses indigenous people of their rightful land in Turtle Island and abroad.2 Amidst its ongoing genocidal assault which attempts to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from Gaza, Israel has handed out 12 gas exploration licenses to companies including BP and ENI off the coast of the strip. It is this system of planetary destruction that produces, motivates, and profits from the weapons fueling Israel’s genocide. Additionally, the collaboration of policing and intelligence across Western powers and Israel makes our solidarity imperative as we fight common systems of oppression. If the climate movement is serious in calling for internationalist climate justice, then demilitarisation and decolonisation must be central to our demands.
A world that turns a blind eye to the genocide of a colonised people is not a world where climate justice is possible. We must uproot systems of oppression wherever we find them. From Turtle Island to Abya Yala to Palestine, we support the fight for land back and confront the roles of Western governments in facilitating colonialism and imperialism globally. This political moment requires us to reflect on our connected struggles to show up in material solidarity with the Palestinian people.
May we see a free Palestine in our lifetimes, from the river to the sea.
Signatures:
Britain
All African Women’s Group
Cambridge Land Justice
Campaign against Climate Change
Chesterfield Climate Alliance
Climate Camp Scotland
Climbers for Climate
Climate Live UK
Climate Vanguard
Community Action for Land Liberation/
ESEA Green Lions
Extinction Rebellion Families
Extinction Rebellion Youth Oxford
Flame (The Landworkers’ Alliance Youth)
Fossil Free Pride
Green at Barts Health
Global Majority VS
Islamic Foundation for Ecology and Environmental Sciences
Let’s stop the East African Crude Oil Pipeline UK
Land in our Names
Movimiento Jaguar Despierto
No Borders in Climate Justice
Nowadays on Earth
Organisation of Radical Cambridge Activists (O.R.C.A.)
Plymouth Hub for Climate Justice
Positive Money
Resist Glencore
Scientists for Global Responsibility (SGR)
Stop Rosebank
Stop Rosebank Sheffield
Sustainably Muslim
The People’s Health Hearing Collective
The Landworkers’ Alliance
Tipping Point UK
Trademark Belfast
Transition Crich
Two Billion Strong
Women of Colour in the Global Women’s Strike
Youth in Resistance Edinburgh
International
Animal Rebellion (Ireland)
Culture Hack Labs (International)
Climate Clock DRC (Congo)
Ecojustice Ireland (Ireland)
End Fossil Barcelona (Spain)
Fridays for Future Mumbai (India)
Future Generations Kerry (Ireland)
Futureproof Clare (Ireland)
Al Manakh (Kuwait)
Organised Students for Radical Climate Action (Netherlands)
Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability (Palestine)
Rave Revolution (International)
Scientists Rebellion (Ireland)
Socialists Lawyers Association of Ireland: Ecosocialists (Ireland)
Stop East African Crude Oil Pipeline (International)
The Dublin Ecofeminists (Ireland)
Transnational Institute (Netherlands)
We Smell Gas (Belgium)
Youth for Green Action (Kenya)
Youth for Green Nature (Congo)
Authors’ Note: Please use this form to sign the open letter if you are a group that organises within the climate movement.
Notes
| Themes |
| • Climate change • Communication and dissemination • Indigenous peoples • International • National • People under occupation • Refugees • Solidarity campaign • UN system |
