{"id":29121,"date":"2024-01-29T20:10:44","date_gmt":"2024-01-29T20:10:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/?p=29121"},"modified":"2024-02-03T08:17:52","modified_gmt":"2024-02-03T08:17:52","slug":"the-killing-of-gazas-environment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/2024\/01\/29\/the-killing-of-gazas-environment\/","title":{"rendered":"The killing of Gaza\u2019s environment"},"content":{"rendered":"

The following \u00a0article was first posted as an Opinion Piece by Diem 25 Communications<\/a>. Its title explains the argument.<\/strong><\/p>\n

THE KILLING OF GAZA’S ENVIRONMENT<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

On a picturesque beach in central\u00a0Gaza<\/strong>, a mile north of the now-flattened\u00a0Al-Shati<\/strong>\u00a0refugee camp, long black pipes snake through hills of white sand before disappearing underground. An\u00a0image<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0released by the\u00a0Israel Defense Forces (IDF)<\/strong>\u00a0shows dozens of soldiers laying pipelines and what appear to be mobile pumping stations that are to take water from the Mediterranean Sea and hose it into underground tunnels. The plan, according to various\u00a0reports<\/strong><\/a>, is to flood the vast network of underground shafts and tunnels Hamas has reportedly built and used to carry out its operations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI won\u2019t talk about specifics, but they include explosives to destroy and other means to prevent Hamas operatives from using the tunnels to harm our soldiers,\u201d said IDF Chief of Staff Lieutenant General\u00a0Herzi Halevi<\/strong>. \u201c[Any] means which give us an advantage over the enemy that [uses the tunnels], deprives it of this asset, is a means that we are evaluating using. This is a good idea\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

While\u00a0Israel<\/strong>\u00a0is already\u00a0test-running<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0its flood strategy, it\u2019s not the first time Hamas\u2019s tunnels have been subjected to sabotage by seawater. In 2013, neighbouring\u00a0Egypt<\/strong>\u00a0began\u00a0flooding Hamas-controlled tunnels<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0that were allegedly being used to smuggle goods between the country\u2019s Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip. For more than two years, water from the Mediterranean was flushed into the tunnel system, wreaking\u00a0havoc<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0on Gaza\u2019s environment. Groundwater supplies were quickly polluted with salt brine and, as a result, the dirt became saturated and unstable, causing the ground to collapse and\u00a0killing numerous people<\/strong><\/a>. Once fertile agricultural fields were transformed into salinated pits of mud, and clean drinking water, already in short supply in Gaza, was further degraded.<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s current strategy to drown Hamas\u2019s tunnels will no doubt cause similar, irreparable damage. \u201cIt is important to keep in mind,\u201d\u00a0warns<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0Juliane Schillinger, a researcher at the University of Twente in the Netherlands, \u201cthat we are not just talking about water with a high salt content here \u2014 seawater along the Mediterranean coast is also polluted with untreated wastewater, which is continuously discharged into the Mediterranean from Gaza\u2019s dysfunctional sewage system.\u201d<\/p>\n

This, of course, appears to be part of a broader Israeli objective \u2014 not just to dismantle Hamas\u2019s military capabilities but to further degrade and destroy Gaza\u2019s imperilled aquifers (already\u00a0polluted with sewage<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0that\u2019s leaked from dilapidated pipes). Israeli officials have\u00a0openly admitted<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0their goal is to ensure that Gaza will be an unliveable place once they end their merciless military campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are fighting human animals, and we are acting accordingly,\u201d Defense Minister\u00a0Yoav Gallant<\/strong>\u00a0said<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0shortly after the Hamas attack of October 7th. \u201cWe will eliminate everything \u2014 they will regret it.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Israel is now keeping its promise.<\/p>\n

As if its\u00a0indiscriminate bombing<\/strong><\/a>, which has already damaged or destroyed up to\u00a070% of all homes<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0in Gaza, weren\u2019t enough, filling those tunnels with polluted water will ensure that some of the remaining residential buildings will suffer structural problems, too. And if the ground is weak and insecure, Palestinians will have trouble rebuilding.<\/p>\n

Flooding tunnels with polluted groundwater \u201cwill cause an accumulation of salt and the collapse of the soil, leading to the demolition of thousands of Palestinian homes in the densely populated strip,\u201d\u00a0says<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0Abdel-Rahman al-Tamimi<\/strong>, director of the Palestinian Hydrologists Group, the largest NGO monitoring pollution in the Palestinian territories. His conclusion couldn\u2019t be more stunning: \u201cThe Gaza Strip will become a depopulated area, and it will take about 100 years to get rid of the environmental effects of this war.\u201d<\/p>\n

In other words, as al-Tamimi points out, Israel is now \u201ckilling the environment.\u201d And in many ways, it all started with the destruction of Palestine\u2019s lush olive groves.<\/p>\n

Olives no more<\/strong><\/p>\n

During an average year, Gaza once produced more than 5,000 tons of olive oil from more than 40,000 trees. The fall harvest in October and November was long a celebratory season for thousands of Palestinians. Families and friends sang, shared meals, and gathered in the groves to celebrate under ancient trees, which symbolized \u201cpeace, hope, and sustenance<\/strong><\/a>.\u201d It was an important tradition, a deep connection both to the land and to a vital economic resource. Last year, olive crops accounted for more than 10% of the Gazan economy, a total of\u00a0$30 million<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Of course, since October 7th, harvesting has ceased. Israel\u2019s\u00a0scorched earth<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0tactics have instead ensured the destruction of countless olive groves. Satellite images released in early December\u00a0affirm that 22%<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0of Gaza\u2019s agricultural land, including countless olive orchards, has been completely destroyed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are heartbroken over our crops, which we cannot reach,\u201d\u00a0explains<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0Ahmed Qudeih<\/strong>, a farmer from Khuza, a town in the Southern Gaza Strip. \u201cWe can\u2019t irrigate or observe our land or take care of it. After every devastating war, we pay thousands of shekels to ensure the quality of our crops and to make our soil suitable again for agriculture.\u201d<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s relentless military thrashing of Gaza has taken an unfathomable toll on human life (more than\u00a022,000 dead<\/strong><\/a>, including significant numbers of women and children, and thousands more bodies believed to be buried under the rubble and so uncountable). And consider this latest round of horror just a particularly grim continuation of a 75-year campaign to eviscerate the Palestinian cultural heritage. Since 1967, Israel has uprooted more than 800,000 native Palestinian olive trees, sometimes to make way for new\u00a0illegal Jewish settlements<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0in the West Bank; in other instances, out of alleged security concerns, or from\u00a0pure, visceral\u00a0<\/strong><\/a>Zionist<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0rage<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Wild groves of olive trees have been harvested by inhabitants of the region for thousands of years, dating back to the\u00a0Chalcolithic period<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0in the Levant (4,300-3,300 BCE), and the razing of such groves has had calamitous environmental consequences. \u201c[The] removal of trees is directly linked to irreversible climate change, soil erosion, and a reduction in crops,\u201d according to a 2023\u00a0Yale Review of International Studies<\/em>\u00a0report<\/strong><\/a>. \u201cThe perennial, woody bark acts as a carbon sink \u2026 [an] olive tree absorbs 11 kg of CO2 per liter of olive oil produced.\u201d<\/p>\n

Besides providing a harvestable crop and cultural value, olive groves are vital to Palestine\u2019s ecosystem.\u00a0Numerous bird species<\/strong><\/a>, including the Eurasian Jay, Green Finch, Hooded Crow, Masked Shrike, Palestine Sunbird, and Sardinian Warbler rely on the biodiversity provided by Palestine\u2019s wild trees, six species of which are often found in native olive groves: the Aleppo pine, almond, olive, Palestine buckhorn, piny hawthorn, and fig.<\/p>\n

As Simon Awad and Omar Attum\u00a0wrote<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0in a 2017 issue of the\u00a0Jordan Journal of Natural History<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\u201c[Olive] groves in Palestine could be considered cultural landscapes or be designated as globally important agricultural systems because of the combination of their biodiversity, cultural, and economic values. The biodiversity value of historic olive groves has been recognized in other parts of the Mediterranean, with some proposing these areas should receive protection because they are habitat used by some rare and threatened species and are important in maintaining regional biodiversity.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

An ancient, native olive tree should be considered a testament to the very existence of Palestinians and their struggle for freedom. With its thick spiralling trunk, the olive tree stands as a cautionary tale to Israel, not because of the fruit it bears, but because of the stories its roots hold of a scarred landscape and a battered people that have been callously and relentlessly besieged for more than 75 years.<\/p>\n

White phosphorus and bombs, bombs, and more bombs<\/strong><\/p>\n

While contaminating aquifers and uprooting olive groves, Israel is now also poisoning Gaza from above. Numerous\u00a0videos<\/strong><\/a>analysed by Amnesty International and confirmed by the\u00a0Washington Post<\/em>\u00a0display footage of flares and plumes of white phosphorus raining down on densely populated urban areas. First used on World War I battlefields to provide cover for troop movements, white phosphorus is known to be toxic and dangerous to human health. Dropping it on urban environments is now considered\u00a0illegal<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0under international law, and Gaza is one of the most\u00a0densely populated<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0places on earth. \u201cAny time that white phosphorus is used in crowded civilian areas, it poses a high risk of excruciating burns and lifelong suffering,\u201d says\u00a0Lama Fakih<\/strong>, director for the Middle East and North Africa at Human Rights Watch (HRW).<\/p>\n

While white phosphorus is highly toxic to humans, significant concentrations of it also have\u00a0deleterious effects<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0on plants and animals. It can disrupt soil composition, making it too acidic to grow crops. And that\u2019s just one part of the mountain of munitions Israel has fired at Gaza over the past three months. The war (if you can call such an asymmetrical assault a \u201cwar\u201d) has been the\u00a0deadliest and most destructive<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0in recent memory, by some estimates at least as bad as the\u00a0Allied bombing of Germany<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0during World War II, which annihilated 60 German cities and killed an estimated half-million people.<\/p>\n

Like the Allied forces of World War II, Israel is killing indiscriminately. Of the\u00a029,000 air-to-surface munitions<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0fired, 40% have been\u00a0unguided bombs dropped<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0on crowded residential areas. The U.N. estimates that, as of late December,\u00a070%<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0of all schools in Gaza, many of which served as shelters for Palestinians fleeing Israel\u2019s onslaught, had been severely damaged. Hundreds of mosques and churches have also been struck and\u00a070%<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0of Gaza\u2019s 36 hospitals have been hit and are no longer functioning.<\/p>\n

A war that exceeds all predictions<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cGaza is one of the most intense civilian punishment campaigns in history,\u201d\u00a0claims<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0Robert Pape<\/strong>, a historian at the University of Chicago. \u201cIt now sits comfortably in the top quartile of the most devastating bombing campaigns ever.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s still difficult to grasp the toll being inflicted, day by day, week by week, not just on Gaza\u2019s infrastructure and civilian life but on its environment as well. Each building that explodes leaves a lingering cloud of toxic dust and climate-warming vapours. \u201cIn conflict-affected areas, the detonation of explosives can release significant amounts of greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and particulate matter,\u201d\u00a0says<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0Dr.\u00a0Erum Zahir<\/strong>, a chemistry professor at the University of Karachi.<\/p>\n

Dust from the collapsed World Trade Center towers on 9\/11 ravaged first responders. A\u00a02020 study<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0found that rescuers were \u201c41 percent more likely to develop leukaemia than other individuals.\u201d Some\u00a010,000 New Yorkers<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0suffered short-term health ailments following the attack, and it took a year for air quality in Lower Manhattan to return to pre-9\/11 levels.<\/p>\n

While it\u2019s impossible to analyse all of the impacts of Israel\u2019s nonstop bombing, it\u2019s safe to assume that the ongoing levelling of Gaza will have far worse effects than 9\/11 had on New York City.\u00a0Nasreen Tamimi<\/strong>, head of the Palestinian Environmental Quality Authority,\u00a0believes<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0that an environmental assessment of Gaza now would \u201cexceed all predictions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Central to the dilemma that faced Palestinians in Gaza, even before October 7, was access to clean drinking water and it\u2019s only been horrifically exacerbated by Israel\u2019s nonstop bombardment. A 2019 report by UNICEF\u00a0noted<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0that \u201c96 percent of water from Gaza\u2019s sole aquifer is unfit for human consumption.\u201d<\/p>\n

Intermittent electricity, a direct result of Israel\u2019s blockade, has also damaged Gaza\u2019s sanitation facilities, leading to increased groundwater contamination, which has, in turn, led to various infections and massive outbreaks of preventable waterborne diseases.\u00a0According<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0to HRW, Israel is using a lack of food and drinking water as a tool of warfare, which many international observers\u00a0argue<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0is a form of collective punishment \u2014 a\u00a0war crime<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0of the first order. Israeli forces have intentionally destroyed farmland and bombed water and sanitation facilities in what certainly seems like an effort to make Gaza all too literally unliveable.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have to walk three kilometres to get one gallon [of water],\u201d 30-year-old Marwan\u00a0told<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0HRW. Along with hundreds of thousands of other Gazans, Marwan fled to the south with his pregnant wife and two children in early November. \u201cAnd there is no food. If we are able to find food, it is canned food. Not all of us are eating well.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the south of Gaza, near the overcrowded city of\u00a0Khan Younis<\/strong>, raw sewage flows through the streets as sanitation services have ceased operation. In the southern town of Rafah, where so many Gazans have fled, conditions are beyond dire. Makeshift U.N. hospitals are\u00a0overwhelmed<\/strong><\/a>, food and water are in short supply, and starvation is significantly\u00a0on the rise<\/strong><\/a>. In late December, the World Health Organization (WHO)\u00a0documented<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0more than 100,000 cases of diarrhoea and 150,000 respiratory infections in a Gazan population of about 2.3 million. And those numbers are likely massive undercounts and will undoubtedly increase as Israel\u2019s offensive drags on, having already displaced 1.9 million people, or more than 85% of the population, half of whom are now facing starvation,\u00a0according<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0to the U.N.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor over two months, Israel has been depriving Gaza\u2019s population of food and water, a policy spurred on or endorsed by high-ranking Israeli officials and reflecting an intent to starve civilians as a method of warfare,\u201d\u00a0reports<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0Omar Shakir of Human Rights Watch.<\/p>\n

Rarely, if ever, have the perpetrators of mass murder (reportedly\u00a0now afraid<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0of South Africa\u2019s filing at the International Court of Justice in the Hague, accusing Israel of genocide) so plainly laid out their cruel intentions. As Israeli President\u00a0Isaac Herzog<\/strong>\u00a0put it in a callous attempt to justify the atrocities now being faced by Palestinian civilians, \u201cIt\u2019s an entire nation out there that is responsible [for October 7]. This rhetoric about civilians not aware, not involved, it\u2019s absolutely not true. They could\u2019ve risen up, they could have fought against that evil regime.\u201d<\/p>\n

The violence inflicted on Palestinians by an Israel\u00a0backed so strikingly<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0by President Biden and his foreign policy team is unlike anything we had previously witnessed in more or less real-time in the media and on social media. Gaza, its people, and the lands that have sustained them for centuries are being desecrated and transformed into an all too unliveable hellscape, the impact of which will be felt \u2014 it\u2019s a guarantee \u2014 for generations to come.<\/p>\n

12.1.24<\/strong><\/p>\n

_______________________________<\/p>\n

also see:-<\/p>\n

Western racism laid the foundations for Israel\u2019s genocide in Gaza – Jonathon Cook<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

UK\u2019s chief rabbi gives his blessing to war crimes in Gaza – Jonathon Cook<\/a><\/h6>\n
\n
Book Review: Antony Loewenstein, \u201cThe Palestine Laboratory\u201d \u00a0– Conor Gallacher, Jewish Voice for Labour<\/a><\/h6>\n
\n
EL&SD coverage of Palestine, Zionism and Israel since 2002<\/a><\/h6>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The following \u00a0article was first posted as an Opinion Piece by Diem 25 Communications. Its title explains the argument. THE KILLING OF GAZA’S ENVIRONMENT On a picturesque beach in central\u00a0Gaza, a mile north of the now-flattened\u00a0Al-Shati\u00a0refugee camp, long black pipes snake through hills of white sand before disappearing underground. An\u00a0image\u00a0released by the\u00a0Israel Defense Forces (IDF)\u00a0shows…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1843,1858,1861,1867,1846,1857,1845,1868,8866,1847,8829,1862,1860,18,1870],"tags":[9264],"class_list":["post-29121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-how-capitalists-organise","category-oppression-liberation","category-alienation-self-determination","category-emancipation-liberation-and-self-determination","category-british-imperialism","category-environmental-degradation","category-us-imperialism","category-against-imperialism","category-disease-ill-health","category-the-eu","category-national-liberation","category-ideology-and-religion","category-other-social-struggles","category-political-campaigns","category-middle-east-and-north-africa","tag-authordiem25-communications"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/mastodon.scot\/@rcfscotland\/111841053670331095","error":""},"views":2601,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29121"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29121\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29228,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29121\/revisions\/29228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}