Vegans for Palestine Podcast - Episode 20 - Gaza’s Animals & Nature: Crushed Amid Genocide–Ecocide

Rimona Afana, a Romanian–Palestinian researcher, activist, and multimedia artist, talks to Dalal about the forgotten victims of the atrocities in Gaza: animals and nature. Rimona discusses the continuities between genocide and ecocide in Gaza, including: toxicity from explosives and destroyed infrastructure; water pollution and scarcity; damage to plants and soil; greenhouse gas emissions from war, pre-war, post-war activities; and lasting ties between mass atrocity and epigenetics. Moving to direct harms to animals, she shows how millions of animals have been killed, injured, maimed, starved, displaced, looted; how some animals have been weaponized, turned into both combatants and victims; and how human and nonhuman rights remain decoupled for many Israelis. Finally, she addresses the paralysis of international law and of accountability fora, and our role in confronting impunity and outsourcing, key features of crimes in Palestine.A captioned version of this episode for Deaf and Hard of Hearing people is available here https://youtu.be/DGMGo3CEouUEmail: [email protected] LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/rimonaafana Facebook (work): www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61582808854096Facebook (personal profile): www.facebook.com/rim.rmn Instagram (work): www.instagram.com/rimona.afanaInstagram (personal): www.instagram.com/rim.on.a Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/rimona-afana.bsky.socialX: https://x.com/rimona_afanaMy Ecocide/Speciesism project: www.facebook.com/ecocide.speciesismORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-0871-3530Find here a list of Rimona's recent publications on human and nonhuman rights.Israel’s infamous weapons producers continue profiting from genocide/ecocide, exporting advanced technologies of murder, destruction, and surveillance as “field-tested”. Read more here.The audio clip in this episode discussing veganwashing, pinkwashing and greenwashing is created by Jenan Matari. Matari is a Palestinian storyteller and content creator dedicated to amplifying Indigenous Palestinian voices. Through her children’s books, social media work and advocacy, she highlights Palestinian heritage, experiences of displacement, and the wider struggles of Indigenous communities.The music featured in this episode is "Nijmet el-subh" by Sanaa Moussa (watch here).Sanaa Mousa is a Palestinian singer known for preserving and revitalising traditional Palestinian folk music. She researches and performs songs rooted in women’s histories, rural life, and the cultural memory of Palestine. Her work centres cultural revival and resistance through art. She’s from Deir al-Asad, a village in the Galilee, Palestine.The Vegans for Palestine Podcast Team would like to thank Rimona for sharing her expertise in clearly articulating the devastating impact of the Israeli genocide - ecocide of non-human animals and nature across the Gaza Strip. From the River to the Sea.Send us Fan Mail