Ecocide: Israel and America’s War on the Environment in the Middle East

The ongoing war in the Middle East has seen America and Israel indulge not just in gross violations of human rights but also in wanton violations of the rights of Mother Nature.

In this context, the expressions of environmental law are found in several conventions, which are binding on countries. Some important environmental conventions in this regard include the Vienna Convention, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (CCD), among others.

However, an important element of environmental law that is gaining increasing significance in recent years is the idea of ecocide. A term coined by the Yale University academic Arthur W. Galston in the context of the devastating actions of Agent Orange in Vietnam, “ecocide” refers to individuals, groups, communities, or nations indulging in egregious activities, both during peacetime and wartime, that end up doing irreparable damage to the environment.

Violation........

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