TITLE:
Environmental and Climate Justice in Palestine
AUTHORS:
Jad Isaac, Jane Hilal
KEYWORDS:
Environmental Degradation, Climate Change, Environmental and Climate Justice, Human Rights, Causes and Solution
JOURNAL NAME:
American Journal of Climate Change,
Vol.13 No.2,
June
28,
2024
ABSTRACT: To have a clean, safe, and functional environment is not only essential for the purpose of preservation, but also imperative for safeguarding the most fundamental of human rights. Resolution 45/94 of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly also stresses and acknowledges that: “all individuals are entitled to live in an environment adequate for their health and wellbeing” (United Nations Digital Library System, 1991). Environmental and climate justice, which: “emerged in the context of the local environmental struggles of directly oppressed groups”, is a global movement dedicated to ensuring equal protection of people’s human rights (i.e., water, health, life, etc.) in the face of the climate crisis. Moreover, health, environment and human rights are part of the 2030 agenda (in particular, SDG 1, SDG 5, SDG 6, SDG 7, SDG 13, SDG 16, SDG 17). Individually, both environmental and climate justice are rooted in an intersectional outlook, by which they highlight the common threads between communities and the people’s inclusion, irrespective of race, class, or gender, in the pursuit of justice. On the other hand, they recognise and acknowledge the role and consequences of climate change in economic, social, and political dimensions; thus, drawing emphasis on the rights of people under the emerging inequities. In the case of Palestine, the Palestinian community is increasingly becoming vulnerable to these effects and the resulting inequalities of climate change. This vulnerability stems from: 1) The right to life; clean WASH; equitable work opportunities; access to resources; and free movement; are all examples of human rights that the Israeli colonial regime infringes upon; 2) Infrastructure is essential for climate adaptation: 61% of the West Bank is ultimately barred from building infrastructure (B’Tselem, 2019) and Gaza Strip has major gaps in infrastructure due to intentional destruction by Israel; 3) Palestinian deprivation of the sovereign right to natural resources by Israel; 4) Apartheid system in water accessibility: Israeli water usage per person is over three times higher than that of Palestinians (their usage is under the WHO recommended minimum per day) (B’Tselem, 2023); and 5) Violent settler attacks. In 2022 alone, the Applied Research Institute-Jerusalem (ARIJ) recorded 1527 settler attacks that targeted land, properties, livestock, agriculture and even Palestinian civilians. The ongoing neglect of these concerns and the persistent colonization of Palestine by Israel unequivocally and unwaveringly affect the human rights of Palestinians. The power dynamics at play especially hamper the Palestinian ability to exercise and fulfill their inalienable human rights and to tackle the obstacles to justice in their environment.