Statement originally posted on the COP29 Climate Justice Coalition website: https://cop29cjcoalition.org/statements/
Since October 7 2023, Israel’s campaign has displaced millions of Palestinians, with the death toll has reaching upwards of 41,500, 56% of whom are women and children. We have witnessed a genocide taking place live on our television screens, a year of Israel’s relentless, indiscriminate bombing of densely-populated civilian areas, targeting of hospitals, universities, and refugee camps, of the deliberate killing of aid workers, medics, journalists, and starvation of a besieged population. Every semblance of decency and humanity has been violated with absolute impunity, despite the well-documented war crimes, crimes against humanity and a plausible case of genocide.
We are enraged by the massive loss of all civilian life, and we unequivocally condemn the escalation of the ethnic cleansing campaign and genocide being perpetrated by the settler-colonial state of Israel and further condemn the Global North governments who actively support the Israeli war machine. We also condemn Israel’s expansion of violence in its bombing of Lebanon’s densely populated capital and ground invasion into the country, with yet more innocent lives being lost.
The system of apartheid and occupation that dehumanizes the Palestinian people lie at the heart of Israel’s campaign, which has torn through the Occupied Palestinian Territory of Gaza and the West
Bank and Jerusalem. These crimes of expulsion and military and settler violence have been perpetrated for generations since the Nakba (Arabic word for ‘catastrophe’) in 1948 and is not a mere fleeting moment in history – this reveals that the current war on the Palestinian people is not an isolated event but a tragedy deeply rooted in colonialism, illegal occupation, systemic injustice, racism, and a blatant disregard for international human rights and humanitarian law.
The complicity of global North governments in Israel’s crimes illustrates the reality already being faced by many of our communities on the frontlines of climate violence in the global South. Peoples and territory to be sacrificed to protect the interests of powerful elites and big business. As the global threat of the Climate Crisis worsens, there is no room for further militarism. The cycle of war is undeniably increasing global emissions and removing our ability to actively and decisively respond against the Climate Crisis. The climate crisis and genocide in Gaza are inextricably linked and we must put a stop to both.
There can be no climate justice without human rights and the cessation of global conflict. We call on all people to stand against injustice and demand our leaders take action. As the global threat of the Climate Crisis worsens, there is no room for further militarism. The cycle of war is undeniably increasing global emissions and removing our ability to actively and decisively respond against the Climate Crisis.
The COP29 Climate Justice Coalition demands:
• The end of Israel’s settler-colonial project, its system of apartheid, and its unlawful occupation of Palestine.
• We call upon the ICC to issue arrest warrants for all those responsible for war crimes, hold trials immediately for perpetrators and all complicit to be held accountable following International Law, and deliver justice long denied to the people of Palestine
• An immediate and permanent ceasefire
• An immediate end to Israel’s illegal blockade of Gaza allowing the free in-flow of humanitarian and medical aid
• An immediate embargo on all arms trades and lethal aid toward Israel
• An immediate energy embargo on Israel
• The UN and its member states take decisive action against Israel to end its occupation and prevent further escalation of conflict following International Law.
• Annex II States divest from increasing military budgets and redirect allocations towards funding climate change mitigation, adaptation, loss and damage, and financing for just, equitable, and ecological transitions.