Olive picking, candles in the darkness, and more

31/10/2024

[This important and delayed compilation is a bit longer than usual but it takes 7 minutes to read if you do not open links. Please forward to others at least sections you think they need to see. This post is also at my blog for easy share: https://popular-resistance.blogspot.com/2024/10/olives-hope-and-more.html ]

Today is the last day we work on our olive trees at the museum gardens in Bethlehem (80 trees). Earlier last week we picked olives in our own home garden in Beit Sahour. This is a form of resistance but it is also physically and mentally healthy exercise that gets us to understand both the blessings and the challenges of life. As a communal event, we receive help from volunteers (local and international) and we get to feel camaraderie and friendship while we also discuss the horrors of starving people of Gaza, of children body parts blown by US bombs, of what motivates genocide, geopolitics, and of our role and purpose in life. T see
pictures/reports on activities at our institute, check out our facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/PIBS.PMNH

The olive picking season and the olive tree itself has been a sacred part of our lives for thousands of years. Here is an article I wrote many years ago about the importance of the olive tree to us indigenous Palestinians:https://www.transcend.org/tms/2019/10/the-olive-tree-not-just-an-ordinary-tree/

But hope is also rekindled in our hearts from our people. Those who volunteered with us like the employees of the red crescent society who helped us pick olives. I am inspired by a Palestinian Tamer who holds two jobs (one as a guard here at our institute but also helped with olives and one as a mechanic), thus working 16 hours a day and yet walks his daughter
to school every day. I am inspired by Mosab Abo Taha (see https://youtu.be/4YqA9j7iPhk and https://x.com/MosabAbuToha/status/1850713930907463906) and Ramzy Baroud a
brilliant writer who lost his MD sister in Gaza (see https://www.palestinechronicle.com/writers/ramzy-baroud/) and Lebanese women Ghadi Francis (https://youtu.be/-LdRTIfBh5c). I am inspired by this missionary who walks where Jesus walked, even in time of war (https://www.umnews.org/en/news/missionary-walks-where-jesus-walked-even-in-time-of-war).

Australian-Israeli dual citizen Mark Regev under trial for genocide advocacy
https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/2024-10-22/ty-article/.premium/australian-israeli-former-diplomat-mark-regev-under-trial-for-genocide-advocacy/00000192-b4e6-d006-a5b3-feee3fa30000

The “President of the European Comission” Ursula von der Leyden not only has excused every crime committed by Israel (war crimes, crimes against humanity, apartheid, genocide) but even advocates suppression of free speech in Europe ala what they have in Germany (no Palestinians flags, no speech against Zionism or colonialism, no “Free Palestine” slogans). She is truly a “daughter of nationalist Germany” which committed the genocide in Namibia and of Nazis and neo-Nazis. And here is a bit about her father and his role in WWII Germany Who was the father of Ursula von der Leyden in WW2? . We do not know if her affinity to Israel is a (deluded) way of making up (she should not because Nazis collaborated with the Zionists who do not represent Jews and even broke the boycotts of Nazi Germany). She should know better. The EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell criticized her biased stance which, he said, undermined Europe’s geopolitical position and was at variance with reality of a catastrophic Israel induced humanitarian catastrophe.
https://www.quora.com/Who-was-the-father-of-Ursula-von-der-Leyen-in-WW2

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
http://qumsiyeh.org
http://palestinenature.org
facebook pages
Personal https://www.facebook.com/mazin.qumsiyeh.9
Institute https://www.facebook.com/PIBS.PMNH

We remind our readers that publication of articles on our site does not mean that we agree with what is written. Our policy is to publish anything which we consider of interest, so as to assist our readers in forming their opinions. Sometimes we even publish articles with which we totally disagree, since we believe it is important for our readers to be informed on as wide a spectrum of views as possible.