Climate activists join the pro-Palestinian cause during a rare protest in Dubai

Climate activists march through Expo City in Dubai, host of this year's UN climate summit.

Catherine Boudreau/Business Insider

• Activists called for a cease-fire in Gaza, marching through the site of the UN climate summit on Saturday.
• Protests are rare in the United Arab Emirates, an autocratic state that tightly controls speech.
• Activists say there can be no climate justice without human rights. 

Hundreds of climate activists joined the global protests calling for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war on Saturday, marching through the site of the ongoing UN climate summit in Dubai.

People wore the black and white checkered keffiyeh and held up watermelon signs, both symbols of Palestine, while chanting, "Cease-fire now!" and "Climate justice is a right, not just for the rich and white!" Signs saying "End the occupation" rose above Indigenous groups wearing colorful feather headdresses and drumming.

It was a rare sight in the United Arab Emirates, an autocratic country of seven sheikdoms led by one ruler in Abu Dhabi. Speech is tightly restricted and dozens of dissidents have been jailed, according to human rights groups. The media is largely state-owned. One local reporter told Business Insider that they could have their work visa revoked for printing anything critical of the government.

Ahead of the climate summit in Dubai, known as COP28, the United Nations and the UAE agreed that free expression would be allowed. But protesters on Saturday said authorities still placed limits on what activists could say during the march.

"From the river to the sea," for example, was banned, Lidy Nacpil, coordinator of the Asian Peoples' Movement on Debt & Development, told Business Insider. Nacpil helped organize the pro-Palestinian march, which involved a coalition of more than 350 climate justice and human rights groups from 75 countries.

The phrase is controversial, especially after Hamas' October 7 attack on Israel and Israel's subsequent months-long bombardment of the Gaza Strip. The phrase refers to the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, or historical Palestine, which now is broken up into Israel, the occupied West Bank, and Gaza. Pro-Palestinian demonstrators say it's a call for freedom from oppression. But Israel and its supporters say it's a call for their destruction.

Nacpil said protesters risked losing their badges and getting kicked out of COP28 if they chanted the phrase.

"It doesn't violate any UN rules," Nacpil said. "This decision was made for political reasons. They should acknowledge that."

Spokespeople for the United Nations and the COP28 presidency didn't return a request for comment.

Nacpil said there is no climate justice without human rights and called the United States and Europe hypocritical for "using the human rights card" against other countries while being "complicit" in Israel's war on Gaza.

Hamas and other Palestinian fighters killed about 1,200 people during its attacks on Israel on October 7. Israel has responded with a now two-month-long air and ground campaign that has killed more than 17,000 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them civilians and many of them children.

Kevin Buckland, an artist and activist with the Artivist Network, which advocates for climate action and human rights, described himself as a Jew from the United States who could no longer stay silent about the atrocities in Gaza.

Speaking through tears during a press conference ahead of the march, Buckland said Israel uses the Jewish identity to enforce an apartheid regime.

Kevin Buckland of the Artivist Network.

Catherine Boudreau/Business Insider

The protest wasn't the first time the Israel-Hamas war spilled into the COP28 summit.

During the first few days, the Iranian delegation left Dubai in protest of Israel's presence and world leaders, including Jordanian King Abdullah II, used their speeches to the United Nations to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Following meetings with Arab leaders in Dubai, Vice President Kamala Harris said that too many Palestinians were being killed and urged Israel to do more to protect civilians, but also reiterated that the United States supports Israel's "legitimate military objectives to eliminate the threat of Hamas."

On Friday, the United States — for the third time — blocked a resolution at the 15-member UN Security Council calling for a humanitarian cease-fire. The United States was the sole veto, while the UK abstained and 13 other countries voted in favor.

US Deputy Ambassador Robert Wood called the resolution "imbalanced," the AP reported, because it didn't condemn Hamas' attack on Israel or acknowledge Israel's right to defend itself.

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