29 | December | 2016 | Be a Seed for Change

One of Amazon Watch’s oldest allies and one of Ecuador’s longest-standing environmental NGOs, Acción Ecológica, is under attack today for speaking out against repression of indigenous activists, and those activists themselves are at risk. We need your immediate action to demand that the government of Ecuador respect the rights of its citizens and the environment.

DEFEND THE DEFENDERS!

Yesterday afternoon, the Ecuador Environment Ministry notified the pioneering environmental group Acción Ecológica of its intention to shut it down for publicly raising environmental and indigenous rights concerns over a planned copper mega mine on the lands of the Shuar indigenous people. Acción believes that pressure for the closure came from Chinese mining consortium EXSA, which is advancing the project in the southern Ecuadorian Amazon without consultation or consent of the communities.

Shuar territory and surrounding towns are currently under a state of emergency and heavily militarized after a recent clash with police at the mine site. The same night as the Acción Ecológica closure notice, the national police raided the offices of the Shuar federation and detained its president, Agustín Wachapa. And Ecuador’s president has publicly defamed indigenous Shuar and Sarayaku leaders.

This calculated reprisal from the company and government to shut down the country’s leading grassroots environmental group and repress indigenous activists is a blatant attack on their rights and is a threat to all of us around the world who stands up for the earth and its people.

Please send your message to Ecuador’s President and Ministers today.

Demand that they immediately cancel efforts to revoke Acción Ecológica’s license to operate as a non-governmental organization in Ecuador, halt the repression of indigenous leaders, and end the state of emergency. Any government with a constitutional protection for the rights of nature must protect the rights of its citizens who work to defend the environment.

Thank you for taking action today!

In weeks, Donald Trump will kill the Middle East Peace process…unless Obama steps in and recognizes Palestine as a country, giving unprecedented momentum to the two-state solution.

Join the call on him to act:

He’s been clear about it. He doesn’t think Palestinians have the right to a country, he supports illegal settlement building and wants to move the US embassy from the capital in Tel Aviv to disputed land.

It’s a diplomatic bomb that will destroy any hope of a negotiated solution. We have one chance to stop him.

President Obama is laying out a plan for a two-state solution, Israel and Palestine living side-by-side in peace. It’s what most Israelis and Palestinians want. But a key way for him to protect the path to peace is by recognizing a Palestinian state before Trump takes office. The plan is already on his desk — but he needs to have the political support of the world to act. Let’s give it to him. When we reach 1 million, Israeli and Palestinian youth will deliver it to the White House.

Click here to save the peace process

In many ways this is too easy not to do. The United Nations has already recognized Palestine, it makes no difference to foreign policy nor does it affect the US’s consistent support of Israel in practically every way. It’s a gesture, one of fairness and progress and a nod to the future everyone agrees must come to pass: a free Israel next to a free and independent Palestine.

And there’s never been more momentum or more at stake.

The US just refused to veto a UN resolution condemning Israel’s settlements and Secretary of State Kerry just went on television to give a long argument for a two-state solution. Netanyahu is weakening, under investigation for fraud, and members of Israel’s government are making statements that seem to break from the radically right-wing official position.

All this, weeks before the diplomatic bomb of a Trump Presidency sets in. Let’s act before it’s too late:

Click here to save the peace process

When Palestine went to the UN to win statehood, we were there, driving the movement and at the center of the historic result. But it’s only a step towards independence, and the dream of a free and independent Palestine can’t soar without the recognition of Israel’s staunchest ally. We can be at the center of the movement again, in these last crucial weeks.

With hope,

Dalia, Emma, Fatima, Diego, Aloys and the Avaaz team

More information:

Secretary of State John Kerry: Two-state solution in ‘serious jeopardy’ (CNN)
http://edition.cnn.com/2016/12/26/politics/john-kerry-middle-east-peace-plan/index.html

US abstention allows UN to demand end to Israeli settlements (Guardian)
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/23/us-abstention-allows-un-to-demand-end-to-israeli-settlements

Will Obama Recognize A Palestinian State Before January 20? (Huffington Post)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/high-anxiety-continues-over-obama-in-the-un-until-january_us_5848327ce4b099808c198eae

Former president Jimmy Carter calls on Barack Obama to recognise Palestinian statehood before leaving office (Independent)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/jimmy-carter-barack-obama-israel-palestine-statehood-donald-trump-a7454936.html#gallery