We condemn Sierra Club’s upcoming trips to Apartheid Israel
We condemn Sierra Club’s upcoming trips to apartheid Israel that green light Israeli colonialism and harm Indigenous Palestinians. Sierra Club is set to announce two 2023 trips on Friday, August 12.
To live up to its professed commitments to anti-racism and environmental justice, Sierra Club must cancel these apartheid tours.
In February, we demanded Sierra Club cancel Israel outings greenwashing Israeli colonization and its disastrous impact on the Palestinian people and their land. Sierra Club canceled two trips but backtracked after pressure from racist anti-Palestinian groups.
Sierra Club’s planned “new” trips to Palestine still depend on Zionist consultants and trip leaders but include a token nod to Palestinians through a Bethlehem visit with a Palestinian guide. Israel is no environmentally friendly haven. While Israel continues bombing Gaza, pollutes water resources, burns olive trees, and prevents Palestinians from access to their land, there is no gray area.
Also tomorrow, the House votes on the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), legislation Sierra Club fully supports. The IRA features a Biden Administration plan to “solve the climate crisis” through sacrifice zones, areas where significant pollution and toxicity are permitted to keep other areas clean. The communities living in these sacrifice zones are the Indigenous, Black, and poor, who have historically faced systematic oppression and environmental racism under US domination.
Sierra Club claims to be an anti-racist organization seeking justice, but there can be no environmental justice without Indigenous sovereignty and Indigenous people leading the way.
TAKE ACTION
Tell Sierra Club they must cancel their apartheid tours that greenwash Israeli colonialism.
Make a comment on their latest Instagram posts or tweet at them. We’ve created some sample posts for you, but feel free to get creative.
Sample tweets and IG comments:
Hey @sierraclub, your apartheid tours of Israel are still greenwashing trips. Real environmental justice means no to the normalization of Israeli colonialism and colonialism everywhere. bit.ly/RacistSierraClub
You can’t hide your racism by tokenizing a Palestinian travel agent. No to greenwashing Israeli colonialism, @sierraclub.
We demand that @sierraclub cancel its unaccountable trips to Palestine.
We say no to sacrificing Indigenous, Black, Palestinian, and poor families’ futures, @sierraclub.
.@sierraclub continues perfunctory land acknowledgments while they erase Palestinian presence on their land
.@sierraclub claims to be an anti-racist organization seeking justice, but there can be no environmental justice without Indigenous sovereignty and Indigenous people leading the way. #Palestine #TurtleIsland
There are no dual narratives between right and wrong. Israel is an occupying power stealing Palestinian land. The narrative of “two sides” erases the violence of settler colonialism. @sierraclub has chosen the side of injustice and apartheid.
Indigenous peoples from Turtle Island to Palestine demand land back. @sierraclub supports our continued oppression by upholding Israeli colonialism and sacrifice zones that ultimately kill vulnerable communities as part of the Inflation Reduction Act.
here is more you can do
Post these graphics (click to access files) on social media with your own message. Make sure to tag @sierraclub
