Slow Factory: Israel’s Gaza Genocide Emitted 450,000 Tons of CO2E – Equal to Emissions of 33 Countries (2023)
January 14, 2025This is from @guardian piece last year — the numbers have yet to be updated, the correlation has yet to be made, but we know the US government is spending upwards of $30 billion* US tax dollars towards a genocide that is polluting and accelerating climate disaster thus accelerating the consequences of climate change on the entire world including US communities.
Fossil fuel lobbies *and* Israeli lobbies together contribute to the collective harm because they are deeply connected. The genocide in Gaza is also about oil and gas resources as well as land theft and ethnic cleansing.
The veil continues to be lifted and connecting the dots becomes more apparent. What we must do from this point on, beyond outrage, is continue to build new pathways, defund and boycott complicit companies, pressure elected officials, build solidarity amongst each other and find ways to tie our collective struggles.
Join a community that resonates with you, engage in mutual funds, build solidarity.
*A Brown University study from October 2024 showed a conservative $22.76 billion, and another $8 billion is planned before Biden leaves office.
@theslowfactory
ID: via @sf_access
Sources @guardian @wikipedia @scientific_american
English Script:
Sky news reporter: On December 19th,80 years-old grandmother Halima Bou Leil was shot in an IDF raid and lost her life. She went to buy groceries near her home in Balata refugee camp in the West Bank. Now grainy CCTV footage has emerged showing the moment she was shot. Her family want the world to see it. Sky news has verified the video and analyzed it against our interviews with Halima’s family in the street where the shooting took place. We located the market street where the CCTV video was filmed. In the footage, we can see Halima walking here. There are also three men walking down the street. Based on an analysis of their silhouettes, the figure in the middle appears to be holding a weapon and is likely to be a militant. The three men veer to the right, moving into this sunny area.
A few yards away, Halima stops to speak to another woman with a shopping trolley. A marked ambulance pulls into vision, separating the two women and drive slowly down the street. We can see a white van that appears to be in a convoy with the medical vehicle. Both vehicles stop. Seconds later, the passenger door of the white van opens and bank clouds of smoke can be seen, suggesting a gunshot is fired. Halima has fallen to the ground. The men sitting over to the right disperse to the right and to the left. During our visit to the site of the attack, we saw bullet holes in the building next to where Halima was standing. The woman she was speaking to, moments earlier ducks for cover in a doorway.
Halima fully collapses as she appears to be hit again. The men likely to be militants are not visible in the street when this happens. At the same time, figures who appear to be IDF personnel exit the ambulance in the foreground. The silhouette of the figure suggests they are Israeli military forces. Video analysis reveals that arms figures can also be seen, leaving the white van, not too far behind and aiming their weapons down the street. The IDF previously told Sky news they conducted counter-terrorism activity in Balata camp, the morning Halima was shot. We approached the IDF about the CCTV footage and the use of a medical vehicle to conduct this operation, in contravention of the Geneva Convention. This is what they said: The IDF is committed to and operates in accordance with international law. The mentioned incident is under review. The review will examine the use of the vehicle shown in the video, and the claims of harm to uninvolved individuals during the exchange of fire between the terrorists and our forces.
The UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory Francesca Albanese, says these military raids in the West Bank are inherently illegal and found the CCTV footage shocking but not surprising. When I look at the footage, what emerges, prima facie, is that there were no precautions taken to spare civilian life. So, this was a murder in cold blood, and it could be a war crime, as an extrajudicial killing. Experts also say that the use of a medical vehicle for the operation may constitute a war crime. In light of this evidence, the IDF surprise raid on Balata camp may have broken fundamental rules of war.
