We’ve lost five wonderful colleagues

It is with a very heavy heart that we publish this blog. Five staff from our sister organisation, Friends of the Earth Palestine, have been killed by Israeli airstrikes.

As Friends of the Earth Ireland staff get back to work after the Christmas break, it is devastating to think that five wonderful Palestinian climate campaigners will never return to work again. 

We cannot stay silent as world powers like the US and EU support Israel’s horrific war crimes against the Palestinian people. We cannot stand by knowing that the Irish Government could, and should, be doing a lot more to push for a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to the violence against Palestinians in the West Bank. 

The Irish Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) is urging people to take to the streets for a national demonstration for Palestine this Saturday, 13th January. It will start at 1pm at the Garden of Remembrance. 

This march has been called as part of the Global Day of Action for Gaza. A big effort to make it the biggest Palestine solidarity demonstration in Irish history is being made. Will you join it?

We’ll be attending the march in Dublin this Saturday to honour our dead Friends of the Earth Palestine colleagues. It would mean a lot if you could join us.

We’ll be marching to honour those who have died but also to speak up for our Palestinian colleagues who are still fighting to survive. They are going through a living hell at the moment. Hundreds of their relatives have been killed by Israeli attacks. Their health is suffering as food supplies dwindle and disease spreads. 

We need to speak up for them - and for all the innocent Palestinian civilians that Israel is brutally attacking. 

If you can’t march in Dublin there are lots of Palestine solidarity actions taking place in other locations across Ireland too - some of which will also be attended by Friends of the Earth staff.

The Irish Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) has a list of solidarity actions on its website here. It also has a variety of online actions you can take, including template letters you can send to the Taoiseach or your own TDs. Supporting the Boycott, Divest, Sanction (BDS) movement is another way to help push for a ceasefire and an end to Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian lands. 

Friends of the Earth Palestine staff do wonderful work. They are real visionaries. Developing Just Recovery renewable energy plans for Gaza. Speaking out against Israel’s destruction of Palestinian’s solar panels. Supporting the traditional agricultural activities that Palestinians have practised for centuries. Denouncing the uprooting of over half a million trees, carried out by the Israeli army and Israeli settlers in the West Bank over the last twenty years. 

Their recent report on Climate Justice in Palestine is well worth a read. It highlights the devastating environmental impacts that Israel’s occupation has had on Palestine over the decades. And shows how the occupation makes Palestinians much more susceptible to climate impacts.

The Friends of the Earth Palestine staff who were killed by Israeli airstrikes will never return to work. But we want to make sure that the work they started is continued. We want to make sure that their surviving colleagues can one day live and work in peace. That they can fulfil their dreams for climate justice in Palestine.

That they, like Friends of the Earth staff in Ireland, can dream big at the start of a new year, making ambitious plans for climate action and a just world where people and nature thrive.

That’s why we're marching this Saturday. We hope you’ll join us.