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Indybay Feature

The Fires in Gaza Are the Fires in Los Angeles

by Aaron Kirshenbaum
Greta Thunberg should not “take off her keffiyeh” to talk about the fires. The only way to fight the fires is through the understanding that should come with wearing one.
Swedish activist Greta Thunberg
𝗦𝘄𝗲𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗵 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗶𝘀𝘁 𝗚𝗿𝗲𝘁𝗮 𝗧𝗵𝘂𝗻𝗯𝗲𝗿𝗴 𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗱𝘀 𝗮 𝘀𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗱𝗮𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗣𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗼𝗻 𝗗𝗲𝗰𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝟬𝟲, 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟰 𝗶𝗻 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗺, 𝗚𝗲𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗻𝘆. 𝗧𝗵𝘂𝗻𝗯𝗲𝗿𝗴, 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝗮 𝗰𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗳𝗶𝗴𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗴𝗹𝗼𝗯𝗮𝗹 𝗺𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗻 𝗰𝗹𝗶𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲, 𝗵𝗮𝘀 𝗯𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝗼𝘂𝘁𝘀𝗽𝗼𝗸𝗲𝗻 𝗶𝗻 𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝘀𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗣𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗜𝘀𝗿𝗮𝗲𝗹𝗶 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗮𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝗚𝗮𝘇𝗮 𝗶𝗻 𝗢𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟯. (𝗣𝗵𝗼𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝘆 𝗧𝗵𝗼𝗺𝗮𝘀 𝗟𝗼𝗵𝗻𝗲𝘀/𝗚𝗲𝘁𝘁𝘆 𝗜𝗺𝗮𝗴𝗲𝘀)

Our endless wars have pushed forward the climate crisis, and now its catastrophic results are once again terrifyingly visible inside the belly of the beast.

Earlier on Wednesday, January 8th, I saw a prominent Zionist commentator and Twitter/X User post, “Has Greta Thunberg taken her keffiyeh off to address the fires in LA yet or are there too many Jews living here for her to be concerned?” The weird implications about a mythical antisemitic malice that climate activist Greta Thunberg has to supposedly fuel her anti-genocide and ecocide beliefs aside, the post is equally embarrassing in its lack of understanding about the exacerbators of Los Angeles’ most destructive fires in the metropolitan area’s history.

Sadly, the disconnect that this post showcases is representative of many people and institutions, not only in explicitly pro-Israel spaces but also in the environmental movement. The US military is the #1 institutional polluter in the world. Cities across the country have been sacrificed by the local and federal prioritization of militarism and policing. Our endless wars have pushed forward the climate crisis, and now its catastrophic results are once again terrifyingly visible inside the belly of the beast.

For decades, the military-industrial complex has been destroying ecosystems, cities, and nations across the SWANA region for the sake of dominance in the oil industry. For 15 months, the US-Israeli bombing unleashed on Gaza has released insane amounts of fossil fuel into the atmosphere while poisoning the soil with each shell. Israel recently detonated an “earthquake bomb,” which some reports have suggested could have been possibly nuclear. The genocide in Gaza has devastated the ecosystem and will make agricultural survival in any eventual rebuilding effort extremely difficult. The war in Ukraine has resulted in explosions of the Nordstream pipeline. Bases around the world, expanded for meaningless escalation with China, have resulted in soil contaminated with toxic PFAS chemicals, harming the soil. Biodiversity is at risk globally.

Forest fires are a natural part of California’s ecosystem. They are needed to survive. The long-time development in inevitable natural burn zones, combined with the suppression of these natural cycles for the sake of billionaire Malibu homes, has not helped this situation at all. This disregard for a balanced ecosystem has historically and continuously come at the expense of middle and working-class neighborhoods in LA vulnerable to preventable fires. The threat to LA is only further magnified by the extra dry air and almost 100mph wind speeds created by the war economy’s climate crisis.

This local neglect of the natural environment comes from a similar place as the Jewish National Fund’s planting of non-native pine trees across Palestine, often above bulldozed Palestinian villages, at the expense of crucial biodiversity. In both instances, the interests of the war economy that prioritizes those in power are what remain above respect for Indigenous caretaking practices and life. And the results in both cases are catastrophic. Amidst a world that has gone through imperialist ecocidal war for decades, the world’s biodiversity, much of which is in sovereign Indigenous land, has been decimated.

This climate-sacrificial militarism isn’t just on the international stage either. In Atlanta, the proposed “Cop City” police training facility is supposed to be built on the Weelaunee Forest: sacred indigenous land also described as the “lungs” of the city. Not only does the forest provide crucial air quality, but it also acts as flooding protection. Recently, Appalachia and Atlanta suffered extreme flooding. Cop City will only make this worse as the forest is destroyed. Those prioritizing these military training facilities and exchange programs with Israeli Occupation Forces are doing so at the expense of the city itself. LA’s Mayor, Karen Bass, recently proposed allocating an extra $123 million to the police while cutting the budget of the fire department by $23 million. Now, the city is burning uncontrollably, and the fire department can only attempt to save residents.

This was avoidable. The flooding in Appalachia is avoidable. Future devastating flooding in a post-cop city Atlanta, NYC, and the entire coastal region is avoidable. Did anyone really think that we could continue to wage ecocide across the world without it coming back to us? Or prioritize militarism at home that trains with our genocidal proxy above human services? The fires in Gaza are the fires in LA. They are brought about by the same institutions and are fixable through overlapping measures. The former was intentional, and the latter is a ricochet. Both are devastating, heartbreaking, terrifying, and infuriating.

Climate organizations are warning about what the fires in LA represent. Some amount of federal funding left over from our shiny new nearly $1 trillion military budget will be allocated to helping the people of L.A. But the same organizations releasing these statements and the same politicians allocating emergency funds are the ones fanning the flames. Either by the silence that deliberately or neglectfully hides the crisis or warmongering that actively drives it further.

So no, Greta Thunberg should not “take off her keffiyeh” to talk about the fires. The only way to fight the fires is through the understanding that should come with wearing one.
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