Pittsburgh Green New Deal joins with many others in demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and the delivery of life-giving aid to all those in need. The targeting of medical centers must cease, and food and supplies must be allowed to reach those who need them. The U.S. government and the military industrial complex are responsible for funding and supplying Israel’s relentless bombing of the people and communities of Gaza. We call upon the United States to demand an immediate end not only to the slaughter of tens of thousands of civilians in Gaza (and the starvation of countless more), but also to the horrific short and long-term impacts on environmental justice that will be felt for generations. These include:
- The destruction of water infrastructure, electricity, and fuel necessary for water pumps, desalination, and wastewater treatment, leading to mass dehydration, pollution of Gaza’s groundwater and Mediterranean fisheries, and spread of waterborne diseases such as cholera, typhoid, and hepatitis A;
- The poisoning of Palestinian air, water, cities, agricultural land, and ecosystems by the use of white phosphorus and long-term heavy metal contamination from bombing;
- The devastation of farmland, orchard, and greenhouses, dramatically reducing Gaza’s capacity for food production;
- The destruction of Gaza’s health care system, including both the physical infrastructure and supply chains of hospitals and care facilities, and the lives of doctors, nurses, aides, emergency responders that have been detained or killed as they cared for the sick and wounded;
- The destruction of well over 50% of all buildings in Gaza, leading to the long term mass displacement of over two million Palestinians from homes, communities, and sources of critical needs even as the region faces deadly heat waves due to climate change;
- The environmental toll of eventual reconstruction, including the manufacture and use of massive quantities of concrete – already a significant source of greenhouse gases.
Pittsburgh Green New Deal calls for an immediate and durable ceasefire, an end to U.S. military aid to Israel, restoration of U.S. aid to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), and an enduring long-term commitment by the U.S. and the global community to repairing and rebuilding the infrastructure and ecosystem of Gaza – and to the healing of its people.
Pittsburgh Green New Deal 