Ecocide in Palestine

As well as the killing, expulsion and the devasting suffering of the Palestinian people Israel is making Palestine land uninhabitable, barren. Water has been polluted through the destruction and collapse of water and sewage treatment systems. Biodiversity is destroyed. Two great crimes are being committed genocide and ecocide. Ecocide, the destruction of ecosystems, may not appear so catastrophic when we witness the mass killing and the demolition of homes and essential infrastructure.

However, George Monbiot, writing in the Guardian October 2025, stated that prior to October 2023 40% of Palestine land was farmed. Two years later only 1.5% of Palestine agricultural land is both accessible and undamaged. In order to be farmed even the small amount of arable land has to be accessible.

There is destruction of farmland by the Israeli military, a war waged on farmland. Their bulldozers have destroyed cropland and orchards, and compacted the soil. Herbicides have been sprayed from planes. Productive land becomes deserts. The felling of ancient Palestinian olive trees is detrimental to the Palestinian economy, the self-sufficiency of the people and to their indigenous connection with the land.

It is important to have international legal recognition of the crime of ecocide and the long-term consequences. The ongoing destruction of Gaza’s environment during Israel’s military campaign is a blatant example of ecocide and shows the urgent relevance of ecocide law. More than 40 million tonnes of debris, some of it hazardous material, much of it containing human remains is strewn around Gaza. There needs to be  accountability in relation to the environmental harm during conflict.