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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://www.palestinechronicle.com/bill-gates-should-know-better-how-the-israeli-occupation-ravages-the-environment-in-palestine/">palestinechronicle.com</a>
<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Bill Gates Should Know Better: How the Israeli Occupation Ravages the Environment in Palestine</h1>
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<div class="gmail-reader-estimated-time" dir="ltr">November 10, 2021<br></div>
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<img src="https://www.palestinechronicle.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Gates-Bennett-678x455.png" alt="" title="Gates-Bennett" style="margin-right: 25px;" width="452" height="303">
American business magnate Bill Gates (L) with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. (Photo: video grab)
<p><strong>By <a href="https://www.palestinechronicle.com/writers/ramzy-baroud" title="Display all articles for Ramzy Baroud">Ramzy Baroud</a></strong></p><p>Those
who are not familiar with how Israel, particularly the Israeli military
occupation of Palestine, is actively and irreversibly damaging the
environment might reach the erroneous conclusion that Tel Aviv is at the
forefront of the global fight against climate change. The reality is
the exact opposite.</p>
<p>In his speech at the UN Climate Change Conference COP26 in Glasgow, Israel’s rightwing Prime Minister Naftali Bennett<a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-in-glasgow-bennett-vows-to-harness-israeli-innovation-against-climate-change-1.10343814"> pushed</a> the Israeli brand of “innovation and ingenuity” to “promote clean energy and reduce greenhouse gases”.</p>
<p>Israel uses this particular brand to sell everything, whether to promote itself as the<a href="https://www.jpost.com/jpost-tech/how-israel-is-bringing-water-and-energy-to-africa-608412"> savior of Africa</a>, to help governments<a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20181227-tested-in-gaza-how-europe-uses-israeli-war-technology-against-refugees/"> intercept</a> fleeing refugees, to<a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2018/12/21/combat-proven-israels-thriving-war-business-in-europe"> push</a> deadly weapons in the global market or, as Bennett has done in Scotland, supposedly save the environment.</p>
<p>Just before we hastily dismiss Bennett’s rhetoric as empty words, we
must remember that some are actually buying into this Israeli
propaganda, one of whom is the American billionaire, Bill Gates.</p>
<p>The day following Bennett’s speech, Gates<a href="https://observatorial.com/news/economy/17631/bennett-and-gates-have-agreed-to-set-up-a-climate-change-working-group/"> met</a>
with the Israeli Prime Minister on the sidelines of COP26 to discuss
the establishment of a “working group” to study potential cooperation
“between the State of Israel and the Gates Foundation in the area of
climate change innovation,” the Times of Israel newspaper<a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/bill-gates-to-bennett-we-can-solve-climate-change-with-innovation/"> reported</a>.</p>
<p>According to the newspaper, Gates, who had asserted in his meeting
with Bennett that only innovation can solve the problem of climate
change, said, “That’s really what Israel is known for”.</p>
<p>Gates’ obsession with ‘innovation’, however, might have blinded him
from addressing other issues that Israel is also ‘known for’ – namely,
being the world’s leading human rights violator, whose horrific track
record of racial apartheid and violence is known to every member of the
United Nations.</p>
<p>However, there is something else that Gates might also not be aware
of – the systematic and purposeful destruction of the Palestinian
environment, resulting from the Israeli occupation of Palestine and Tel
Aviv’s insatiable appetite for military superiority, thus constant
‘innovation’.</p>
<p>Every act that is carried out to entrench the military occupation
consolidates Israel’s colonial control and expanding illegal Jewish
settlements directly impacts the Palestinian environment.</p>
<p>Not a single day passes without a Palestinian tree or an orchard being<a href="https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/israeli-settlers-burn-400-olive-trees-in-west-bank/2075735"> set ablaze</a> or<a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20211013-israel-settlers-uproot-900-olive-trees-in-palestinian-farms/"> cut down</a>.
‘Clearing’ the Palestinian environment is, and has always been, the
prerequisite of constructing or expanding Jewish settlements. For these
colonies to be built, countless trees have to be ‘removed’, along with
the Palestinians who have planted them.</p>
<p>Over the years, millions of Palestinian olive and fruit-bearing trees
were uprooted in Israel’s constant hunger for more land. The<a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/mena/2021/11/04/palestinian-olive-harvest-centuries-old-trees-and-traditions-under-threat/"> soil erosion</a> in many parts of occupied Palestine speaks volumes of this horrendous ecocide.</p>
<p>But it does not end here, of course. For hundreds of illegal Jewish settlements – hosting a population of<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-59062909"> more than 600,000 settlers</a> – to survive, a heavy price is being exacted from the Palestinian environment on a daily basis.<a href="http://opiniojuris.org/2021/10/22/israels-ecological-apartheid-in-the-occupied-palestinian-territory/"> According to</a>
the thorough research of Ahmed Abofou, an independent Legal Researcher
with Al-Haq rights group, illegal Israeli settlements “generate around
145,000 tons of domestic waste daily.” Abofou reported that “in 2016
alone, around 83 million cubic meters of wastewater were pumped
throughout the West Bank.”</p>
<p>Moreover, Israel has near-total control of Palestinian water resources. It relies on the occupied<a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/6/23/israel-water-as-a-tool-to-dominate-palestinians"> West Bank’s aquifers</a> to supplant its need for water, while denying Palestinians access to their own water.</p>
<p>According to Amnesty International, the average Israeli<a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2017/11/the-occupation-of-water/#:~:text=Israeli%20settlers%20living%20alongside%20Palestinians,irrigated%20farmlands%20and%20swimming%20pools.&text=By%20contrast%2C%20an%20average%20Israeli,litres%20of%20water%20a%20day."> receives</a>
300 liters of water per day, while a Palestinian receives a much
smaller share of 73 liters. The problem is accentuated when the water
usage of illegal Jewish settlers is taken into account. The average
settler<a href="https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/palestine-s-water-crisis-50-years-of-injustice/882105"> consumes</a> as much as 800 liters per day, while entire Palestinian communities could be<a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/palestinian-access-water-attacks-wash-structures-area-c#:~:text=Currently%2C%20it%20is%20estimated%20that,levels%20in%20terms%20of%20water."> denied</a> a drop of water for days and weeks, often as a form of collective punishment.</p>
<p>The issue with the water is not just that of outright theft, denial
of access or unequal distribution of water resources. It is also that of
the lack of clean and safe drinkable water, an issue that has been<a href="https://www.un.org/unispal/document/auto-insert-195880/"> highlighted</a> by international human rights groups for many years.</p>
<p>The result of these unfair policies has forced many Palestinians “to
purchase water brought in by trucks” at prices “ranging from 4 to 10 USD
per cubic meter,” Amnesty International<a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2017/11/the-occupation-of-water/"> found</a>,
highlighting that, for the poorest Palestinian communities, “water
expenses can, at times, make up half of a family’s monthly income.”</p>
<p>As bad as the situation may sound, the plight of besieged Gaza is
much worse than that of the occupied West Bank. The tiny and overcrowded
Strip is the perfect example of Israeli cruelty. Two million
Palestinians live there, while being denied the most basic human rights,
let alone freedom of movement.</p>
<p>Since the Israeli military blockade on Gaza in 2007, the environment
of the coastal region has been in constant deterioration. With little
electricity and with bombed-out sewage plants, Palestinians have been
forced to dump their unprocessed sewage into the sea. Gaza’s underground
water is now<a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2009/09/312312-gazas-water-supply-danger-collapse-warns-un-report"> polluted</a> to the extent that 97 percent of the available water is now<a href="https://www.un.org/unispal/document/world-bank-and-partners-invest-us117-million-in-water-for-palestinians-in-gaza-press-release/"> undrinkable</a>, according to United Nations reports.</p>
<p>This is only the tip of the iceberg. From the destruction of
Palestinian wells to the poisoning of trees, to the demolishing of
entire ecosystems to make space for Israel’s apartheid wall, to the<a href="https://www.arabnews.com/node/320099"> use of depleted uranium</a>
in its various wars against Gaza, Israel has been on an unrelenting
mission to ruin Palestine’s environment in all of its manifestations.</p>
<p>In truth, Mr. Gates, this is what Israel is ‘known for’ to anyone who
cares to pay attention. Allowing Bennett to present his country as a
potential savior of humanity, while validating Israel with massive
investments in ‘innovation’, mischaracterizes – in fact, invalidates –
the entire global campaign to truly understand the nature of the problem
at hand.</p>
<p>Those who are hurting the planet have no right to claim the role of
being its saviors. Israel, in its current violent state, is the enemy of
the environment, and this is what it truly should be ‘known for’.</p>
<p><em>– Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of five books. His latest is “</em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/These-Chains-Will-Broken-Palestinian/dp/1949762092"><em>These Chains Will Be Broken</em></a><em>:
Palestinian Stories of Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons”
(Clarity Press). Dr. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at
the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA) and also at the
Afro-Middle East Center (AMEC). His website is</em><a href="http://www.ramzybaroud.net/"><em> www.ramzybaroud.net</em></a></p>
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