This blog is about Kneecap… except it’s really not. 

While media outlets obsess over the Irish hip-hop trio’s political statements on Gaza, they’re missing the forest for the trees. Kneecap has become a convenient scapegoat, a distraction that lets us debate artistic expression while systematically avoiding the harder conversation about the genocide we, as taxpayers, are actively funding.

I heard a Palestinian on Tiktok recently say that a bag of flour costs $600 (approx £443 GBP) in Gaza. This isn’t market economics – it’s weaponised starvation. A week after World Potato Day, it feels particularly bitter to reflect on how food has been weaponised throughout history. What we call the Irish Potato Famine wasn’t as much about potatoes as it was genocide through engineered starvation, just as what’s happening in Gaza now is genocide. The potato becomes a symbol of how easily sustenance can be turned into a tool of oppression. 

But here’s what most people aren’t telling you while they debate Kneecap’s lyrics and statements: Israel’s war on Gaza has a carbon footprint that exceeds entire nations. The Guardian recently covered the climate cost of just 15 months of this genocide – over 31 million tonnes pumped into an already overheating atmosphere, more than Costa Rica and Estonia produce in a year combined. 

For those of us in climate action and sustainability work, those reading this blog, this should be a wake-up call. Does your climate activism include standing for Palestine? Because you cannot separate environmental justice from this reality. Nearly every tonne of carbon in Israel and Gaza, (99% of the 1.89 million tonnes generated in 15 months) came from Israel’s bombardment and invasion. The worst part: rebuilding Gaza from 60 million tonnes of toxic rubble will pump another 29.4 million tonnes into the atmosphere. 

Consider the irony: Gaza had achieved one of the world’s highest rates of solar electricity generation, only to have Israel systematically destroy those panels along with the territory’s only power plant. Now, 2.2 million displaced Palestinians (the UN states that there are 5.9 million Palestinians currently registered as refugees) rely on diesel generators to survive. 

A short look at the history of Palestine shows you that this didn’t start on October 7th, 2023. And Britain isn’t passive. We’re active participants – at least 15% of each Israeli F-35 fighter jet dropping 2,000lb bombs on Gaza is manufactured here, in the UK. When those jets level homes, schools, and hospitals, British engineering is part of the payload. 

The environment of fear keeping people silent, including weaponised accusations of antisemitism and insistence that ‘the situation’ is ‘too complicated’, are tools designed to paralyse action. But action is possible and necessary. 

Recently, I held a birthday party where I asked people to bring a dish, but provided links and resources about which food and drink companies to boycott. I was met only with positive responses and engaging conversations as friends arrived explaining their dish components and the alternatives they’d chosen, many explaining that they will continue to choose these alternatives. This is what accountability looks like: holding the people around you to the values they claim to have.

Here’s what you can do: 

• Write to your MP – Demand they oppose arms sales to Israel and support immediate ceasefire (you can find templates online for this if you want guidance) 

• Boycott strategically – Coca Cola, McDonald’s, Starbucks are key targets 

• Move your money – Full Transparency: We are in the process of switching from Barclays to Co-op Bank (Co-op has also removed Israeli products from shelves) 

• Attend June 21st National Demonstration – Show up, be counted, make noise

Make supporting Palestine non-negotiable in your social circle. The time for polite silence is over. 

This isn’t about Kneecap, though their courage to speak truth deserves recognition. This is about whether we’ll let cultural distractions mask our complicity in genocide. It’s about whether World Peace Day means anything when we’re funding war crimes that are cooking the planet and killing a whole country of people. It’s about whether we can look at £443 for a bag of flour in Gaza and 31 million tonnes of unnecessary emissions and still call this world just.