Monday, February 06, 2017

Working for a Palestinian Future

Work for the Future

by Mazin Qumsiyeh - palestinenature.org


February 6, 2017

First the positive news: Large demonstrations in front of 10 Downing street for the Theresa May-Benjamin Netanuyahu visit today. The demonstration was mixed people of all religions, skin colors, and backgrounds. By contrast, the much smaller group of paid Zionist elites was very homogeneous (Jewish white Ashkenazi).

Let us hope for an even larger demonstration of Netanyahu to Trump February 15.

Locally, Israel is proceeding with more colonial settlements hoping that if they saturate the landscape, we native Palestinians would leave and they can have their racist Jewish state. But people are not leaving and much of the world now sees that there was never a "two state solution" to a colonial anti-colonial struggle. The best scenario forward is like in most postcolonial countries (see South and Central America and much of SE Asia). We are working on that with Jewish, Christian, Muslim, and other colleagues here (some of them also hold "Israeli" citizenship). WE collectively are building things on the ground and not leaving and resisting daily (yes sometimes injured, sometimes killed, sometimes jailed, sometimes arrested...).

One small project involving daily work by dozens of international and local volunteers is our museum, botanical garden and institute of sustainability (please see this https://www.palestinenature.org/achievements-20152016/ ). We are partnering with many NGOs, governmental agencies, universities, etc to do very good work. Just the past two weeks we finished two research papers, hosted students from many universities and schools, started three other research projects (on snails, on environmental changes over the past on amphibians as indicators of environmental damage), said goodbye to some volunteers and welcomed others, wrote proposals and received grants, we were sad to see some students fail their courses and happy to see others succeed (and they all learn through the challenges in life), and we buried friends and welcomed new births.

We hope you can join us.

Now for not so good news. More Israeli Knesset bills to move it faster down the path of Nazi Germany of the 1930s:

- Punishing any university that has diversity of opinions on Israel's apartheid system:
http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Politics-And-Diplomacy/Ministers-prepare-to-vote-on-academic-boycott-bill-480587

- Preventing any critics of Israel who call for non-violent resistance from entering (and of course passing on to Palestinian areas). Over a million Palestinians and Internationals pass every year across borders support human rights including supporting the right to boycott apartheid Israel. Thus we will be living in an even more isolated prison under a more fascist government if this law passes.
http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Bill-advances-to-ban-boycott-supporters-from-entering-Israel-478129

For good reports on human rights violations inside the Green line see:
https://www.adalah.org/en

Especially their database of Israeli discriminatory laws:
https://www.adalah.org/en/content/view/7771

And in the illegally occupied Palestinian territories:
http://www.alhaq.org/documentation/weekly-focuses

Fraudulent binary options industry flourished in Israel for the past nine years, Thousands of Israelis work in the "industry" (getting rich) scamming hundreds of thousands of victims worldwide out of billions of dollars with little to no intervention from Israeli law enforcement. Many victims committed suicide.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/fleeced-by-israeli-binary-options-firm-canadian-man-commits-suicide/
http://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-securities-regulator-questioned-by-european-colleagues-on-binary-options-fraud/

View from Nazareth by Jonathan Cook: Netanyahu scandals reflect corruption at the heart of Israeli society. http://www.jonathan-cook.net/2017-02-03/netanyahu-scandals-reflect-corruption-israeli-society

Ali Abunimah tweeted: Fiscally insolvent mouse warns lumbering elephant not to boycott Israeli settlements.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/illinois-warns-european-union-on-boycotting-settlements/

Our job is to stay vigilant and respond to the bad news (like Netanyahu's visit to Washington to push for more wars for Israel). But another and perhaps more important job is to build a new society based on RESPECT (for our selves, for others, and for the environment). In other words, work for the future by challenging those who want to destroy it and by actually doing positive things for achieving it (sustainability, peace, justice).

Come join us as we do that in Palestine under occupation.

Mazin Qumsiyeh
A bedouin in cyberspace, a villager at home
Professor and (volunteer) Director
Palestine Museum of Natural History
Palestine Institute of Biodiversity and Sustainability
Bethlehem University
Occupied Palestine
http://qumsiyeh.org
http://palestinenature.org
Join me on facebook https://www.facebook.com/mazin.qumsiyeh.9
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