"People do not find the courage to fight continually against an army as powerful as Israel's without some reservoir, some deep and already present fund of bravery and revolutionary self-sacrifice." Edward Said
Here in Palestine, life is extremely difficult to keep hope alive. Decades of ethnic cleansing, destruction of local people's lives, segregation and apartheid. Every single day now a Palestinian or two are killed. Yesterday Netanyahu announced his success in forming the most extremist, fascist government in Israeli history so things likely will get worse. An ongoing Nakba and a nightmare that sometimes seems without possibility of ending. Life gives us ups and downs locally and globally. Our work in lobbying and technical support both in the climate change conference in Egypt and in the Biodiversity Conference in Montreal had mixed results. The latter conference did adopt 23 targets and some of the language was due to pressure from us and others in the global south. We in Palestine are proud also to be the first country that will have a National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan that is in line with the new (adopted 19 December) Global Biodiversity Framework.
Thus we keep the hope alive because we act and we take leadership locally and globally. The season of Christmas in the Holy land is always a season of hope despite challenges. For our Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability at Bethlehem University we have many challenges. As an example, we raised pledges for funds for renovation of the North Building but this was a while ago and as the architects just finished the drawings and bill of quantities, the cost has gone up (cost of material and labor here is up some 30% since we solicited those funds) and there is operational costs that we miraculously seem to get to grow year over year thanks to you and many other supporters (we hope you will be generous at end of year. This is not merely because of hope but because of planning and hard work from all involved. My wife and I have donated over $250,000 to this project and we volunteer full time seven days a week, 14-16 hours a day since its founding 8 years ago. But this was a COLLECTIVE effort which would not have been possible without a cadre of dedicated staff and hundreds of volunteers, donors and supporters. Collectively, we obviously think it is important to keep that flame going and that oasis of hope flourishing in an area of conflict and rapid transformation. We (staff, volunteers) strongly believe we can do a lot more with supporters like you and the track record proves that. As we always do at the end of the year, we reflect on achievements and we plan for the year ahead to ensure every year is even better than the year before (see progress via annual reports at).
For 2023, our plans are ambitious but can be accomplished with your support: restructuring, introducing the new bachelor program in biodiversity and sustainability, large projects on climate change and on protected areas, increase applied research (especially areas of sustainability of natural and human communities), more children reached in marginalized areas via our mobile educational unit, more work with farmers and creation of new farmers using eco-friendly agriculture, implementing our just concluded national strategy on biodiversity and its 77 action plans, new museum exhibits, more environmental justice and human rights work, new facilities (including the new museum) a peace garden, a herbal and medicinal garden, more workshops to build capacity, and more.
Congratulations to all who participated in the World Cup games held in Qatar. While nation states have political differences, all played professionally. Palestine was also a clear winner.
Merry Palestinian Christmas
Stay Human and keep Palestine alive
Mazin Qumsiyeh
A bedouin in cyberspace, a villager at home; Professor, Founder, and (volunteer) Director, Palestine Museum of Natural History; Palestine Institute of Biodiversity and Sustainability, Bethlehem University, Occupied Palestine
