Project summary

This on-going research project focuses on how international law acts, and fails to act, as a guarantor of fundamental rights in contexts of environmental injustice. The CBRL travel grant was awarded to travel to meet with residents of rural West Bank communities and Aida and Dheisheh refugee camps and discuss the environmental challenges they face.

Project details

Location: Palestine

Year(s): 2020

Project director(s): Carly Krakow

Lead institutions and funding:

• CBRL

Project description

This on-going research project began by asking questions about how international law acts, and fails to act, as a guarantor of fundamental rights in contexts of environmental injustice. In addressing these questions during later stages of fieldwork, the focus on practices of Palestinian resistance to environmental injustice was richly informed through site visits and interviews.

Building on my previous research in the West Bank that focused on water access and water quality, the CBRL grant enabled me to travel to meet with residents of rural West Bank communities and Aida and Dheisheh refugee camps.

During this trip, I encountered individuals and organisations who powerfully engage in resisting injustice and occupation through practices including: protection of land in the face of annexation, preservation of vital resources, organic farming despite lack of water and limited electricity, research about the safety and quality of air and water and the health effects of near-constant exposure to tear gas, and education about the history and future of the environment in Palestine for the youngest generations. To quote a recent article resulting from
this research: ‘just as the occupation has controlled Palestinian lives by consistently invading and controlling every aspect of basic daily living, the people doing this work are often resisting by reclaiming autonomy over the fundamentals of life and community-building: starting with the food they eat and the land they inhabit.’

Recent publications on this work include articles in the journal Water and in the media outlet openDemocracy.

Project bibliography

Krakow, Carly. 2021. The role of international law for protecting the human rights of people impacted by environmental crimes in contexts of statelessness, displacement, and armed conflict. Bulletin of the Council for British Research in the Levant 2020, p 18.

Published:07 December 2021