Accompanying efforts toward ecological justice in the Middle East
In January 2022, thousands of people in Gaza were displaced when precipitation patterns impacted by climate change met infrastructure ravaged by repeated Israeli military bombardments, flooding their homes with a mix of rainwater and sewage. At the same time, Palestinian Bedouin protesters in the Naqab desert faced tear gas and rubber-coated bullets as Israeli forces suppressed their resistance to a forest being planted over their village. Similar experiences of ecological injustice are a prevalent part of Palestinian life under Israeli rule.
Social movements in Palestine are confronting the convergence of US and Israeli settler colonialism and militarism. As they face a government that upholds water apartheid, plants forests over ethnically cleansed villages, uproots trees to build a wall, runs military drills atop farm fields, profits from extractive industries in occupied territory, and receives billions in US military funding, Palestinians are organizing locally and transnationally for a just and sustainable future.
Grassroots International accompanies work such as:
- A Palestinian-run agroecology school, building skills, practical tools, and contextualized knowledge
- Campaigns and organizing to defend land and water, dismantle the apartheid wall, stop ethnic cleansing, and oppose false solutions to climate change
- Food access initiatives implemented in refugee camps by Palestinian refugees
- Projects advancing sustainable livelihoods and food sovereignty
