Solidarity with the Global Student Movement Protesting for an End to the Genocide in Palestine

We stand in full solidarity with students across the globe protesting to demand universities divest from institutions profiting from or engaging in Israel’s acts of occupation and genocide in Palestine. The fight for peace and liberation is fundamental to climate justice and overcoming the climate emergency.

As students launch a new wave of action on campuses across the UK, we applaud the bravery and resilience of all students and staff – on these shores and beyond – protesting for divestment, boycotts and sanctions to bring an end to the genocide and for the liberation of the Palestinian people. 

The crackdown on anti-genocide protesters mirrors the rising repression against climate and social justice activists worldwide. We condemn the violent police and state responses to peaceful protests as examples of a rising authoritarianism that targets those protesting against genocide, climate breakdown, inequality and oppression.

The climate crisis and global military-industrial complex are intrinsically linked. The devastation of war does not stop at human injury and death as it wreaks havoc through massive emissions, pollution of water and air and environmental devastation felt for generations. 

In the global north, we also see increased militarisation and securitisation of our borders as the climate crisis escalates. Occupation and genocide in Palestine removes the right of the Palestinian people to stay in their homes, while our governments’ border policies remove the rights of all to move safely and with dignity, when staying is not possible or desirable.

No life is of less value, no human expendable or disposable in the name of power or profit. Like the US government, the UK is complicit in the genocide through the provision of weapons and diplomatic cover to Israel. 

We will not stand back as Palestinian lives are deemed less worthy of protection, just as we will not stay silent as the fossil fuel economy dehumanises and disregards those in communities most vulnerable to the effects of climate breakdown.

Without human rights, there is no climate justice.
Without a free Palestine, there can be no climate justice.