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Saj Issa for Art & Ecology

Saj Issa is a Palestinian-American visual artist based in North America. Her work spans across a variety of mediums including painting, performance, and sculpture. At this point of her practice, her work is anti-nationalist and anti-flag, with a larger scope focused on the land and the people instead of a government entity within art activism.
PSA-STL is a public art project that features text installations throughout St. Louis. Issa is the current artist presenting her banner install last month.

The banners say, “What Garden will you assemble when the walls are torn down?”. She uses this prompt as a metaphorical question, to have the audience think about who their community will be when we no longer have imperialist structures looming over us.
Since the start of the genocide, Issa has been making a single poppy painting a day, spending five minutes on each one. (Early in the war, the Permanent Observer of Palestine to the U.N. said that a Palestinian child is killed every five minutes in Gaza. On the backs of these paintings is written, “Return to Saj. Return to Palestine”. She believes that “whether they be Palestinians in the diaspora or fellow Palestinian activists who have never been, it’s everyone’s right to be able to visit.”
These paintings are distributed and held in marches since October. Saj specifically intends to focus on language like anti-war within her work and spaces her work is in, because she feels that Western media and society tends to shift the focus of the larger issue at hand: ecocide and genocide. Ecocide is the destruction of a land and ecosystems.
Issa’s collection of Poppy Paintings will be on display at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis in September on a reworked larger scale.
“The acts of war associated with Ecocide also include the use of arms of mass destruction (nuclear, biological or chemical), attempts to provoke natural disasters (volcanic eruptions, earthquakes or floods), the military use of defoliants and explosives, the leveling of forests, attempts at climate modification and the forced, permanent displacement of species for military objectives.” — Nathalie de Pompignan, 2007

The Palestinian plight is not only the genocide of the people but also the ecocide of the land, and not exclusively for Palestinians but all lands that are war torn. The genocide has included a systemic destruction of Palestine’s ecology and agricultural landscape, to prevent abundant life from existing there. Over 40% of the agricultural land previously used for food production and a third of the region’s greenhouses have been intentionally destroyed.
What does anti-nationalism mean?
Anti-nationalism is the opposition to nationalism or to the interests of a specific nation. Are you loyal to a government entity or are you loyal to humanity?
Why are you anti-flag?
“Flags tend to hold a lot of history of politics and bureaucracy that many people don’t always agree with. So if they want to distance themselves from the conflicts that a specific government has inflicted, it’s important to find ways to unite a people apart from the imperialist structure. Flags are so quick to create division amongst people, in my experience of showing up to demonstrations, it was beautiful to witness the variety of things people were able to identify with and still stand 10 toes down next to each other. I believe it doesn’t require a flag to do so.”

What symbolizes Falasteen to you outside of the flag?
My ancestors, the fertile land, aromatic jasmines, the seductive bougainvilleas that spread over railings and fences. Any and all of its beauty that emboldens nostalgia and purity.
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{
"article":
{
"title" : "Saj Issa for Art & Ecology",
"author" : "Saj Issa, Yassa Almokhamad-Sarkisian",
"category" : "interviews",
"url" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/readings/saj-issa-art-ecology",
"date" : "2024-07-02 14:59:00 -0400",
"img" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/uploads/FXT58969_Palestine-Saj-Issa.jpg",
"excerpt" : "",
"content" : "Saj Issa is a Palestinian-American visual artist based in North America. Her work spans across a variety of mediums including painting, performance, and sculpture. At this point of her practice, her work is anti-nationalist and anti-flag, with a larger scope focused on the land and the people instead of a government entity within art activism.PSA-STL is a public art project that features text installations throughout St. Louis. Issa is the current artist presenting her banner install last month.The banners say, “What Garden will you assemble when the walls are torn down?”. She uses this prompt as a metaphorical question, to have the audience think about who their community will be when we no longer have imperialist structures looming over us.Since the start of the genocide, Issa has been making a single poppy painting a day, spending five minutes on each one. (Early in the war, the Permanent Observer of Palestine to the U.N. said that a Palestinian child is killed every five minutes in Gaza. On the backs of these paintings is written, “Return to Saj. Return to Palestine”. She believes that “whether they be Palestinians in the diaspora or fellow Palestinian activists who have never been, it’s everyone’s right to be able to visit.”These paintings are distributed and held in marches since October. Saj specifically intends to focus on language like anti-war within her work and spaces her work is in, because she feels that Western media and society tends to shift the focus of the larger issue at hand: ecocide and genocide. Ecocide is the destruction of a land and ecosystems.Issa’s collection of Poppy Paintings will be on display at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis in September on a reworked larger scale.“The acts of war associated with Ecocide also include the use of arms of mass destruction (nuclear, biological or chemical), attempts to provoke natural disasters (volcanic eruptions, earthquakes or floods), the military use of defoliants and explosives, the leveling of forests, attempts at climate modification and the forced, permanent displacement of species for military objectives.” — Nathalie de Pompignan, 2007The Palestinian plight is not only the genocide of the people but also the ecocide of the land, and not exclusively for Palestinians but all lands that are war torn. The genocide has included a systemic destruction of Palestine’s ecology and agricultural landscape, to prevent abundant life from existing there. Over 40% of the agricultural land previously used for food production and a third of the region’s greenhouses have been intentionally destroyed.What does anti-nationalism mean?Anti-nationalism is the opposition to nationalism or to the interests of a specific nation. Are you loyal to a government entity or are you loyal to humanity?Why are you anti-flag?“Flags tend to hold a lot of history of politics and bureaucracy that many people don’t always agree with. So if they want to distance themselves from the conflicts that a specific government has inflicted, it’s important to find ways to unite a people apart from the imperialist structure. Flags are so quick to create division amongst people, in my experience of showing up to demonstrations, it was beautiful to witness the variety of things people were able to identify with and still stand 10 toes down next to each other. I believe it doesn’t require a flag to do so.”What symbolizes Falasteen to you outside of the flag?My ancestors, the fertile land, aromatic jasmines, the seductive bougainvilleas that spread over railings and fences. Any and all of its beauty that emboldens nostalgia and purity."
}
,
"relatedposts": [
{
"title" : "Miu Miu Transforms the Apron From Trad Wife to Boss Lady: The sexiest thing in Paris was a work garment",
"author" : "Khaoula Ghanem",
"category" : "",
"url" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/readings/miu-miu-transforms-the-apron-from-trad-wife-to-boss-lady",
"date" : "2025-10-14 13:05:00 -0400",
"img" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/uploads/Cover_EIP_MiuMiu_Apron.jpg",
"excerpt" : "Miuccia Prada has a habit of taking the least “fashion” thing in the room and making it the argument. For Spring 2026 at Miu Miu, the argument is the apron; staged not as a coy retro flourish but as a total system. The show’s mise-en-scène read like a canteen or factory floor with melamine-like tables, rationalist severity, a whiff of cleaning fluid. In other words, a runway designed to force a conversation about labor before any sparkle could distract us.",
"content" : "Miuccia Prada has a habit of taking the least “fashion” thing in the room and making it the argument. For Spring 2026 at Miu Miu, the argument is the apron; staged not as a coy retro flourish but as a total system. The show’s mise-en-scène read like a canteen or factory floor with melamine-like tables, rationalist severity, a whiff of cleaning fluid. In other words, a runway designed to force a conversation about labor before any sparkle could distract us.From the opening look—German actress Sandra Hüller in a utilitarian deep-blue apron layered over a barn jacket and neat blue shirting—the thesis was loud: the “cover” becomes the thing itself. As silhouettes marched on, aprons multiplied and mutated—industrial drill cotton with front pockets, raw canvas, taffeta and cloqué silk, lace-edged versions that flirted with lingerie, even black leather and crystal-studded incarnations that reframed function as ornament. What the apron traditionally shields (clothes, bodies, “the good dress”) was inverted; the protection became the prized surface. Prada herself spelled it out: “The apron is my favorite piece of clothing… it symbolizes women, from factories through to serving to the home.”Miu Miu Spring 2026 Ready-to-Wear. SuppliedThis inversion matters historically. The apron’s earliest fashion-adjacent life was industrial. It served as a barrier against grease, heat, stain. It was a token of paid and unpaid care. Miu Miu tapped that lineage directly (canvas, work belts, D-ring hardware), then sliced it against domestic codes (florals, ruffles, crochet), and finally pushed into nightlife with bejeweled and leather bibs. The garment’s migration across materials made its social migrations visible. It is a kitchen apron, yes, but also one for labs, hospitals, and factories; the set and styling insisted on that plurality.What makes the apron such a loaded emblem is not just what it covers, but what it reveals about who has always been working. Before industrialization formalized labor into factory shifts and wages, women were already performing invisible labour, the kind that doesn’t exist on payrolls but sits at the foundation of every functioning society. They were cooking, cleaning, raising children, nursing the ill. These tasks were foundational to every economy and yet absent from every ledger. Even when women entered the industrial workforce, from textile plants to wartime assembly lines, their domestic responsibilities did not disappear, they doubled. In that context, the apron here is a quiet manifesto for the strength that goes unrecorded, unthanked, and yet keeps civilization running.The algorithmic rise of the “tradwife,” the influencer economy that packages domesticity as soft power, is the contemporary cultural shadow here. Miu Miu’s apron refuses that rehearsal. In fact, it’s intentionally awkward—oversized, undone, worn over bikinis or with sturdy shoes—so the viewer can’t flatten it into Pinterest-ready nostalgia. Critics noted the collection as a reclamation, a rebuttal to the flattening forces of the feed: the apron as a uniform for endurance rather than submission. The show notes framed it simply as “a consideration of the work of women,” a reminder that the invisible economies of effort—paid, unpaid, emotional—still structure daily life.If that sounds unusually explicit for a luxury runway, consider the designer. Prada trained as a mime at Milan’s Piccolo Teatro, earned a PhD in political science, joined the Italian Communist Party, and was active in the women’s rights movement in 1970s Milan. Those facts are not trivia; they are the grammar of her clothes. Decades of “ugly chic” were, essentially, a slow campaign against easy consumption and default beauty. In 2026, the apron becomes the newest dialect. An emblem drawn from leftist feminist history, recoded into a product that still has to sell. That tension—belief versus business—is the Miuccia paradox, and it’s precisely why these aprons read as statements, not trends.The runway narrative traced a journey from function to fetish. Early looks were squarely utilitarian—thick cottons, pocketed bibs—before migrating toward fragility and sparkle. Lace aprons laid transparently over swimmers; crystal-studded aprons slipped across cocktail territory; leather apron-dresses stiffened posture into armor. The sequencing proposed the same silhouette can encode labor, intimacy, and spectacle depending on fabrication. If most brands smuggle “workwear” in as set dressing, Miu Miu forced it onto the body as the central garment and an unmissable reminder that the feminine is often asked to be both shield and display at once.It’s instructive to read this collection against the house’s last mega-viral object: the micro-mini of Spring 2022, a pleated, raw-hem wafer that colonized timelines and magazine covers. That skirt’s thesis was exposure—hip bones and hemlines as post-lockdown spectacle, Y2K nostalgia framed as liberation-lite. The apron, ironically, covers. Where the micro-mini trafficked in the optics of freedom (and the speed of virality), the apron asks about the conditions that make freedom possible: who launders, who cooks, who cares? To move from “look at me” to “who is working here?” is a pivot from optics to ethics, without abandoning desire. (The aprons are, after all, deeply covetable.) In a platform economy that still rewards the shortest hemline with the biggest click-through, this is a sophisticated counter-program.Yet the designer is not romanticizing toil. There’s wit in the ruffles and perversity in the crystals; neither negate labor, they metabolize it. The most striking image is the apron treated as couture-adjacent. Traditionally, an apron protects the precious thing beneath; here, the apron is the precious thing. You could call that hypocrisy—luxurizing the uniform of workers. Or, strategy, insisting that the symbols of care and effort deserve visibility and investment.Of course, none of this exists in a vacuum. The “tradwife” script thrives because it is aesthetically legible and commercially scalable. It packages gender ideology as moodboard. Miu Miu counters with garments whose legibility flickers. The collection’s best looks ask viewers to reconcile tenderness with toughness, convenience with care, which is exactly the mental choreography demanded of women in every context from office to home to online.If you wanted a season-defining “It” item, you’ll still find it. The apron is poised to proliferate across fast-fashion and luxury alike. But the deeper success is structural: Miu Miu re-centered labor as an aesthetic category. That’s rarer than a viral skirt. It’s a reminder that clothes don’t merely decorate life, they describe and negotiate it. In making the apron the subject rather than the prop, Prada turned a garment of service into a platform for agency. It’s precisely the kind of cultural recursion you’d expect from a designer shaped by feminist politics, who never stopped treating fashion as an instrument of thought as much as style.The last image to hold onto is deceptively simple: a woman in an apron, neither fetishized nor infantilized, striding, hands free. Not a costume for nostalgia, not a meme for the feed, but a working uniform reframed, respected, and suddenly, undeniably beautiful. That is Miu Miu’s provocation for Spring 2026: the work behind the work, made visible at last."
}
,
{
"title" : "Honoring Indigenous Resilience",
"author" : "Water Protector Legal Collective",
"category" : "essays",
"url" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/readings/honoring-indigenous-resilience",
"date" : "2025-10-13 08:50:00 -0400",
"img" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/uploads/mni-indigenous-peoples-day.jpg",
"excerpt" : "Indigenous Peoples are not relics of the past – despite centuries of colonialism and systematic attempts at genocide and erasure, Indigenous Peoples are still here, stewarding world biodiversity, protecting land, water, and life for future generations. On this Indigenous Peoples’ Day, we uplift ongoing resistance struggles and honor the continued resilience of our relatives.",
"content" : "Indigenous Peoples are not relics of the past – despite centuries of colonialism and systematic attempts at genocide and erasure, Indigenous Peoples are still here, stewarding world biodiversity, protecting land, water, and life for future generations. On this Indigenous Peoples’ Day, we uplift ongoing resistance struggles and honor the continued resilience of our relatives.As climate disruption intensifies, Indigenous knowledge guides climate and justice movements, offering visions of futures rooted in kinship, stewardship, and collective survival.Honoring and supporting Indigenous resilience is not just a moral imperative - it’s a blueprint for a more sustainable, just future. We uplift the courage and commitment of Indigenous Peoples who safeguard the land, water, and life that sustain us all.From Standing Rock to Palestine, from Mauna Kea to the Amazon, Indigenous Peoples resist settler colonialism, land theft, and water apartheid.This #IndigenousPeoplesDay, we invite you to honor the resilience of Indigenous Peoples who, for millennia, have stewarded the land and waters, ensuring the preservation of 80% of the world’s remaining biodiversity.In a world that often sacrifices frontline communities for profit, we believe in a future where people and planet thrive together. A future built on Indigenous knowledge, sustainable practices, and the dismantling of oppressive systems that harm both human and ecological wellbeing.Together, we can build a world that is grounded in care for our communities, for the Earth, and for the generations to come.Standing Rock #MniWiconiNine years ago, the historic, Indigenous-led resistance against the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) ignited a global movement to protect sacred lands, water, and treaty rights. Over 100,000 Water Protectors gathered at Standing Rock to defend the Missouri River, a vital water source, from the threat of oil contamination.Today, DAPL still pumps 574,000 barrels of oil less than half a mile from the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation despite evidence of environmental harm. A 2024 report revealed 700 unreported frac-outs, spilling 1.4 million gallons of potentially toxic drilling fluid into Lake Oahe, the Tribe’s main water source. The legal battle to shut down the pipeline continues with an appeal that will be filed next month in the D.C. Circuit.Water is Life.standingrock.org/donatewaterprotectorlegal.orgKū Kiaʻi Mauna #ProtectMaunaKeaFor over 50 years, Kānaka Maoli (Native Hawaiians) have resisted the construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) atop Mauna Kea, a sacred mountain of immense spiritual significance now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Though kiaʻi stopped construction in 2020, TMT’s final design continues abroad and as of October 2025, there is a renewed U.S. funding push underway in Congress.The fight for Mauna Kea reflects a broader struggle for Hawaiian sovereignty, cultural preservation, and spiritual connection to the land. The struggle continues, demanding a future that respects ancestral lands and Indigenous rights. Sign the petition—1,349 signatures short of 500,000!@ProtectMaunaKea@MKea.info@PuaCaseProtect Chi’chil Biłdagoteel #SaveOakFlatChi’chil Biłdagoteel (Oak Flat) is a sacred site for the Western Apache facing destruction from a copper mine project by Resolution Copper, a joint venture between BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto, the company that destroyed Juukan Gorge, a 46,000 year-old Aboriginal sacred site in Western Australia.Oak Flat, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is vital for spiritual and cultural practices. The mine would destroy the site into a 1,100 foot deep and 2 mile wide crater. Despite court setbacks, Apache Stronghold continues to fight for the land’s protection through legal and spiritual resistance. The San Carlos Apache Tribe continues an active lawsuit on NEPA grounds to protect Oak Flat from irreversible harm.apache-stronghold.com@ProtectOakFlatDefend the Arctic #NoAmblerRoad #ANWRThe Gwich’in Nation continues to resist oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). The coastal plain, essential for caribou existence, is sacred to the Gwich’in. A 2025 law removes protections for ANWR and the Western Arctic (NPR-A), opening the door to oil drilling and resource extraction, threatening polar bears, caribou, migratory birds, and Indigenous ways of life.The Gwich’in, along with many Alaska Native nations, also oppose the construction of the Ambler Road, a proposed 211-mile industrial corridor that would cut through sacred lands and critical wildlife habitat to enable mining in the Brooks Range. Together, these extractive projects threaten to fragment one of the world’s last pristine ecosystems and accelerate climate destruction.For Arctic Indigenous Peoples, this is not only an environmental issue but a matter of cultural survival. Protecting these lands honors over 20,000 years of relationship, stewardship, and life in balance with the land and animals.@noamblerroad@native_mvmnt@defendthesacredak@defendbrooksrange@tananachiefsProtect the Great Lakes #StopLine5Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline runs beneath the Straits of Mackinac, threatening the Great Lakes’ ecosystems and water. For over a decade, Line 5 has pumped oil and natural gas through Anishinaabe territories, where Tribes including Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, have called for its decommissioning to protect the water and honor treaties. In 2024, a federal court ruled that Enbridge has trespassed since 2013, when its easements to cross Bad River lands expired and ordered Line 5 to shut down by June 2026. Over 30 Tribal Nations across the Great Lakes region united to call on the U.S. government to shut down Line 5 now.A potential spill could contaminate Lake Superior with over a million gallons of oil, devastating wild rice beds and fish central to Indigenous lifeways. Meanwhile, the proposed Great Lakes Tunnel project threatens this delicate area further. In March 2025, 6 Tribal Nations withdrew from discussions over the U.S. Army Corps’ plan to issue a permit on the heels of an executive order declaring a national energy emergency despite opposition from Tribal Nations. The struggle to stop Line 5 is ongoing.@narf@stopline5Restore Kapūkakī (Red Hill) & End Military Leases #OlaIKaWaiAfter 19,000 gallons of jet fuel leaked from the U.S. Navy’s Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility above O‘ahu’s sole-source aquifer in November 2021, contaminating the water system for nearly 100,000 residents, Hawaiʻi’s water future remains in crisis. The contamination forced the Honolulu Board of Water Supply to shut down the Hālawa shaft and two other wells indefinitely due to uncertainty about the spread of the fuel plume.Just a year later, 1,300 gallons of firefighting foam containing PFAS (forever chemicals) was spilled during a maintenance activity, solidifying the Navy’s mismanagement of the facility and deepening distrust in the military. Since its construction in 1943, the Red Hill facility has leaked between 200,000 and 2 million gallons of fuel into the delicate island ecosystem. The U.S. EPA and Department of Health are overseeing remediation efforts and decommissioning. Community calls for justice, transparency, and military accountability continue amid calls to end live fire training and military occupation of lands under 65 year, $1 leases of stolen Hawaiian kingdom government and crown lands, set to expire in 2029.sierraclubhawaii.org/redhill@SierraClubHI@OahuWaterProtectors@WCTanaka@HealaniPaleProtect Ȟe Sápa (Black Hills) #LandBackThe 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie designated the Ȟe Sápa (Black Hills) as “unceded Indian Territory” for the exclusive use of the Oceti Ŝakowiŋ (Great Sioux Nation), meant to last “as long as the grass shall grow and the rivers will flow.” However, when gold was discovered in the Black Hills, the United States broke the agreement and re-drew the treaty boundaries. In 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the 1877 act of Congress, which unilaterally seized the Black Hills, was a violation of the Fort Laramie Treaty and an unconstitutional taking under the Fifth Amendment. Despite recognizing the Black Hills as stolen land, the court’s decision has yet to result in the return of these sacred lands.The Black Hills have long suffered from the destructive impacts of mining, and threats are once again on the rise. 233,000 acres or 1 in every 5 acres in the Black Hills are currently under mining claims. These mining claims range from uranium, gold, lithium, precious metals and others. Mining and exploration activities endanger surface and groundwater safety, with past mining already polluting water through acid mine drainage and spills of toxic chemicals.bhcleanwateralliance.orgndncollective.org@BHCleanWaterAlliance@ndncollectiveProtect Water in the Southwest #WaterBackIn the Southwest, there can be no environmental justice without water. Indigenous Peoples face ongoing water insecurity from extraction, contamination, and the U.S. government’s failure to honor treaty and priority water rights.The Havasupai Tribe is fighting uranium mining near the Grand Canyon that threatens Havasupai Creek. Navajo Nation continues the fight for access to water, after the Supreme Court held in Arizona v. Navajo Nation (2023) the government has no trust obligation or affirmative duty to secure water rights for the Nation.Across New Mexico, a renewed congressional push for Tribal water settlements would secure water rights for the Navajo Nation, Jicarilla Apache Nation, and 11 Pueblo Nations. Protecting water is protecting life.@puebloactionalliance@haulno@nofalsesolutionsIndigenous Resistance to Lithium Extraction #LifeOverLithiumAs the global demand for lithium to power “green” technologies surges, this comes at the expense of Indigenous Peoples, lands and waters. In Nevada, People of Red Mountain (Atsa Koodakuh wyh Nuwu), descendants of the Fort McDermitt Paiute Shoshone Tribe are defending Peehee Mu’huh (Thacker Pass), a massacre site and sacred burial grounds, against an open-pit mine on Paiute-Shoshone lands.In the drought-stricken region of Sonora, Mexico, the Rio Yaqui Nation is fighting to protect the Yaqui river from water-intensive lithium mining under Plan Sonora. The Eight Traditional Yaqui Authorities recently submitted a petition for urgent procedures to the United Nations CERD, supported by International Indian Treaty Council and Water Protector Legal Collective. Mapuche communities are also opposing lithium extraction in the Salar de Atacama of Chile and Puna Plateau of Argentina, demanding protection of water resources in the Lithium Triangle. Water contamination from lithium extraction could last over 300 years.This, along with air pollution and carbon emissions, contradicts the supposed green benefits of lithium extraction.peopleofredmountain.com(iitc.org)(https://www.iitc.org/)@PeopleofRedMountain@M.G.McKinney@IITCIndigenous Call for Amazon No-Go Zone #DemarcationIn Brazil, while deforestation in the Amazon decreased by 7% in 2024, forest degradation surged by 497%. Indigenous leaders across the Amazon are demanding that their lands be declared “no-go zones” for extractive industries. With increasing pressure from illegal logging, mining, and agribusiness, they are calling for clear, legally recognized land demarcation.In August, the IV Indigenous Women’s March in Brasilia brought together over 7,000 Indigenous women from the seven biomes of Brazil who marched on Congress under the banner of “Nosso Corpo, Nosso Territorio” to demand demarcation and protection of Indigenous territories, seen as living extensions of Indigenous bodies. As the world gathers in Belem for COP30 in November, the call for environmental protection increases. For Indigenous Peoples, this is not just about one of the planet’s most vital ecosystems, but a matter of sovereignty and cultural survival.@ANMIGA@AmazonWatch@COIABIndigenous Resistance in Ecuador #ParoNacionalAcross Ecuador, Indigenous communities are rising to defend their ancestral lands, rivers, and way of life. Government-backed mining and extractive projects threaten sacred territories and vital water sources that sustain thousands of families. The Shuar, Cañari, and other Indigenous Peoples are standing firm despite violent repression and criminalization of their leaders. Nationwide mobilizations, led by CONAIE, highlight widespread opposition to policies that prioritize profit over life, culture, and ecology. This resistance is more than a fight against mining - it’s a fight for water, for land, and for the survival and dignity of future generations.@kichwahatari@conaieLenca Defenders Resilience in Honduras #JusticiaParaBertaProtecting Indigenous territories comes at great cost: in 2024, 146 environmental defenders were killed or disappeared worldwide. Still, Indigenous Peoples persist. In Honduras, the resilience of the Lenca people to protect their lands, water, and cultural survival from destructive projects like the Agua Zarca Dam, is a testament to the power of collective strength in the broader struggle for environmental justice despite overwhelming odds.Lenca defender Berta Cáceres, a Goldman Prize laureate and COPINH’s co-founder, was killed for her activism but her words, “Lo vamos a lograr, me lo dijo el río” (We will succeed, the river told me so) and resilience lives on in the generations of Lenca and other Indigenous defenders who continue the fight for land, water, and justice. COPINH, now led by her daughter, Berta Zuniga Cáceres, continues to advocate for the defense of natural resources, standing against corporate interests and neoliberal policies that prioritize profit over people.@COPINHFree Palestine #RivertoSeaPalestinians in Gaza and the West Bank have long endured militarized occupation, settler colonialism, land theft, and water apartheid. A permanent ceasefire is only the beginning - the need for justice, accountability for 773 days of genocide and other crimes against humanity, and the recognition of Palestinian rights to land, water, and self-determination remains.In 1948, the Nakba (“catastrophe”) resulted in the forced displacement of over 700,000 Palestinians. From October 7, 2023 to the present, over 67,000 Palestinians have been killed and UNRWA reports over 1.9 million, or 90% of Gaza’s population, have been forcibly displaced.Despite repeated attempts at erasure, the Palestinian spirit endures, resisting occupation in a centuries-old struggle for freedom and self-determination. Palestine will be free.Ancestral Resilience Shapes the FutureJoin us:The Water Protector Legal Collective (WPLC) is an Indigenous-led 501(c)(3) nonprofit law firm and advocacy organization that protects the rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Earth, and climate justice movements. Born out of the #NoDAPL movement at Standing Rock as the on-the-ground legal team for Water Protectors facing criminalization, WPLC continues to serve as a legal holding line for the Earth and front line environmental justice communities.waterprotectorlegal.org/donateSlow Factory is an environmental & social justice nonprofit organization. Since 2012, Slow Factory has worked at the intersections of climate and culture to build partnerships and community to advance climate-positive global movements through the lens of human rights, science, technology, and fashion. We redesign socially & environmentally harmful systems – we want what’s good for the Earth & good for people. Slow Factory empowers people of the global majority to advance climate justice and social equity through educational programming, regenerative design, and materials innovation.slowfactory.earth/donate"
}
,
{
"title" : "100+ Years of Genocidal Intent in Palestine",
"author" : "Collis Browne",
"category" : "essays",
"url" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/readings/100-years-of-genocidal-intent",
"date" : "2025-10-07 18:01:00 -0400",
"img" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/uploads/1920-jerusalem.jpg",
"excerpt" : "Every single Israeli prime minister, president, and major Zionist leader has voiced clear intent to erase the Palestinian people from their lands, either by forced expulsion, or military violence. From Herzl and Chaim Weizmann to Ben-Gurion to Netanyahu, the record is not ambiguous:",
"content" : "Every single Israeli prime minister, president, and major Zionist leader has voiced clear intent to erase the Palestinian people from their lands, either by forced expulsion, or military violence. From Herzl and Chaim Weizmann to Ben-Gurion to Netanyahu, the record is not ambiguous:{% for person in site.data.genocidalquotes %}{{ person.name }}{% if person.title %}<p class=\"title-xs\">{{ person.title }}</p>{% endif %}{% for quote in person.quotes %}“{{ quote.text }}”{% if quote.source %}— {{ quote.source }}{% endif %}{% endfor %}{% endfor %}"
}
]
}