Spring in Palestine is an amazing time. The hillsides are lush after the heavy rains, blanketed in wildflowers that crawl with busily pollinating insects. I’ve heard many complaints about the amount of rainfall we’ve had. I remind people that our land needs it. They always reply that we have more than 100 percent of our needs met. And I remind them that our land, not my summer supply for dishwashing, should be the indicator. There can never be too much rain for Palestine’s trees and plants!
This month’s theme is advocacy. Commonly we associate advocacy with human rights and fail to connect the environment to the larger fight for justice in Palestine. Environmental justice is not typically understood as a human right. This is a grave mistake, and we must insist on the connection. We must advocate for the environment; without a clean and healthy environment, we truly have no immediate future. Water rights, food sovereignty, and land sovereignty are all human rights issues. As I often argue, if we do not advocate for the bees, we will kill them all and suffer dire consequences. As the planet’s insects, mammals, and plants increasingly become extinct, endangering our biodiversity, our future is in grave danger. For now, we still have most of Palestine’s wildflowers, but their future is tied to ours, and we must advocate for both.