The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has recently stirred controversy by awarding a substantial grant to the Climate Justice Alliance (CJA), an organization that has accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza and advocated for an end to American economic and military aid to Israel. According to Fox News, this grant is valued at around $50 million. The decision has ignited a firestorm of criticism, with a senator vocally opposing the allocation of funds to an organization with pronounced anti-Israel views.
CJA has called upon U.S. President Joe Biden and Congress to enforce an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, arguing that American taxpayers are inadvertently financing what they describe as genocide. The organization declared, "We stand for peace and support the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, decolonization, and life."
For years, according to CJA, Palestinians have endured polluted air and consumed food grown in bomb-ravaged soil. They have characterized Israel's retaliatory strikes on Gaza, following the October 7 massacre by the Hamas terrorist organization, as "genocidal attacks" targeting civilians.
In a video on their website, a CJA representative asserted, "The path to climate justice passes through the liberation of Palestine. Both issues reflect the roots of the crisis we are all in... Let's learn from Palestinian resistance... As we work to liberate Palestine, Palestine liberates us."
The group's website also offers downloadable Palestinian protest art, including slogans like "from the river to the sea," widely recognized as anti-Semitic. While the U.S. House of Representatives declared this phrase anti-Semitic in April, the declaration has no binding effect.
Senator Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia publicly condemned the grants during a recent press conference, even displaying some of the protest art from CJA's website. The art includes images of the border fence invasion into Israel, symbolized by a bulldozer—a grim reminder of the terrorists who breached this barrier to massacre civilians in kibbutzim and at the Nova music festival.
Fox News highlighted the timing of the EPA's grant decision, which came just months after the October 7 massacre when Hamas launched an all-out war against Israel. This conflict led to significant Israeli attacks on terror targets in Gaza, causing considerable civilian casualties due to Hamas's proximity to civilian areas.
Attorney Tami Ganot, Deputy Director of Israel Union for Environmental Defense, weighed in. "Climate justice is a fundamental value, but since October 7, we can see organizations and individuals distorting the term and using it as political green-wash, intended to provide an easily digestible cover for supporting terror and opposing the very existence of Israel.
"This is a double-edged sword that not only supports organizations with an agenda unrelated to the environment but also directly harms the environment and climate due to the superficial political coloring of the issue. It is particularly unfortunate because in these difficult days, the fight against the climate crisis could and should have been a unifying factor that brings real hope for days of peace and tranquility," he said.