Justice
Meanwhile, Palestine’s deep vulnerability to climate change intersects tragically with ongoing destruction. We are experiencing rising heat and increased drought: this year we received less than 40 per cent of the annual average for the past 40 years.
At COP29, Palestinian voices called out the hypocrisy of global climate discussions that ignore the ecocide unfolding in Gaza, demanding collective climate justice and divestment from energy systems fueling occupation.
Beyond bombs, there is slow, structural violence—neocolonial afforestation of alien species, manipulation of water resources, spraying of agricultural toxins into Gaza, purposeful denial of food sovereignty, and uprooting of olive trees to erase cultural ties to land.
Such acts, designed to malnourish and displace, legally intersect with definitions of genocide and ecocide. But despite relentless destruction, Palestinians continue to resist ecocide through networked ecological solidarity.
The Palestinian Environmental NGOs Network (PNGON), an umbrella of over twenty organisations, coordinates efforts in sustainable agriculture, water preservation, biodiversity protection, and environmental justice tied to human rights.
Accountability
Through eco-sumud, communities preserve traditional agricultural practices like Ba’li soil-water conservation, even under siege conditions.
Forensic Architecture, Al Mezan, Law for Palestine, and academic institutions document environmental harm, building dossiers for international legal accountability.
Transnational ecological solidarity is vital: groups like EcoPeace Middle East work across Israeli, Palestinian, and Jordanian lines on shared water and environmental peacebuilding initiatives.
The Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability at Bethlehem University (palestinenature.org) leads in research, education, conservation and community service around areas of environmental justice.
We stand at a pivotal moment: globally, ecocide is gaining legal traction as a prospective crime under international law. Palestinian ecocide must be the proving ground for accountability.
Actions Needed
- Document, Investigate, Prosecute: Use research evidence from academic research and from Forensic Architecture, UNEP, Al Mezan, Law for Palestine, and others to trigger International Criminal Court and International Court of Justice investigations under both war-crime and emergent ecocide frameworks.
- Green reconstruction: Rebuild with ecological justice—clean water systems, sustainable energy, habitat restoration—not climate-intensive cement and debris.
- International solidarity: Push for fuel and arms embargoes on Israel; demand climate finance that includes reconstruction, ecosystem restoration, and justice for Palestinians.
- Protect eco-sumud: Support community-led sustainable agriculture, seed saving, water harvesting, and biodiversity revival as acts of resistance.
- Advance legal recognition: Advocate for ecocide as the fifth crime in the Rome Statute, so environmental genocide meets legal redress—starting with Gaza.
As Palestinians, our struggle is both existential and ecological. Ecocide is another front of the colonial violence we resist.
But in resisting, we not only defend life on the land—we affirm our right to a future, to ecosystems that sustain culture and survival.
This article is both a testimony and a call: to radical ecologists, environmental justice activists, defenders of international law, and global solidarity networks: Stand with Palestine not just in words, but in action: against ecocide, for environmental justice, for liberation.
This Author
Mazin Qumsiyeh is the founder and director of the Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability, Bethlehem University, Bethlehem, Palestine.
This article has been published through the Ecologist Writers’ Fund. We ask readers for donations to pay some authors £250 for their work. Please make a donation now. You can learn more about the fund, and make an application, on our website.