We, the undersigned gardeners, horticulturists and land workers based in the UK, are speaking out to demand an end to the violence across Palestine. We are adding our voices to those of many groups, from human rights organisations to arts collectives, in calling for an immediate ceasefire to prevent further catastrophic loss of life. All life is sacred and we condemn the killing of Palestinian and Israeli civilians.
We are witnessing intolerable human suffering. Gaza has been under siege for 16 years. In the past six weeks alone, over 11,000 Palestinians have been killed, two thirds of them women and children; hospitals can no longer function; Gaza is still under siege. The indiscriminate and disproportionate bombing and deliberate killing of civilians is a violation of international law.
Human rights groups have long condemned Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian Territories and the inhumane system of racial domination over Palestinians at the hands of the Israeli state, a system that amounts to apartheid. The current situation in Gaza has been described by both Israeli historian Raz Segal and former director of the New York office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Craig Mokhiber, as a ‘textbook case of genocide’. The state of Israel is committing grave crimes against humanity, and our own government – and opposition – are complicit.
Israeli offensives in Gaza and the West Bank have targeted Palestinian agriculture. Some 100,000 Palestinian families that depend on olive production in Gaza are unable to harvest their produce. In addition to the vast infrastructure of the occupation which severely limits Palestinian access to their lands, Palestinians have been murdered by Israeli settlers while working on their land in the occupied West Bank.
Environmental destruction has long been an intentional tactic used by Israel to subjugate Palestinians, erasing their history and culture and destroying their livelihoods. This has included planting monoculture forests of pines over Palestinian villages destroyed in the Nakba (catastrophe) of 1948, in order to prevent their expelled inhabitants from returning; the ongoing uprooting of more than 800,000 olive trees since 1967; and spraying buffer zones with herbicides that drift and destroy Palestinian crops and poison Palestinian lands.
As growers – people who tend to plants and the soil, who feel a close kinship with our non-human siblings as well as our human ones – we are called to act in solidarity with our Palestinian counterparts, rooted in our shared love for the natural world and our role as stewards within it. We stand with all people in support of their right to food and to grow in safety. We stand in solidarity with the people of Palestine and their struggle for freedom and self-determination. We stand for equality, justice and liberation for all Palestinians and Israelis.
We call for:
➔ A ceasefire now
➔ Unimpeded admission of humanitarian aid
➔ The release of all hostages and captives
➔ An end to the siege
➔ An end to apartheid
➔ An end to illegal occupation
Below are a few things you can do now to take action:
Share this statement on social media
Donate to Medical Aid for Palestinians
Email your MP to demand a ceasefire now
Familiarise yourself with the Palestinian-led BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement
Signed:
Alice Vincent – Writer
Alison Jenkins – Damson Farm
Alys Fowler – Writer
Ashley Edwards – Gardener/Garden Therapist
Ashley McCormick
Benny Hawksbee – Gardener
Brett Shergold – The Country Crib Somerset
Carmen Sheridan – Cultural Gardener
Charlie Harpur – Head Gardener
Charlotte Harris – Garden Designer
Cel Robertson – Cut Flower Grower, Forever Green Flower Company
Claire Ratinon – Food Grower and Writer
Cleve West
Colin Stewart – Gardener
Daniel Hubbard – Gardener and Horticulture Tutor
Eva Nemeth – Garden Photographer
George Hudson
Georgie Johnson – Horticultural Trainee
Giada Francois – Garden Designer
Huw Morgan – Dan Pearson Studio
James Fenneberg – Garden Designer
James Horner – Gardener
Jo Kamal – Food Grower
Jo McKerr – Gardener and Writer
Johnny Warner – Gardener
Jonny Bruce – Gardener
Joshua Chalmers – Gardener
Katelyn Reeves – Gardener, inatinygarden
King-Wey Hii – Florist
Luigi Leoni – Team Leader of Glasshouse and Nursery
Manoj Malde – Garden Designer
Marchelle Farrell
Matthew Wright – Gardener
Michael Wachter – Gardener
Mothin Ali – My Family Garden
Naomi Seydel Zaragoza
Oli Haden – Head Gardener, Walworth Garden
Poppy Okotcha – Community Food Grower, Garden Writer and Influencer
Ralph Bourdoukan – Garden Designer, Ralph Bourdoukan Studio
Ros Ball – Gardener, Writer
Rosie Nottage – Garden Designer
Sara Venn – Edible Bristol
Shama Khanna – Curator and Grower, Flatness.eu
Shaun Blower – Great Dixter Nursery
Stephen Comer – The Country Crib Somerset
Stuart Fenwick – Bria Studio
Sui Searle – Gardener, Writer, Radicle newsletter
Susanna Grant – Gardener, Writer
Tom Eaglestone – Eaglestone Gardens
Zena Alkayat – Bloom magazine
I fully support this. It’s great to see a sector coming together, I hope to see more solidarity across different work and interest areas contributing to the resistance to the brutality and damage to humans and land.