The news daily can be disheartening under this apartheid system: Raids on bookshops and confiscating books, more ethnic cleansing, more tortured Palestinian prisoners, more destruction of refugee camps (here in West Bank), more lock-ups, more lies. We in Palestine remain struggling to survive against all odds: An American empire run by a petty egomaniac intent on making the rich richer, a Zionist movement and its followers who commit worse atrocities than Nazis, collaborative Arab regimes that do not really pay attention to their people, a web of lies from media, a palestinian authority that remains trapped like a mouse on a glue trap (Oslo) unable or unwilling to extricate itself, leaders who value their position over their children's future, a populace that has been domesticated and values merely watching and consuming (junk). And an apex of absurdity: a world leader (Trump) controlled by another leader (Netanyahu) and both believing that the poor and weak are "losers" and their oppressors/the rich are "winners".
By contrast there are millions of good people around the world who are active and who assert agency. They work, they act, they mobilize, they resist, they inspire and keep hope alive. Look at our people in Gaza who are the best of the best. Here in the West Bank our own institute ( palestinenature.org) still does amazing research, educational outreach to marginalized communities, conservation, and community service. You can check daily activities.
The road for peace and sustainability will not be easy for those who choose to obey their conscience. Yet that road is the one that you never regret taking. When humans reflect on a deathbed what was achieved in life it will not be about a job or house or car that matters; we reflect on how we worked to leave the world a better place than you inherited. So very day ask who did I help today?
From Yale University (my Alma mater and where I gave talks in December): an article on war and the environment.
Israel destruction of water facilities financed by the EU.
After Gaza Ceasefire, Israel's Military Launches New Deadly Offensive in Occupied West Bank. Radio Interview with Mazin Qumsiyeh, director of the Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability at Bethlehem University, conducted by Melinda Tuhus
Haaretz highlights our collective work on damage in Gaza (they misunderstood as it is five authors including me not three).
Mazin Qumsiyeh: la Autoridad Palestina, "una entidad corrupta al servicio de la ocupación".
Occupation forces force families to leave their homes in refugee camps here in the West Bank, as the Israeli army continues its scorched earth policy they followed in Gaza (ethnic ceansing and genocide).
During a genocide, Palestinians and people around the world help by various methods. Song is one method. Examples that I and other people cherish and I urge you to share.
Hope lives
Stay Humane and keep hope 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
facebook pages Personal Institute
French
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