"To love. To be loved. To never forget your own insignificance. To never get used to the unspeakable violence and the vulgar disparity of life around you. To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty to its lair. To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. To respect strength, never power. Above all, to watch. To try and understand. To never look away. And never, never to forget." Arundhati Roy, The Cost of Living
I am crying and cannot sleep. In its latest massacre in Gaza (one of 3500 massacres that killed minimum 45,000 civilians/20,000 children), "Israel" murdered Khaled Nabhan, the grandfather whose video of holding his murdered favorite granddaughter Reem reached millions around the world.Watch [we are not numbers in this ongoing genocide, when will it be stopped?]
People power grows around the world while the 1% empire profiteers are getting desperate as they watch the dark world they created give way to the light of knowledge and activism. Desperation leads the profiteers to try to create more wars, more suffering, more genocide. But in their inner core, they know that this is not "winning". They know that there is but two possible outcomes: a world of justice and equality (including environmental justice) or an end to civilization via global war and/or climate change. Israel calls that the Samson option (that means total destruction and suicide). I explain in my talks that the 21st century colonialists like Netanyahu, Biden, Trump, Bolsonaro, and Starmer are less successful than the older crop of colonialists but do have access to more destructive weapons. There is a general decline in knowledge and sophisticated of colonialists while there is an increase in number of civilians they are able to hurt. More civilians in Western Asia (aka the Middle East) were killed in the past four decades than in the previous 2000 years. But this is not going to mean a success for imperialism, colonialism, zionism, racism. It just means a lot of suffering. I really think that even the profiteers themselves know this is not a strategy for "winning". History teaches us that millions killed have tens of millions of relatives and friends who continue the struggle and do succeed to liberate themselves. Likewise, the 15 million Palestinians in the world (8.5 million refugees/displaced) look forward to ending this nightmare and create a pluralistic society instead of ethnocentric chauvinistic state. Like other oppressed people we also never forget friends. Joint struggle is proliferating. I saw this in the streets and in talks I gave of dozens of cities in 7 countries I visited this year (over 300 talks, university encampments, rallies etc). THANK YOU to those of you who acted, who helped etc.
AL-HAQ publishes detailed review paper: 'Arguments raised in Amici Curiae Submissions in the State of Palestine Before the International Criminal Court: Arrest Warrant Applications August.
Kairos Christmas statement (English and Arabic)
Photography Palestine: Shepherds' Field: Beit Sahur and the Palestine Museum of Natural History
A conference on sustainability held in Italy where I was an online speaker (starting at minute 43:42)
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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