APN | Amman – Zoom
19 April 2024
APN was invited to participate in a podcast titled “Carnegie Conversations: Climate Change in Middle East and North Africa” hosted by The Carnegie Endowment, to discuss how the occupation’s tactics and systematic wars, including the latest aggression in Gaza, exacerbates Palestine's climate vulnerability and the resulting impacts on the agriculture, energy, and water sectors.
During the discussion, APN Advocacy and Research Officer, Lisa Shahin, underscored the paradox wherein Palestinians, despite bearing minimal responsibility for climate change, are among the most vulnerable to its impacts. This vulnerability stems from living under a harsh settler-colonial and apartheid regime that exploits the environment, strips Palestinians of their land, water, and natural resources, and destroys their climate resilience.
Shahin delved into the tactics employed by the occupation which undermine climate resilience. She emphasized that these tactics are glaringly evident in the ongoing war in Gaza, where the occupation has escalated its old strategy of collective punishment and weaponization of food. In addition to the genocide we’re witnessing through intensive indiscriminate bombing, the occupation destroys agricultural lands and infrastructure and poisons water and soil.
As for recommendations, Shahin emphasized the urgent need to address root causes of climate vulnerability, expose the occupation’s violations, and ensure accountability, challenging global double standards.