Social Movements

Doctors Without Borders (DWB) vehemently condemns the Israeli attack in Al-Mawasi, Khan Younis, Gaza, which killed two relatives of an DWB staff member. Six other people were injured in the attack.

Late Tuesday night (20/02), Israeli forces conducted a military operation in Al-Mawasi, located on the coast of Gaza, during which an Israeli tank fired at a house housing DWB professionals and their relatives. The attack killed the daughter-in-law and wife of one of our colleagues and injured six people, five of whom are women or children. The shots were fired at a building clearly identified as belonging to MSF, hitting the front gate, the exterior of the building, and the interior of the ground floor.

Ambulance teams were prevented from leaving for over two hours due to the bombardment in the area. Later, professionals managed to reach the site and take the wounded, some with burns, to the International Medical Corps Field Hospital in Rafah.

“We are outraged and deeply saddened by these deaths,” laments Meinie Nicolai, General Director of DWB, who currently coordinates our medical activities in Gaza. “On the same day that the United States chose to veto an immediate ceasefire, two daughters saw their mother and sister-in-law killed by a projectile from an Israeli tank.”

Doctors Without Borders Warns, "Nowhere in Gaza Is Safe"

“These deaths underscore the grim reality that nowhere in Gaza is safe, that promises of safe areas are empty, and conflict resolution mechanisms are unreliable,” emphasizes Nicolai. “The amount of force used in densely populated urban environments is staggering, and attacking a building knowing it's filled with humanitarian professionals and their families is unconscionable.”

At the time of the attack, 64 people were sheltered in the house. All parties involved in the war, including Israeli forces, are regularly informed of the location and are aware of the presence of DWB teams in specific locations. Israeli forces were clearly informed of the precise location of this DWB shelter in Al-Mawasi. Additionally, a two-by-three-meter DWB flag was hanging outside the building. No evacuation order was issued by Israeli forces before the attack. We have contacted Israeli authorities and are seeking more information.

Some of our colleagues and their relatives who lived in the MSF shelter before the attack in Al-Mawasi had already survived the January 8 attack on another DWB shelter in Rafah, which killed a 5-year-old daughter of an MSF staff member.

This once again demonstrates that Israeli forces are not ensuring the safety of civilians in their military operations and shows a complete disregard for human life and disrespect for the medical mission. This scenario makes it nearly impossible to sustain medical humanitarian activities in Gaza.

DWB teams are supporting our colleagues and their surviving relatives from yesterday's attack, as well as the loved ones of those who were killed.

Four DWB professionals have been killed since the beginning of the escalation of the war, along with several relatives.

We reiterate our call for an immediate and sustained ceasefire in Gaza. Violence against civilians must end now.

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Text and Photo are a reproduction from Doctors Without Borders

Greenpeace activists stage the delivery of the Golden Chainsaw Award Edition 2021 to the President of the Chamber of Deputies, Arthur Lira (PP-AL) Photo: Adriano Machado / Greenpeace

This Tuesday morning, August 17, we held a peaceful protest in front of the entrance to the Chamber of Deputies, in Brasília, staging the delivery of the Golden Chainsaw Trophy Edition 2021 to the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Arthur Lira (PP-AL ).

With a production inspired by the Oscar awards, with a red carpet, guests dressed in galas and a master of ceremonies, the activity aimed to denounce the destructive herd that Arthur Lira has been experiencing in the Chamber, by putting to vote bills that threaten the Amazon and other natural environments, the peoples of the forest, the countryside and the city and the global climate.

See Green Peace's instagram coverage

In the reenactment, Greenpeace activists dressed as party guests awaited the big winner. A man characterized as Arthur Lira got out of a luxury car, wearing his badge of “employee of the month of the Bolsonaro (dis)government” around his neck.

“Arthur Lira is now President Jair Bolsonaro's number one official, as he has put to the vote a series of bills that go against the interests of the Brazilian population and that pray for the federal government's anti-environment booklet, and will further increase rates deforestation and fires, in addition to encouraging more theft of public lands and violence against traditional and rural populations,” says Thais Bannwart, Public Policy spokesperson for Greenpeace Brasil.

As president of the Chamber, Lira is the one who has the power to put to the vote or block proposals that are harmful to the environment and people. But, in less than six months in office, Lira has chosen to guide bills that represent a giant step backwards when it comes to environmental protection, such as the (non) Environmental Licensing PL and the Grilagem PL, and promises to advance against indigenous peoples and release more pesticides in the coming weeks.

National Congress closed under lock and key

The activist representing Arthur Lira was also holding a set of keys, which in the reenactment symbolized that the National Congress is “locked in with seven keys” to society.

"Arthur Lira takes advantage of the period of social distancing due to Covid-19, in which the National Congress is restricted to the circulation of people and votes are taking place in a semi-attendance system, to act in an undemocratic manner, guiding and approving projects without proper participation society and without transparency in voting”, says Thais.

However, Arthur Lira should set aside proposals that threaten the collective well-being and the Brazilian economy and focus on solutions to contain the political, economic and health crisis in the country.

A week ago, the United Nations (UN) released the report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which warns about the climate emergency we are experiencing and reveals that human influence is responsible for a rise of 1.07°C in global temperature. Brazil plays a fundamental role in facing the climate crisis and deforestation in the Amazon, which continues to break records month after month, is the main source of greenhouse gas emissions in the country. That is why it is essential that we achieve zero deforestation with laws to curb human action in environmental destruction.

Golden Chainsaw is a trophy given by Greenpeace for several years to those who most encourage environmental destruction. The Chainsaw of Gold has already been handed over, for example, to senator Kátia Abreu, in 2010, for having defended the weakening of the Forest Code, encouraging deforestation. In 2005, the then governor of Mato Grosso Blairo Maggi was another recipient of the award from our activists, for his strong contribution to the degradation of the Amazon.

United society reproaches Arthur Lira's conduct

Civil society organizations such as the Climate Observatory, Social and Environmental Institute (ISA), Democracy and Sustainability Institute (IDS) and Society, Population and Nature Institute (ISPN) echoed the denunciation of the extremely harmful role that Arthur Lira has been playing as president of Chamber, when passing the herds of the Bolsonaro government's anti-environmental policy.

"The role of the president of the Chamber in enabling the approval of important legislation without due debate, knowing the negative impacts that these legislation will have on the environment and the climate in Brazil, qualifies him to receive the award." - Adriana Ramos, associate of the Instituto Socioambiental (ISA).

“In just six months as President of the Chamber, Deputy Arthur Lira has already matched anti-Minister Salles in damages to environmental policy. He made it possible to vote on two laws with very bad content, a text on environmental licenses that in practice implodes with licensing in the country and the Land Grabbing Law. Every week he announces agendas with environmental setbacks. In addition, he takes the processes directly to the plenary, with reports that appear at the last minute, practically no one can read before voting. A real disaster.” – Suely Araújo, Senior Public Policy Specialist at the Climate Observatory.

“Arthur Lira managed in six months to wreak havoc on Brazilian environmental policy and legislation, even greater than Salles himself in two and a half years of management in the executive. Above all, because it guides bills that are absolutely contrary to Brazilian environmental and climate policy, such as PL 3729 and PL 266. For this reason, it deserves the Motoserra de Ouro award. And this is also a signal to Rodrigo Pacheco that if he does not hold the herd in the Senate, he will also deserve this award.” – André Lima, Senior Policy and Law consultant at the Democracy and Sustainability Institute (IDS).

“The country's environmental governance structure is being dismantled, and social participation in public policy-making spaces is denied. The federal government has already shown disinterest in defending the environment, indigenous peoples and traditional communities. And, the current president of the Chamber of Deputies is at the service of those who profit from deforestation and illegal logging, who flirt with mining in Indigenous Lands and protected areas, promote illegal occupation of public lands and deny climate change. Lira seems to have no commitment to the future of Brazil, is in step with the President of the Republic, and together they are responsible for the worst setbacks in the country's socio-environmental policies. It does justice and deserves to be remembered with this Greenpeace award” – Guilherme Eidt, Public Policy advisor at the Society, Population and Nature Institute (ISPN).

The organizations that make up the Cearense Forum for Life in the Semiarid, committed to the defense of Life through Agroecology, Coexistence with the Semiarid and Rural Education, manifested themselves in defense of the Zé Maria do Tomé Law, which defends the end of the use of pesticides and a commitment to life.

Read the full note below:

Note from the Cearense Forum for Life in the Semi-Arid (Brazilian Semi-Arid Articulation / ASA Ceará) in support of the Zé Maria do Tomé Law

Fortaleza - CE, August 10, 2021

Among the many threats that directly impact the lives of rural people is the aerial spraying of pesticides, responsible for dumping large amounts of poison on agribusiness crops and which also contaminate the soil and water bodies, as well as people who are in the way of toxic rain, causing serious health problems. All of Brazil suffers from the harm caused by aerial spraying, except for a single state, Ceará, due to the approval of Law 16.820 of 2019, which prohibits the dumping of pesticides by aircraft in Ceará's territory. This is a big and important step towards the production of territories free from poison and with more dignity in the countryside. Given its great importance, it is a law that needs to be defended and an example to be followed by all other states in the country.

The approval of Law 16.820/19, called the Zé Maria do Tomé Law, represented a very important achievement for everyone who suffered daily from the impacts of aerial spraying of pesticides in their communities. In Chapada do Apodi, in the east of Ceará, this was a constant reality and it took away the sleep and health of the residents, since the practice of dumping pesticides by aircraft on banana plantations was common and sometimes also bathed the backyards, the water reservoirs and the houses of the communities. Banana agribusiness companies had aerial spraying as the most viable way to purge poison from their monocultures, exposing the environment, workers and residents to the risks of contamination. It is in this context that the figure of Zé Maria do Tomé emerges, a peasant who turned against the practice of aerial spraying and mobilized communities, entities, social movements and universities in the fight against the use of pesticides. Because of this, Zé Maria was murdered, revealing the greed of the powerful agribusiness in his death project for Chapada do Apodi.

Gathered in the 21st of April Movement (M21), these communities, entities, social movements and universities, supported by numerous scientific researches that attested the damage to people's health and the environment as a result of pesticide contamination, continued Zé Maria do's struggle. Tomé and obtained, through state deputy Renato Roseno (from Psol), the approval of Law 16.820/19. This Law prohibits the aerial spraying of pesticides throughout the state of Ceará and was a pioneer in Brazil, representing a great hope of poison-free territories, without the risk of people being literally bathed in pesticides and having their food and drinking water contaminated. The Law is a guarantee of a minimum of dignity for the peasant populations that see themselves threatened by the invasion of agribusiness in their territories, with the expansion of large estates, monocultures and the large-scale use of pesticides. It is a law that ensures the maintenance of life in these territories.

Despite the great importance of the Zé Maria do Tomé Law, much more needs to be done. Banning the aerial spraying of pesticides alone is not enough to prevent the increase in the consumption of poison in agricultural crops. There must be public policies and specific legislation that progressively reduce the use of pesticides, while encouraging and enhancing the production of organic and agroecological foods. We cannot rest while the use of poison in the plantations is allowed, since there will be no health for the field workers, community residents and consumers of contaminated food.

The organizations that make up the Cearense Forum for Life in the Semi-Arid, committed to the defense of Life through Agroecology, Coexistence with the Semi-Arid and Rural Education, fully manifest themselves in defense of the Zé Maria do Tomé Law. Defend the end of use of pesticides is, above all, a commitment to life! So, long live the Zé Maria do Tomé Law and the fight against pesticides!

See the Law Folder here!