One of my friends interjected “we’re under occupation remember!” another said “Why should we Palestinians care, we have bigger problems to worry about”, another joked “anyway the only emission we have is the ones that come from our donkeys.”
After a heated debate the overwhelming conclusion was that as Palestinians, under occupation, with no planes to fly or big factories to emit; we should worry more about our food and bread, and of course our struggle for freedom before we even think about anything global – Food before freedom and freedom before global salvation.
I say the “overwhelming” and not “unanimous” because my friend disagreed, in here I’m voicing her opinion but as I’m writing this I’m begining to agree with her.
We are humans firstly and then Palestinians. There could be no bigger cause than the cause of preserving earth, after all we as Palestinian understand the value of earth only too well. Every day we fight with our blood for one nostalgic idea, to live free on our mountains with our olive groves, we fight for the land our ancestors cared for, for the land they planted with their own hands, tended to it every day, breathed earth from sunrise to sunset. We today, fight for that memory. Imagine if one day the bulldozer become the least of our worries, if global warming kills our hope bigger and stronger than any Israeli monster bulldozer. Then what can we do?
You say: all is well, we are farmer, we have a connection with the land, we should care about the environment – and humanity – but we are helpless to even convince Obama to cut weapon’s exports to Israel how can we even think about emission reductions?
The answer is simple, let us invite the world to use Palestine as a pioneering place for green energy, after all Israel is cutting our fuel imports, stealing our water and trying to strangle the very small industry we have. Let us tell the world that in spite of the injustices that are piled on we refuse to forget our obligation to the world. Let 2010 be the year we Palestinian declare a goal to become green with zero emissions – bar that from our donkeys.