By Mazin Qumsiyeh
Oct.23, 2019
The system is stacked and structured to make the rich richer and the poor poorer while destroying our planet and plunging us in endless wars that distract us from the system’s injustice. Everyone intuitively and also now logically understands this. The system thinks it can muzzle social media posts related to this (e.g. see how facebook has banned many and how the Palestinian authority is shutting down 59 informative sites). But what happened in Tunisia and other places and what is happening now in Chile and Lebanon points to a tide shift and give us reason for optimism. I will be traveling to Lebanon in two weeks (and to the US in January) and surely will meet with many interesting people doing great things.
But even here every day in Palestine we meet new people. Dozens visit our institute and museum (see http://palestinenature.org) every day. Just yesterday a delegation of 40 internationals (olive picking tour of Joint Advocacy Initiative) plus 100 school students (girls) visited. New volunteers join us (local and international) and help in tasks like setting a children’s exploration room or picking olives (most reinvigorating and fun task). In the past 24 hours, visitors from England brought us books, our team visited schools in marginalized villages to promote environmental work. Lunch here is usually 12-15 people – good food and good company. Much work to be done and we have several projects dealing with sustainability, environmental conservation, peacebuilding, and human rights. There are many challenges to do this work under occupation/colonization. Yet, those who engage find it highly enriching and fulfilling. Join us. Next main functions this week:
– Wednesday: Fieldwork near Husan as well as continued olive picking at museum grounds, talk on reptiles 4:15 PM-6:45 PM (part of fauna and flora course)
– Thursday: Finalize olive picking & olive pressing. Ceremony of our community garden project (1 -3 PM), talk to master students in Molecular Biology, garden work
– Saturday: Lecture and tour of museum to Internationals (8:15-10 AM), garden work
– Saturday: Meeting of group “Palestine Action for the Planet” https://www.palestinenature.
Join us!
Expose on olives in thsi olive harvest season by Mazin Qumsiyeh
https://desertpeace.wordpress.
The Climate Crisis (and Other Crises) Require the Transformation of the Basic Cultural Structure of the Modern World
https://www.transcend.org/tms/
En Israël, les cueilleurs de plantes aromatiques ne veulent plus être criminalisés
https://www.lemonde.fr/m-le-
Jerusalem Opens Natural Spring to Visitors – Unless They’re Palestinian
‘https://www.haaretz.com/
[Information missing from the article: It was illegal for Israel to expand borders of Jerusalem to include this site, it was illegal to annex it per international law, the spring belongs to Al-Walaja (all other Walaja spring were already stolen)]
U.S. Police are Being Trained by Israel—And Communities of Color Are Paying the Price
https://progressive.org/
Stay Human and come visit us in Palestine
