Iraq Solidarity Month: Use of weapons leading to birth defects across Middle East
Iraq Solidarity Month activists hosted an event in London on Tuesday looking at the ecological crisis resulting from war, occupation and neo-colonial policies in regions across the Arab world, looking at Palestine, Morocco and Iraq.
Undermining the socioeconomic and basis of life in the region, the effects of this ecological crisis are seen in disruptive climate change, polluting extractive industries, exhaustion of natural resources, water scarcity and wars leaving behind metals delivered by modern ammunition and white phosphorus, as in Iraq and Gaza.
“The event is about environment and resistance,” Iraqi author and co-founder of Iraq Solidarity Month, Haifa Zangana, told MEMO. The Iraq war was “a war of aggression” and Iraqis continue to experience its devastating impact, she explained.
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“I’m delighted to be here today to contribute to the Iraq Solidarity Month,” Algerian writer and activist Hamza Hamouchene said. “For me, liberation has several dimensions. It’s political, it’s economic, it’s social, it’s cultural and it’s environmental and ecological too.”
“It is important to bring different voices on different countries, especially from the global south to build a solidarity movement,” he continued.
Addressing the audience were also Iraqi consultant engineer Dr. Basil Abdul Jabbar Latif Assa’ati and Italian Professor of Genetics Paola Manduca who discussed the consequences of using depleted uranium, phosphorus and heavy metals in war zones such as Iraq and Palestine and their effects on women and children.
