Regeneration under Fire: Solidarity for ecovillages in Palestine

The Global Ecovillage Network (GEN) has received urgent reports from our members and partners in Palestine about the widespread destruction of land, food systems, and community resilience under occupation. As a network committed to regeneration, peace, and dignity for all, to remain silent would betray the values we exist to uphold, especially when the very foundations of community life — seeds, soil, water, and safety — are under sustained attack. 

In Farkha Ecovillage, community members are facing daily assaults: land confiscation, seizure of water sources, destruction of its seed bank, and the burning of the largest plant nursery and vegetable market in the West Bank. These are not isolated incidents — they are deliberate attacks on food sovereignty, and on decades of work to cultivate regeneration, sustainability, and peace.  

Hakoritna farm, a long-time GEN partner in Ecovillage Design Education (EDE) and regenerative agriculture, has also suffered devastating losses. These ecovillages represent more than just farms or communities — they are living examples of resilience, ecological wisdom, and the right to thrive even in the harshest conditions.

This destruction is not happening in isolation. On 16 September 2025, the United Nations Independent Commission of Inquiry found that Israel is committing genocide in the Gaza Strip, fulfilling four of the five acts defined under the Genocide Convention (full report). This ruling affirms what communities on the ground have long known: that the attacks on life, land, and livelihood are not incidental, but systemic and targeted. Ecological destruction is being used as a weapon of war.

GEN was founded to connect communities stewarding life and land, and we continue to do so in times of crisis. When ecovillages and community-led land projects are destroyed through violence, it is not only local populations who suffer — but also the global movement for regeneration.

We affirm that the struggle for ecological justice and community resilience in Palestine is inseparable from the struggle for sustainable futures everywhere.

We therefore call on our network to:

• Listen to Palestinian voices, and to other voices of communities and people suffering from armed conflict and systemic violence.
  
• Support grassroots initiatives that are safeguarding seeds, water, land, and food systems under extreme threat.
  
• Speak out against genocide and the use of starvation, displacement, and ecological destruction as weapons of war.
  

GEN reasserts that peace is rooted in justice, and justice requires that all people and communities everywhere can live, grow food, and regenerate land free from violence and fear.

We will continue to connect, support, and strengthen communities that seek to live these values, even amidst destruction. As long as war and systemic violence persist, the world will remain unable to achieve the promise of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

We therefore strongly support the call for an immediate ceasefire and a comprehensive peace plan.

From Palestine to every place where communities and people are under threat, GEN stands as part of a global movement for life, peace, safety, resilience, and systems regeneration.

Because without peace and security, nothing else is possible.