> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.possibilities.news/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # On Palestine and Israel - URL: https://www.possibilities.news/palestine-israel-climate-justice/ - Published: 2023-10-12T15:15:35.000Z - Updated: 2023-10-12T15:15:34.000Z - Description: What's happening in Palestine-Israel begs a climate justice analysis. Histories of colonialism always do. - Author: Yessenia Funes **LISTENING:** *to water boil* **FEELING:** *stressed about work* **SEEING:** *the dark sky brighten with the sun* What is our treatment of the land but a reflection of how we treat one another? This is where my mind goes whenever I hear of bombs dropping or hostages taken. It's where my mind has traveled as the Palestine-Israel conflict continues. We live in a world where the powerful and privileged exist by keeping the vulnerable tied down and oppressed. Indeed, this is a history that the land over which Israelis and Palestinians are fighting knows well. The land grieves, too. It is a history too long, complicated, and nuanced for me to break down in a single newsletter. My attempt to even comprehend a slither of that is why you're receiving this later than usual today. Such intention requires time. Such sensitivity requires space. I conducted an interview for today's newsletter, but my source pulled out at the last minute because I wouldn't share my full draft. I'm glad to at least have our conversation as background for what I've written today. I sit here with privilege in the U.S. where I've never had to fight — not figuratively, but literally — for freedom. Though I come from an ancestry that wasn't afforded such grace, I was born into freedom. I've never held a gun or looked death in the face. I grew up in my own battleground of poverty and persecution, but my experience could never equate to a literal warzone where rockets flare and bullets pervade. I don't know true poverty and persecution: where tomorrow isn't promised and where hatred suffocates your community. I've lived through enough trauma, however, to question systems of violence. I've seen enough loss to wonder: What might be possible if opponents laid down their arms and, instead, joined hands? What would a world built upon reparations and reciprocity look like rather than one built upon hate and hubris? Is it possible to see such liberation on occupied lands? How do we set the land and its people free? Is it the job of the settler? Or of the oppressed? Could both come together in the name of liberty? [Upgrade your membership](https://www.possibilities.news/#/portal/signup) Welcome to **Possibilities**, a creative climate newsletter on the possibilities that lie where crisis meets community. I’m **Yessenia Funes**, and we're digging into the conflict in Palestine-Israel. I'm no expert in the matter, but I am a reporter. We, reporters, do one thing damn well — and that's lay out the facts. The fighting we're seeing today didn't start when Hamas, the extremist governing body of Gaza (a Palestinian city), [launched](https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-gaza-hamas-rockets-airstrikes-tel-aviv-11fb98655c256d54ecb5329284fc37d2?ref=possibilities.news) its attack on Israel Sunday. It dates back [centuries](https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2017/5/23/the-nakba-did-not-start-or-end-in-1948?ref=possibilities.news). For our purposes, I'll start with 2008 when Israel [escalated](https://digitalcommons.du.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1199&context=djilp&ref=possibilities.news) its attacks on Palestinians and the U.N. began tracking deaths. Since 2008, [over 6,000 Palestinians](https://www.ochaopt.org/data/casualties?ref=possibilities.news) have died (not including the most recent deaths since Sunday). Up until a few days ago, the number of Israeli deaths sat at just over 300, per the U.N. Now, [over 1,200](https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/israel-hamas-palestinian-war-attacks-gaza-strip/?ref=possibilities.news) deaths have been added to both sides since Sunday. These are largely civilian deaths. Innocent people are being killed. The children who survive will be left with lifelong scars. None of these people deserve to die. Nothing about this violence is acceptable. The violence should've ended long before this escalation. Until the Palestinian people are free from Israeli rule, the bloodshed is likely to continue. Finding a compromise for both won't be easy, but it's necessary. There's no justifying the brutality Hamas has inflicted upon Israelis. Unfortunately, Palestinians have been suffering state-sanctioned violence from Israel for long enough to breed the sort of desperation that leads to further violence. Now, Israelis are unjustly suffering, too. I first explored these painful and complicated truths in 2021 when I wrote a [piece](https://atmos.earth/israel-palestine-conflict-environmental-justice-war/?ref=possibilities.news) about the environmental harms from violence in the region for Atmos. It's worth reading now. What's happening here, however, shouldn't be characterized as war. War suggests symmetry, that both sides have equal power. That's not the case for Palestinians. The Israeli government [controls](https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/10/middleeast/gaza-complete-siege-israel-intl/index.html?ref=possibilities.news) much of their access to electricity, food, and water. Since the fighting, the government has [closed off](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/oct/12/first-thing-no-power-water-fuel-gaza-until-hostages-freed-israel-says?ref=possibilities.news) that access until Hamas frees Israeli hostages. It's worth noting that international law defines Israel's actions as a [war crime](https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/war-crimes.shtml?ref=possibilities.news). A government cannot starve civilians as part of its war strategy. Israel isn't alone in facing such allegations. Hamas is also engaging in war crimes by killing civilians. I can't help but think of my Israeli-Jewish landlord's teenage sons who were sent to live in Israel just a few months ago. I hope they're OK. "Deliberate killings of civilians, hostage-taking, and collective punishment are heinous crimes that have no justification," said Omar Shakir, the Israel and Palestine director for Human Rights Watch, [to Reuters](https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/what-war-crimes-laws-apply-israel-palestinian-conflict-2023-10-11/?ref=possibilities.news). You might be wondering why I'm writing about all this in a newsletter dedicated to climate justice. For one, militarized attacks devastate the ecosystem. Chemicals pollute waterways, and bombs kill trees that provide necessary shade to people and river creatures during times of heat. These events leave people without food, homes, and shelter. All this destruction makes communities even more vulnerable to extreme weather when the conflict settles down. It makes surviving the climate crisis, especially in the Middle East, damn difficult. Then, there are the [carbon emissions](https://ceobs.org/how-does-war-contribute-to-climate-change/?ref=possibilities.news) associated with such violence. Tanks require fuel. As do fighter jets. Destroying ecosystems means releasing the carbon they've stored. In doing so, soldiers weaponize nature whether they know it or not. Above all, however, are the human lives. What is climate justice in a world where people are not free? How can we talk about a green future when some communities don't have a future to look forward to? How can cultures come together to talk about emissions reductions when they don't even have peace? I know revolution is not what many of us in the West have romanticized it to be. I know it can be gory and ugly, but I also know revolution cannot sacrifice its humanity. Revolution cannot be rooted in vengeance; it must be rooted in love and liberation. Hate is winning right now. I don't have the answers. All I have is my grief. 🌀 ## Rest in Power **While we can't say for certain that climate change led to these specific weather events (we need attribution studies for that), we do know that the Earth's rising temperatures are already creating more disasters like these.** Flash floods in the Indian Himalayas last week have [killed](https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/09/asia/india-flood-sikkim-glacier-climate-intl/index.html?ref=possibilities.news) at least 74 people while about 100 others remain missing. Heavy rains in the capital of Cameroon led to landslides over the weekend that [killed](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-67051106?ref=possibilities.news) at least 40 people. ## Currently Reading A [heartbreaking read](https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/10/amir-tibon-how-his-family-survived-hamas-massacre/675596/?ref=possibilities.news) on the Palestine-Israel conflict from The Atlantic from the perspective of a journalist living near the Gaza border. [From Palestinian writer Abdallah Fayyad for The Boston Globe:](https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/10/11/opinion/israel-occupation-gaza-violence-cycle/?ref=possibilities.news) "And that, in the end, is where this cycle of violence begins — not with a single attack but by slowly and methodically, over the course of generations, vanquishing all hope among innocent people who have never known freedom." The Guardian, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, NBC News, and Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism [published](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/oct/10/amazon-trafficking-links-claims-saudi-arabia-workers-abuses?ref=possibilities.news) a damning joint investigation into labor trafficking that reminds me yet again why I need to stop buying from Amazon. "My Bosnian family and I do not believe in a lot of the same things, but the climate is not a question of belief, rather one of intimacy," writes Dženana Vucic for the [Sydney Review of Books](https://sydneyreviewofbooks.com/essay/migratory-flights-vucic?ref=possibilities.news). Always read HEATED, y'all. This [climate take](https://heated.world/p/republicans-use-israel-hamas-war?utm%5Fcampaign=email-post&r=fubh&utm%5Fsource=substack&utm%5Fmedium=email) on the Palestine-Israel conflict is a must-read. On a lighter note, let's celebrate the [winner](https://www.npr.org/2023/10/11/1205207955/an-empty-nest-mama-bear-just-won-fat-bear-week?ref=possibilities.news) of this year's Fat Bear Week. ## Poetry I don't know bombs, but I don't know peace, either I don't know war, but its cries wake me from my sleep I don't know death, but I can feel it watching me I do know love I give it shamelessly I do know forgiveness I offer it to even my worst enemies how do we love? how do we forgive? when all we've got left are our bloodied hands and feet? \-ylf- ****What are you reading and seeing? Join the community and become a paid member so that you can share in a comment.** **See you next week. xx** \- Yessenia [Follow me on Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/yessfun/?ref=possibilities.news) [Follow me on TikTok](https://www.tiktok.com/@msyessfun?ref=possibilities.news) [Follow me on Twitter](https://twitter.com/yessfun?ref=possibilities.news)