SJP-ISU protests the troubling effects of war: ‘War is not separate from the climate’
Students for Justice in Palestine at Illinois State University (SJP-ISU) held an “Ecocide in Palestine” protest Tuesday to raise awareness about how the war in Palestine contributes to the climate change crisis. As students walked through the Bone Student Center, March, SJP-ISU’s outreach and organization chair, shared excerpts from Andreas Malm’s climate activism book, “How to Blow Up a Pipeline.” March said that Hurricane Katrina and the Flint, Michigan water crisis represent the dangerous cycle happening throughout much of the world. “It’s just a cycle that keeps repeating itself,” March said. The discussion was then brought back to Palestine and how damaging the war is to the planet. “War is not separate from the climate and it never has been,” March said. According to SJP-ISU’s Instagram, the United States’ military is currently ranked as the top institutional polluter in the world. “The destruction and contamination of the agricultural land, air quality, water supplies and native wildlife in Gaza is a deliberate act of ecocide,” the post read. Several students supported the protesters as they walked by. A renewable energy student shared the importance of supporting a cause like this one. “It can be very isolating [for people] to just sit on their phones and read everything that’s horrible in the world and think, ‘Well, nobody cares,’ or ‘I’m special because I care and everyone else is dumb,’ but they have to get out there and let themselves be a person,” the attendee said. March emphasized the power of community and its role in activism. “It’s really important, especially now, to understand that action is possible and it’s possible in [our] communities,” March said. “We’ve seen how the federal government has worked to suppress protests, especially pro-Palestinian protests, and it’s largely been an intimidation tactic to get people to stop showing up for their communities.” March hoped that the protest would encourage others to support SJP-ISU’s message and similar advocacy efforts. “When [we] see our community stand up for something, we recognize that there is something to stand up for, and I think that is really important for kicking people out of their complacency and realizing that they can be fighting for something too,” March said.
