Keffiyehs and raised fists: more than a hundred people protested Sunday against Israel’s shelling of the Gaza Strip during the UN climate conference in Dubai, a demonstration subject to strict restrictions imposed by the Nations united.
Prohibited from brandishing Palestinian flags or chanting certain slogans, demonstrators demanded a ceasefire in Gaza in the “blue zone” of COP28, a space managed by the world organization and not by local authorities.
“We are telling the Palestinian people that the international community may have forgotten them, but they are not alone,” Asad Rehman, spokesperson for the Climate Justice Coalition, said at the rally.
The UAE bans protests and speech deemed likely to create or encourage social unrest.
But this time, strict UN rules prevailed, prohibiting the naming of states, leaders or companies in activist actions on the COP site.
“Liberate Palestine,” Mr. Rehman told the demonstrators, who resumed chanting his words before being asked to be silent.
A watermelon as a flag
Since the start of climate negotiations four days ago, the COP has become for some a major climate-diplomatic meeting, around the deadly war between Israel and Hamas, triggered on October 7 by an attack without precedent of the Palestinian Islamist movement in power in Gaza on Israeli soil.
The organizers of Sunday’s rally had to apply for permits to demonstrate and have banners, slogans and chants approved, some of which were banned by the United Nations.
“We were not allowed to name states or wave flags [palestiniens] », Confirms Abderraouf Ben Mohamed, from the organization Debt for Climate.
Some demonstrators therefore chose instead to display the watermelon symbol, used to evoke the colors of the Palestinian flag and pro-Palestinian commitment.
Damian Godzisz, a member of the United Arab Emirates team for COP28, says he was asked to remove a Palestinian flag and a keffiyeh attached to his bag during the security check in the “blue zone”.
He deplores that “while other nations can display their national dress” at the COP, “the Palestinian flag and the keffiyeh are subject to restrictions”.
“Killed in cold blood”
According to Israel, 1,200 people were killed in the Hamas attack. In retaliation, the Israeli army carried out air and ground operations in the Gaza Strip, which left more than 15,500 dead, according to the Palestinian Islamist movement’s Ministry of Health.
The war affected the arrival of the Palestinian Authority delegation, which opened its very first pavilion at the COP.
Only ten representatives managed to join the event, Hadeel Ikhmais, climatology expert with the Palestinian Authority, which sits in the occupied West Bank, told AFP.
“It was very difficult for us to come here and until the last minute we reconsidered our participation,” says Mme Ikhmais, who had to undertake a journey of almost eleven hours, slowed by his passage through checkpoints, from his home in Bethlehem to Jordan to take a flight to Dubai.
“What does climate justice mean, what does international law mean, when Palestinians are being killed in cold blood and the world just watches? », she asks.
“Suffering of the Israelis”
On the Israeli pavilion side, the faces of Hamas hostages are displayed next to a large banner proclaiming: “Bring them home now”.
According to Israel, of the 240 people kidnapped on October 7 by Hamas, 137 remain detained after the releases, in exchange for those of Palestinian detainees, which took place during a seven-day truce which ended on October 1er December.
Maya Kadosh, Israel’s national coordinator for COP28, says she senses bias among activists attending the conference.
“I would like them to understand the suffering of the Israelis,” she confided to AFP, believing that “if people really want to help liberate […] the people of Palestine, they should help them to free themselves from Hamas.”
Israel had planned a representation of 1,000 people at COP28, but the war reduced this figure to around a hundred, including around thirty members of the government delegation.