Talamh Beo condemns in the strongest possible terms the military assault carried out today by Israeli occupation forces on the Multiplication Unit of the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC) Seed Bank in Hebron. Bulldozers and heavy machinery were used to destroy vital storage facilities and infrastructure essential for the preservation and multiplication of Palestinian heirloom seeds – a direct attack on food sovereignty, biodiversity, and the right of a people to cultivate their future.
Seeds are the foundation of life. They hold within them millennia of knowledge, resilience, and adaptation to place and climate. The seeds held in Hebron are especially well adapted to growing conditions in Palestine, providing an extra layer of resilience for Palestinians who farm under enormous duress. The deliberate destruction of facilities dedicated to saving, storing, and multiplying seeds is not only an assault on Palestinian farmers – it is an assault on Palestinian identity, culture and history and an attempt to sever Palestinians from their land, erase their agricultural heritage.
This attack is not an isolated act of destruction. It is part of the same ongoing project of dispossession, annihilation and genocide that we witness daily in Gaza: the systematic targeting of civilians, children and future generations as well as their infrastructure; homes, schools, hospitals, water systems, and farmland – the very fabric of what defines a people, places and communties. Destroying seeds is an attempt to sever Palestinians from their land, erase their agricultural heritage, and extinguish their future ability to live freely and self-sufficiently on their own soil.
This strikes at the very heart of food sovereignty: the right of people to control their own food systems, to choose what they grow, save, and eat. Across the world, farmers are struggling to maintain independence from corporate-controlled seed systems. In Ireland, we know how fragile this sovereignty can be – we have lost vast stores of genetic diversity since the industrialisation of agriculture, leaving our food systems more vulnerable to disease, market shocks, and climate extremes. Efforts to recover and protect native and locally adapted seeds are essential to our own resilience and food security.
Palestinian farmers, already facing land confiscations, settler violence, water theft, and restrictions on movement, now face the deliberate destruction of their seed heritage – a calculated strategy to dismantle not only livelihoods but also culture, memory, and identity itself.
We call on:
In a time of climate crisis, when saving seeds and preserving diversity is critical for humanity’s future, the deliberate destruction of seeds and the genocide in Gaza are part of the same attempt to eradicate a people’s connection to land, life, and belonging. We reaffirm our unwavering solidarity with UAWC, with Palestinian farmers, and with all those defending the seeds, soils, and rights on which our shared survival depends.
Email: info@talamhbeo.ie
