BEIT JALA, Tuesday, September 26, 2023 (WAFA) – ActionAid Palestine (AAP) and Right to Movement group organized a “Run for Climate justice” in Wadi Al-Makhrour in the southern West Bank city of Beit Jala to draw attention to the issue of climate justice in Palestine in general and to show solidarity with Wadi Al-Makhrour in particular, which faces the dangers of climate change, which are exacerbated by Israeli practices of land confiscation and movement restrictions imposed on farmers. This run is part of the activities of the Global Week of Climate Action and Global Climate Justice Campaign “Fund our Future” organized by ActionAid International.
The race was started in Wadi Al-Makhrour with the participation of approximately 45 male and female runners. The race was opened by the head of programs at ActionAid Palestine, Wissam al-Shweiki, who welcomed the participants and stressed the importance of the climate justice campaign, which is to show the causes of the lack of climate justice in the Palestinian territories due to the illegal practices of the Israeli occupation against the Palestinian land and environment, saying: “We are in Al-Makhrour valley which represents a flagrant example of the lack of climate justice due to land confiscation and denying Palestinian farmers their right to use tools needed for mitigating and adapting with the impacts of the crisis of climate change as severe heat waves, water shortages, and delayed rains.”
Wadi Al-Makhrour is an agricultural area in the Bethlehem Governorate with an area of 3,500 dunums, planted with almond and olive trees. It contains dozens of old houses whose owners are not allowed to renovate or build in their surroundings. This area is exposed to settlement and land confiscation, which kills life in the place, restricts the population, and steals their agricultural lands. These practices prevent Palestinian farmers from digging water wells, installing electricity networks, entry of agricultural equipment, and transporting organic fertilizers, and thus limit their ability and resilience to confront the climate crisis.
Carlos Barham, a Palestinian farmer who owns agricultural land in Wadi Al-Makhrour, talks about his suffering due to climate change in high temperatures exacerbated by policies and practices of the Israeli occupation: 'We have experienced this summer a very unprecedented high temperature affecting all kinds of crops. We are in an area that is prevented from digging water wells and building agricultural roads. Rehabilitating agricultural lands is also prohibited to facilitate their confiscation. In 2015, we were forced to demolish wells ourselves to avoid paying a high cost of the demolition for Israeli authorities on the pretext of not obtaining a permit to dig wells.”
The environmental activist at AAP, Sajida Al-Saraheen, said: “The aim of ‘Run for Climate Justice’ is to highlight the issue of climate justice through sports so that we could encourage people to take their responsibility towards showing more interest in looking after the environment and changing their behaviors by making them more environmentally friendly in terms of reducing the use of plastic emissions.”
At the end of the run, the winners were awarded, and the participating organizations were honored.
The participants were briefed about ActionAid’s petition, and they also signed the petition of ActionAid that demands banks to immediately stop financing fossil fuel expansion and industrial agriculture that causes deforestation and human rights violations. It also urges banks to strengthen policies against human rights abuses and deforestation to protect communities. It calls for governments to regulate the banking sector to stop the financing of fossil fuel expansion, and they must scale up just transitions to real solutions such as renewable energy and agroecology.
AAP organizes the climate justice campaign as a part of the global campaign implemented by the ActionAid International Federation. The campaign will implement many awareness, solidarity and agricultural activities to shed light on the issue of climate change and its effects on the environmental, agricultural, water and social levels in Palestine and the role of the Israeli occupation and its policies in increasing the suffering of the Palestinian people as a result of climate change. The campaign also includes calls for policies and measures to be taken to mitigate the impact of this crisis and achieve climate justice for the Palestinian people.
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